In addition to our Face-to-face appointments, the University Writing Center (UWC) offers remote/online sessions for all students. These appointments provide options for students who can't make it to to the UWC in person.
What is a Synchronous appointment?
A Synchronous session is similar to a Face-to-face session except it takes place remotely using video, audio, and/or chatbox. You meet with a writing consultant in real time, talk through your writing together, and get feedback during the session just as you would in person.
What is an Asynchronous Feedback appointment?
An Asynchronous Feedback appointment allows you to upload a draft to your appointment details and have a writing consultant provide written feedback on that draft. The document will be saved in our appointment system, emailed to you, and accessible at any time. You are required to upload your document in advance but do not need to be present for the appointment.
What kind of appointment should I make?
We recommend making a Face-to-face appointment or Synchronous appointment if you:
- are in the early stages of the writing process (e.g., brainstorming, developing your thesis, planning or outlining ideas, etc.)
- have questions about "big picture" topics such as overall organization or argument but don't have a complete draft yet
- are not sure what you want help with and just want to "check" or go over your writing with someone
We recommend making an Asynchronous Feedback appointment if you are unable to make it for an in-person appointment and/or if you:
- are in the later stages of the writing process (e.g., final revisions, editing, etc.)
- have questions about focused topics such as word choice/phrasing, paragraph transitions, sentence variety, etc.
- want to focus on specific sections of a draft or on more techinical concerns like formatting and citations
What are Higher Order Concerns and Lower Order Concerns?
Higher Order Concerns (HOC) should be the priority during the writing process because they have the greatest impact on successful communication; some common HOCs we work with are overall organization, analysis, and expansion of ideas.
Lower Order Concerns (LOC) are focused on sentence- and word-level concerns and usually come later in the writing process; some common LOCs we work with are paragraph transitions, formatting, and in-text citations.
- Check out our resource on HOCs and LOCs for more detailed information.
