Writing and Speaking Center

The Writing and Speaking Center is committed to helping all �Ĳʿ�� students succeed as clear, effective communicators.

Peer consultants in the center work one on one with students, offering suggestions for revision and helping writers and speakers experience their work from a reader or listener's perspective. The consultants can also direct students to resources and answer questions about academic writing or speaking.

Students are encouraged to visit at any stage of their process, from prewriting to polishing. Although our consultants are not experts in all topics, they can help writers and speakers clarify ideas and communicate them effectively.

using your @colgate email address (registered students only). Creating an account will allow you to schedule appointments and receive notices about the center's services, events, and job openings.

All appointments take place in-person in Lathrop 208 unless other arrangements are made in advance. We reserve Zoom appointments strictly for students studying abroad, isolating to prevent contagion, or traveling for school-sponsored events and athletic competitions. To request an online appointment for one of these reasons, email the center at writingspeaking@colgate.edu at least 24 hours before your desired appointment time. Not all consultants on the schedule are equipped to offer Zoom sessions.

Policies

The center adheres firmly to �Ĳʿ��'s Academic Honor Code. We are an instructional resource and academic support center, not a proofreading or editing service, and we will not write or rewrite any portion of a student’s paper or oral presentation. Our mission is to support students' development as writers and speakers by teaching skills and strategies they may apply on their own to current and future projects. We focus first on higher order concerns such as argument, development, and structure, and will note patterns of sentence-level error, talking through examples with the student to help them understand the error and work to avoid it in the future.

Students may reserve up to two appointments per week online. In a given week, any additional appointments must be walk-ins, space permitting. No student may reserve or walk in for more than one appointment on the same day, unless the appointments are for different papers or presentations.

All writing appointments, including walk-ins, begin at 15 minutes past the hour.

Sessions are private except in cases when a staff member deems it necessary to contact an appropriate administrator, or in cases when the student has given express permission for sharing to occur.

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