Center Services
Overview
The San José State University Writing Center offers a variety of resources to help students become better writers, and all of our services are free for SJSU students. Our mission is to enhance the writing skills of SJSU students so they can communicate clearly in any setting (informal, academic, or professional). We accomplish this goal by creating original writing resources, offering workshops, and conducting one-on-one tutoring sessions.
We are committed to treating students, their questions, and their assignments with respect. We recognize that every student is unique and that every assignment is different. Our writing tutors will make their best attempt to work with students to improve their writing.
We also understand that multilingual writers have specific writing needs, and all our tutors undergo specific training that focuses on working with multilingual writers (before they are hired). Read on for more details about our services.
Tutoring Appointments
Register with our WCOnline scheduling system to book tutoring sessions. Students can set up two 45-minute online and/or in-person tutoring sessions each week. During the spring and fall semesters, we're open for tutoring Monday-Thursday, 10:00-9:00 and Friday, 10:00-3:00. We are also open during summer and winter sessions, so we're here to support you whenever classes are in session. All in-person sessions take place in our location on the second floor of the MLK Library.
Drop-In Service
Do you have a quick question about writing? Is there something that you'd like help with, but you don't quite need a full 45-minute tutoring session? Use our "Drop-In" Service to do just that--ask a tutor your questions that can be addressed in roughly 15 -20 minutes. Our drop-ins are held in person, so stop by our front desk on the second floor in the MLK Library or give us a call at 408-924-2308 to learn more.
Online Resources
We offer an array of online writing resources that you can use for self-study. They're available for you to access at any time (even when you're writing that research paper at 2:00 AM!), and we offer these resources in different modalities (e.g., videos, handouts, blog entries) so you can use whatever type of resource works best for you.
Writing Workshops
We offer a full slate of writing workshops each semester on over 20 various writing topics--from body paragraphs to APA formatting to trimming the fat (writing concisely). We schedule our workshops on varied times and days of the week (including some evenings) to try to accommodate student schedules as much as possible.
Additional Services for Multilingual Students
Every semester, we partner with International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) to run a series of writing workshops for international students. Make sure to sign up for these events!
Also be sure to visit the workshops and events page on our website for events and seminars. Three times per year--fall, spring, and summer--we offer our intensive four-part series of workshops for early career graduate students entitled "Foundations of Graduate Writing. In the past, we have also offered additional programming such as writing contests.
Mailing List & Social Media
Would you like to stay updated about everything related to the Writing Center? Please click on the buttons below to follow us on our social media channels for all the latest updates! We also produce a monthly student newsletter, so be sure to fill out our brief form to sign up for our student mailing list.
Read Our Blog: The Write Attitude
The Write Attitude Blog is here to help! Regardless of your major or class standing, your writing will be judged by your instructors, potential employers, and even your friends, but writing clearly and concisely isn’t always as easy as it seems. That’s where we come in! We can help you organize your thoughts, communicate your ideas articulately, properly cite your sources, avoid plagiarism, and use correct grammar and punctuation. While the Writing Center offers 1:1 help, this blog is meant to address some of the less obvious issues that writing can present, such as dealing with procrastination and avoiding stress during timed writing tests.