Welcome to the UD Writing Lab!

The Writing Lab continues to offer both both on-campus and online sessions! To sign up for an on-campus session, use this link. to the in-person Lab calendar.  Note that though you are signing up online, you must meet a tutor in Braniff 304, or the third floor atrium.  For an online session, follow this link. For further instrucions regarding both on-campus and online sessions, see below.

Tutoring Hours of Operation

Sunday: 6:00-10:00pm

Monday:  10:30am-4:30pm; 6:00-10:00pm

Tuesday:  10:30am-4:30pm;  6:00-10:00pm

Wednesday:  10:30am-4:30pm; 6:00-10:00pm

Thursday:  10:30am-4:30pm; 6:00-10:00pm

Friday: 10am-2:00pm

Saturday:  Closed

Online sessions will be held via Zoom, and the link to the meeting will be in the Google calendar event description.  In-person sessions will be held in Braniff 304, just outside the English Department office. 

While available to on-campus students, please be advised that these hours are often the only times available to commuting or quarantining students.  If you are able, we'd love to see you in person.

If you are having trouble signing up for a Writing Lab session, please email the Writing Lab at writinglab@udallas.edu or the Writing Lab Director, Zachary Meckley, at zmeckley@udallas.edu.

What is the Writing Lab?

The Writing Lab exists to help students improve their mastery of the skills of composition — invention, organization, and style. At the Lab, we want to help students become better writers by attending, together, to the crafting of specific papers. Focusing primarily on the student’s development, we neither edit nor proof-read papers; instead, we aim to help the students discern areas for improvement, and to guide them into the next stage of that growth. All the tutors in the lab are graduate students here at UD. We welcome papers of all kinds, not just Lit Trad papers; we work with students on papers from across the Core, including scientific writing, as well as on applications to various scholarships and programs.

General Guidelines for Any Visit to the Writing Lab 

Please share a copy of your paper via Google Docs with writinglab@udallas.edu, no less than 10 minutes before your session is due to start. 

When sharing your document, please give your file a title that will make it easy to recognize. An example of such a format would be your surname and the date of your session: "Smith Oct. 7"

Please note that your session's fruitfulness will correspond to your own preparedness. So please come with specific questions about your draft or outline, and prepare yourself to think and learn about the arts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Your tutor will not create a thesis for you (that would constitute plagiarism!) or provide your provisional thesis with textual argumentation. Instead, he or she will help you to develop your thoughts about the subject as you present it in your paper.

Note, too, that your session is only 25 minutes long, if on campus, and 20 minutes if online. Due to the conversational nature of this kind of learning, you should NOT expect to work through an entire paper in one session. Instead, you are more likely to focus intently upon a few areas of improvement. 

Important Note: In order to maximize this time, please handle the logistical operations listed below BEFORE your session is to begin. 

How to Make an Appointment

• Sign up:  For an onine session, pick a slot in the "Writing Lab Online" Google appointment calendar here.  For an in-peron session in Braniff 304, pick a slot in the "Writing Lab In-Person Google appointment calendar  here..
• Upload your documents: send copies of your documents to writinglab@udallas.edu. To streamline your session, complete this step BEFORE your session begins. You need to share: 
  • Your paper (the most recent draft!)
  • The prompt for your paper (if you have it)
• Sign in: Follow this link to sign in. To make your session as efficient as possible, please complete this step BEFORE your session begins.
• Come: at the time you signed up for.
  • If making an in-person visit, bring either a laptop or a hard copy of your paper to the session so that you and your tutor can see the same words, punctuation, formatting, etc. Also provide a copy of your paper prompt.  
  • For an online session, open the invitation to the Zoom video conference you will have received in your inbox. 
• No shows: if for any reason you cannot make the session you signed up for,  cancel the Google Meet appointment on your Calendar. If you have not done so half an hour before your session was scheduled to start, and you fail to come, your name will be written onto our Wall of Shame! Any student who fails to attend three sessions without reasonable notification will be banned from the Lab for the rest of the semester.

General Writing Lab Rules: 

1.  Undergraduates are limited to one 30 minute slot per day per assignment.

2.  Tutors are not allowed to edit, review, or critique take-home, out-of-class exams without the written consent of the exam-giving instructor.

3.  Tutors will comment on grammar, syntax, organization, and/or argumentation of the draft presented.  Their task is to show where the paper needs to improve, not to re-write the paper.  For that reason, tutors will point out consistent errors in grammar and syntax, but not correct them all.  Similarly, tutors will point out problems with evidence use or information flow, but they will not generate the paper's argument, evidence, or information. 

Should you have any questions regarding the Lab, please do not hesitiate to reach out to the Director:

Mr. Zachary Meckley
Adjunct Instructor of English and Writing Lab Director
Writing Lab: Braniff 304
Email:  zmeckley@udallas.edu

 Writing Lab Resources

Marking Guide with links to explanations of Common Errors and exercises to help you correct those errors.