Policy Agreement

Policy Agreement Image

Credit: University Writing Center

Please read these policies before you register and make an appointment with us. 

Important policies and restrictions

  • You may book appointments for your own writing only. You may not allow any other person to make appointments using your Writing Center account.
  • You may book up to two appointments per week.
  • Students, faculty, and staff may book up to fifteen appointments per term. Alumni may book up to five appointments per term.
  • You may not book back-to-back sessions.
  • If you are more than ten minutes late for your appointment, you lose the exclusive right to that appointment and the session may be given to someone else.
  • You may cancel up to two hours before your appointment.
  • After two missed appointments ("no-shows") you are prohibited from booking further appointments for the current term, and your existing appointments will be canceled. You may, however, continue to use the Writing Center on a walk-in basis. 
  • If you are working on a group assignment the consultant can help only with the part of the assignment that you wrote.
  • If you abuse the scheduling system and/or our policies, you are no longer eligible to receive our services.

Kinds of Writing We Cannot Help You With

  • We are not permitted to help you with take-home essay exams unless you have written permission from your instructor, or the instructor has contacted the Writing Center directly.
  • We are not permitted to help you with writing that has legal or financial implications or is related to an appeal of a university decision.
  • We are prepared to help you with writing personal statements for fellowships, jobs, or graduate school; however, some schools and programs do not permit any outside assistance with the writing of your personal statement. It is your responsibility to determine whether or not tutoring is permitted. The George Mason University Writing Center is not liable if you violate such a policy.

Consulting Services Only

Please remember that the Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service. We will work with you to improve your own proofreading and editing skills, but we don't simply correct mistakes for you. We want to help you become your own best proof reader and editor.

Session Confidentiality

We believe it is very important to build a sense of trust between consultants and clients by respecting the confidentiality of sessions. We also believe that a collaborative relationship between instructors, consultants, and clients is the most conducive to writers' development.