Writing Centre
The Writing Centre is open Monday–Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Located in the library, the Writing Centre provides students with assistance in writing, organizing, and formatting academic papers in a safe and non-judgmental space. Whether you are in the early or the final stages of the writing process, the writing advisor will provide constructive feedback and recommend resources and strategies that are tailored to your needs. You can also receive help if you are looking to avoid plagiarism, understand your professors’ instructions and expectations, or improve your time management skills.
Assistance is provided through:
- Zoom and Microsoft Teams virtual meetings;
- Email;
- Phone meetings;
- In-person meetings.
Please contact the writing advisor to set up an appointment:
- Email: redaction-writing@ustpaul.ca
- Phone: 613-236-1393 ext. 2217
Please note that the Writing Centre is a small space, and physical distancing may be difficult to enforce. Therefore, as per the University's “Return to Campus” guidelines, masks—while not mandatory—are recommended and appreciated.
- Please send the following documents when contacting the Writing Centre for assistance: course syllabus, assignment instructions, grading rubric (if available) and draft. Accepted file formats: Word (.doc), PDF (.pdf), and Google Docs.
- To serve as many students as possible, we limit appointments to one 45-minute appointment per week per student.
Cancellation and Attendance Policies
- If you need to cancel your appointment, please do so as early as possible in order to free up the time slot for another student.
- In case of a late arrival (more than 15 minutes), the time slot may be offered to other students.
- After two no-shows (failure to attend without advance notice), you may lose all Writing Centre privileges for the remainder of the term.
At the start of each fall and winter semester, the library and the Writing Centre put on a series of lunchtime workshops focusing on a variety of topics relevant to students starting or returning to university. We strongly recommend attending as many of the workshops as possible, as they provide essential and practical information on all aspects of academic life, such as doing research, citing, avoiding plagiarism, writing, and much more.
The schedule is posted in the library and on its website and social media as soon as it is available.
The library has prepared the following citation handouts to help students cite their sources and avoid plagiarism. Each one provides examples of bibliography entries and in-text citations for various types of sources.
Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition (Notes and Bibliography System)
If you have any comments or questions regarding the handouts, or if you would like more information on citation styles, please contact the writing advisor or your program's librarian.
