eTutoring (File Sharing) Appointments

eTutoring can be useful, but it may not always be the best appointment option depending on where you are in the writing process, your learning style, how many questions you have about the project, and what areas of the writing you want to focus on. Students often choose eTutoring thinking it will be easier and faster than in-person or videoconference appointments, but that is often not true when you take into account the time it takes to read the feedback and incorporate it into your paper. Keep in mind that the consultant will not edit or correct your writing for you but will make comments to help you revise your own work, like they do in an in-person appointment. 

eTutoring is a good choice if: 

• You only have a few direct questions about the assignment or your writing, and you make those questions clear in the appointment form. 
• You are near the end of the writing process and have most of a draft already written. 
• You have time after the appointment to read through the feedback and make revisions before the assignment is due. 
• You are an independent learner who feels comfortable interpreting and incorporating feedback without additional discussion. 
• Your schedule doesn’t allow time to meet with a consultant synchronously in-person or through videoconference. 
• You appreciate having written comments that you can review later at your own pace. 

Follow the directions on the Wingspan's Appointments page to make an appointment. Under the question, "How would you like to meet?" choose “eTutoring (File Sharing)”.

eTutoring is an asynchronous appointment for written feedback on a shared file. You do not need to show up at the time of your appointment. Instead, fill out the survey in the appointment confirmation, and attach your document at the link below before the start time of the appointment.

While you can have two appointments per week, you can only sign up for one eTutoring appointment at a time. This is to avoid confusion regarding the documents and encourage revision between appointments. Once you have completed your appointment, you are welcome to sign up for the next one.

Using the link in the appointment confirmation, fill out the eTutoring survey and attach your document before the start time of the appointment. Attachments must be Microsoft docuements (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

If the survey is not completed with an attached document before the appointment starts, the appointment will be considered a no-show.  

At the end of the appointment time, you will receive an email with your feedback attached.

eTutoring consultants can help identify patterns of error in your writing, and then provide tips and written tutorials for how to address these patterns as you work to revise and edit your paper based on their feedback. If you've identified specific areas of concern or asked specific questions about the assignment prompt or your writing, they can assess the documents you've provided to help address your concerns. They will respond to your writing as an outside reader. 

You can expect to receive both holistic feedback in the form of an opening letter at the beginning of the document, as well as paragraph- or sentence-level feedback using the commenting feature in Microsoft Word. This feedback can help guide your next steps in the writing and revision process. Importantly, eTutoring consultants do not provide copy-editing of documents. 

When you make an eTutoring appointment, you are reserving 50 minutes for a consultant to review your writing and provide feedback. Therefore, just like in an in-person appointment, consultants will review as much as they can in that time but may not get to the full document. How far the consultant gets within the document will vary based on a number of factors, such as the amount and type of feedback they need to provide while reading. The consultant will leave comments about what sections they reviewed and where they stopped providing feedback.  

You are welcome to schedule more appointments to receive feedback on any additional sections. When you schedule the next appointment, make sure to indicate where the consultant should start to avoid receiving the same feedback twice. 

It is a good idea to be specific about what areas of the paper you would like the consultant to focus on for each appointment. If your main concern is a section near the end of the paper, put a note in the appointment form for the consultant to start there.