OWL and Writing Assistance Policy

What is the Online Writing Lab (OWL)?

The OWL is an online portal that students can use to submit papers or essays
and receive constructive feedback from one of SLAC's qualified writing tutors.

Writing Assistance Policy

At SLAC, writing tutors are trained to work with all students, no matter what their stage in the writing process or their status in the university. Note these exceptions:

  • Writing tutors can help with group papers if every member of the group is present. Otherwise, writing tutors can only look at the portion(s) of the paper written by group member(s) who are present.
  • Writing tutors can assist students on exit examinations or theses only with special approval from the Writing Services Coordinator.

Undergraduate writing tutors can work with students from their freshman year and into their graduate studies to help them improve their writing skills. Writing tutors will

  • teach methods of invention, research, and organizational skills
  • discuss ways students may select and narrow topics
  • suggest ways for preventing repeated errors in grammar/sentence structure
  • provide some suggestions for word choice errors

Under no circumstances will any member of the SLAC writing tutor staff edit students' papers. Editing is the act of explicitly correcting all or most of the writing problems. Writing tutors do teach editing skills by working with students on drafts of papers they are currently writing. 

If a student wishes to work with an editor on a paper or longer document, those services should be sought elsewhere.