Welcome and Guidelines
The ERC provides free tutorial assistance to any UAB student seeking help with reading proficiency or any kind of writing task. Tutors work with students from developmental-level classes, including students for whom English is a second language, through graduate-level courses. Below you will find guidelines for working with tutors, instructions for making an appointment, as well as other policies.
Working with a Tutor • Finding Additional Resources • Learning Effective Reading and Writing Skills • Making an Appointment • Appointment Policies
Working with a Tutor
Students can schedule tutorials during any part of their writing assignments:
- talking out ideas,
- discussing a thesis,
- looking at a draft for development and organization,
- considering revisions, and
- focusing on grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and spelling.
Typical writing assignments that tutors see include the following:
- expository paragraphs and essays,
- literary criticism,
- abstracts,
- annotated bibliographies,
- memos,
- proposals,
- resumes,
- letters of application,
- documented essays, and
- business and technical reports.
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Finding Additional Resources
In addition to the tutorials, the ERC offers handouts covering all of these areas, computer programs designed to help students refine their reading and proofreading skills, and word processing programs and Internet connections which allow students to work on and research topics.
Learning Effective Reading and Writing Skills
The ERC provides many resources for students to improve their writing and to learn how to read their own work with an eye to improving both content and form. The ERC does not provide proofreading services, however. Tutors help students; they do not change, edit, or otherwise “fix” papers. Instead, tutors teach students who come into the Center to help recognize their problems and to help themselves.
Making an Appointment
While the Center is usually open 6 or 7 days a week and most evenings, available appointment times change each semester. Check the current schedule, stop by Humanities Building 224, or call (205) 934-8118. If you are a student in an online composition course, online tutoring is available; contact your instructor for details.
Please note that during the first week of each semester, appointments are available only to students registered in EH 091 or ESL. Beginning the second week of each semester, appointment slots are open for all UAB students.
Appointment Policies
- Please arrive on time for scheduled appointments. If you are more than 10 minutes late, you may lose your appointment for the day.
- If you cannot keep a scheduled appointment, please call 934-8118 to cancel. If you miss two appointments at any time during the semester without canceling, you will lose your regular appointment time.
- Tutorials last for 30 minutes. Be prepared: bring what you need to work on. If you have nothing to bring in, your tutor will ask you to help determine what you need to work on for your class.
- The ERC appointment book fills up quickly, so if you are required to attend a certain number of tutorials throughout the semester, make sure to sign up for them and begin attending during the first week of class.
- Please note that during the first week of each semester, appointments are available only to students registered in EH 091 or ESL. Beginning the second week of each semester, appointment slots are open for all UAB students.