If you need to contact your teacher, please visit the Writing Program Teacher Directory. This directory includes office hours and contact information for each of the teachers. To email a teacher, simply fill in the form on the teacher's page and an email will be sent automatically to that teacher.
Writing Program Teacher Directory
Tips for students:
Meet individually with your instructor on a regular basis throughout the semester. Every Writing Program instructor holds office hours—an hour each week when the instructor will be available to answer your questions and concerns about your work in the course. Go early, go often.
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You can receive individualized instruction according to your specific writing process and needs.
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When you go to meet with your instructor, prepare a specific question about your work or identify a particular part of your paper that you want to improve.
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Remember that you cannot learn it all in one visit. You'll need to go more than once—each time you go, you'll work on another piece of the writing task. At the end of the semester, the smaller pieces will add up to the larger task of writing a university level paper.
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Going to see your instructor during office hours demonstrates your willingness to work hard to improve your writing. It is also a different kind of practice: it might not feel easy, at first, to go to your teacher's office! But if you do it more than once—if you practice it—it will come to feel more "natural" and will be more useful to you.
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Don't wait until the end of the semester to meet with your instructor, especially if you feel that you are struggling; if you wait until the end of the semester, it may be too late. But if you do wait until the end, go anyway.
If another class conflicts with your instructor's office hours, make arrangements to meet another time or to contact her via email or phone. Most instructors are willing to work around your schedule when possible.
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To make arrangements for a meeting outside of class or office hours, make sure to ask for the meeting several days in advance. If you request such a meeting, do not miss it. Your instructor is going out of his or her way to meet with you, and for you to miss a meeting is impolite and demonstrates a lack of responsibility for your work.
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Consult your syllabus for the best way to contact your instructor; some instructors will only communicate by email. If you send a message to an instructor by paper, phone, or email, you can expect to receive a response within a few days.
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If the instructor does not respond, assume that the message may not have gotten through and politely send the message again.
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When speaking to an instructor over the phone, be courteous and clear about your purpose for calling.
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If you leave a message, be sure to identify yourself by first and last name, explain the purpose of your call, and leave information about how the instructor may return the call. If you are leaving the message on a machine or voice mail, and not with a person, be sure to speak slowly and clearly. It is often useful for you to repeat the telephone number or email address, slowly, so that your teacher can understand it and write it down more easily.
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Above all, be patient: voicemail, pagers, cell phones, and e-mail are not a part of everyone's life to the same degree.
