Online and in-person appointments

As of June 30th, the University of Waterloo has suspended the mask requirement on campus. WCC staff will wear masks for in-person services by default or by request, and we encourage you to continue to wear a tight-fitting, well-constructed mask and maintain your distance from others if you feel it is the right choice for you. The Writing and Communication Centre is pleased to offer all of our programming both virtually and in-person during the spring term.

Student & Postdoc appointments

Feeling stuck? We can help with brainstorming, planning, writing, and revision. Our instructors are experts in communicating in all disciplines, including digital, technical, and scientific writing and communication.

How it works

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Appointments are booked through our online scheduling system, WCONLINE.

What should you know/bring?

Online appointments

Online appointments occur using the WCONLINE system. On the day of your appointment, log in to WCONLINE approximately five to ten minutes before the beginning of your appointment. Click on your appointment in the schedule (it will appear as a blue rectangle) and choose "Start or Join Online Appointment." You will need to have an electronic version of your work available.

Instructors work with you on developing your skills for the long term. We don't correct or change your work for you, but we can teach you the tools to revise and edit on your own.

How to attend an online appointment

For your online appointment, make sure you have a working webcam and microphone, and that you are working in a quiet and private location. Firefox and Chrome browsers work best for online appointments on the WCONLINE system. Be sure that you have the latest version of your browser installed. The online appointment system will not work on a tablet or smart phone. If you do not have access to a computer, please email the instructor to make other technology arrangements.

WCOnline works with Chrome or Firefox browsers only. Please make sure that you have a working webcam and microphone, and that you are in a quiet location. If you are unable to meet these requirements, please email your writing advisor to make other arrangements.

Log into [schedule] approximately five to ten minutes before the start of your appointment.
Open the appointment time you booked (it will appear as a blue rectangle).
Click "Start or Join Online Appointment."

Online Group Appointments

To book an appointment for your group, please contact Meghan Ashdown at mashdown@uwaterloo.ca.

In-person appointments

How to book an in-person appointment

Choose your appointment date and time and click on the white box.
Select No. Schedule Face-to-face appointment under Is this an online appointment?
Complete the appointment booking form questions.
If you are sharing your documents (assignment instructions, draft-in-progress, etc.) electronically using Office 365, Google Docs, DropBox, or another electronic file sharing software, copy and paste the link(s) to your document(s) in the text box provided. Click on Create Appointment and you’re all set!
Check your email for instructions on how to attend your in-person appointment.

If you need to add your document links later, you can do so by following these instructions:

Log back into WC Online at any time before your appointment
Click on your appointment (it should be a blue rectangle)
Select Edit appointment
Paste the link in the text box
Click save changes
Check your email for instructions on how to attend your in-person appointment.

How to attend an in-person appointment:

In-person appointments are held in the Writing and Communication Centre offices, located on the second floor of South Campus Hall (SCH) above The W Store and the Bookstore. We share a reception area with the Student Success Office. To attend your in-person appointment follow these instructions:

Confirm that you are eligible to be on campus and that you have completed the Campus Check-in screening questions:

Do you have any COVID-19 symptoms?
Have you been identified as a close contact of someone with COVID-19?
Are you required to self-isolate for any reason?
Have you recently tested positive for COVID-19 on a rapid or PCR test?

If you are experiencing symptoms or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19, please complete the Ontario COVID-19 self-assessment and follow the instructions you are given. If you are instructed to self-isolate, you must not attend campus. Report your absence from work or school.

If you don’t pass the screening but would still like to attend your appointment, just email wcc@uwaterloo.ca, and we will switch your appointment from in-person to online.

You are required to remain masked throughout your appointment and while you are inside South Campus Hall. If you require a mask, you can collect one university-provided non-medical mask from any of the following locations:

Front desks in Campus Housing 
Turnkey desk in SLC and DC 
Grad House 
Student Success Office
Library 
Recreation Facilities 
The Centre 
and satellite campuses

Arrive at the Student Success Office reception at least five minutes before your appointment begins, and check-in with the Front Desk Assistant. The Writing and Communication Advisor will meet you in the Student Success Office lobby.
WHAT TO BRING: To keep a safe physical distance during your appointment, Advisors cannot work from shared printed documents. You can provide links to your documents (via any cloud-based program: Office 365, Google, DropBox, etc.), including assignment instructions and rough drafts, in the Appointment Booking Form. If you cannot share your file(s) electronically with your Advisor, please print hard copies for them. During the appointment, you can choose to work from your laptop or from a second hard copy. Printing services for students are available through W Print.  Note that there is a W Print kiosk in the lobby of South Campus Hall, if you would prefer to bring hard copies.
Always remain at least two metres (six feet) away from your Advisor. Follow the instructions they give you for entering, working in, and leaving the Writing and Communication Centre offices.

Faculty & Instructor appointments

At the Writing and Communication Centre, we support faculty members as writers, whether they're working on books, journal articles, grant proposals, or any other project. We offer 50-minute consultations that give you a chance to talk to our Faculty Support Specialist about your work at any stage of the writing process.

Here are some examples of the ways we can support faculty writers at many stages of the writing process:

Provide a sounding board as you plan and outline
Help you experience your draft the way a reader might
Facilitate goal-setting and offer coaching
Consult on the structure, organization, or mechanics of your work

Please email Dr. Nadine Fladd if you would like to set up a meeting to discuss your project.

Appointment information

Finding an appointment

Appointments can be booked up to 4 weeks ahead through WCONLINE. Navigate the calendar by clicking on the navigation arrows (PREV WEEK or NEXT WEEK) or find your preferred date by clicking on the calendar icon. Click on a white rectangle to book that appointment time.

If no appointment is available, click the WAITING LIST link under a date to add yourself to the waiting list for that date.

How to change or cancel your appointment

WCONLINE automatically sends reminder emails to you one or two days ahead of the appointment. If you need to change or cancel an appointment, please give a minimum three hours of notice. If you need a last-minute cancellation or are cancelling an evening or weekend appointment, please email wcc@uwaterloo.ca.

Locked out of WC Online?

If you are locked out of your WCONLINE account, please contact the Writing and Communication Centre. Please note that this email address is only monitored Monday - Friday 9:00 am to 4:30 pm.

Appointment policies

Appointment limits

Graduate students are limited a maximum of five 50-minute appointments per month. Undergraduate students are limited to a maximum of five 50-minute appointments, ten 25-minute appointments, or a combination of the two.

Editing Requests

Writing and Communication support for assignments does not breach academic integrity as we do not correct, change, or edit students’ work for them. Rather, we guide students to think more deeply about such matters as structure, organization, use of evidence, sentence structure, etc., and we scaffold learning about writing conventions such as grammar and punctuation.

Missed appointments

Students who are more than 10 minutes late for a 25-minute appointment or 15 minutes late for a 50-minute appointment will not be seen by a writing specialist. This appointment will be marked as “missed.” After three missed appointments, you will be locked out of the WCOnline system. To re-gain access to the appointment system, you will need to contact the WCC at wcc@uwaterloo.ca.

Non-Disclosure Agreements

Students and researchers may seek to work with the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) on research conducted under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). In these cases, WCC staff must sign the appendix of the NDA to agree to be bound by the non-disclosure terms so that writing and communication support can proceed. The student or researcher is responsible for ensuring and confirming that the Principle Investigator (PI) of said research has been consulted before the appointment and agrees with the request to sign the NDA appendix. The Research Partnerships group in the Office of Research is a resource for further guidance around NDAs.

Take-home exams

Take-home exams are unique in the general expectation that the student will complete the exam without making use of unauthorized resources and unauthorized collaborations. Permitted resources and collaborations are explicitly stated in the take-home exam’s instructions. For this reason, the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) will not provide support in consultations to students who are seeking support for the writing of these exams, unless the course instructor specifically allows this support in the exam instructions or it is permitted by an accessibility accommodation that is communicated in writing ahead of or at the time of the appointment.

Without permission from instructors, students who make appointments for take-home exams will be offered generalized support, without referencing the exam, on such topics as writing a thesis statement, constructing a paragraph, integrating evidence, or grammar conventions.

Note: Writing and Communication support for assignments does not breach academic integrity as we do not correct, change, or edit students’ work for them. Rather, we guide students to think more deeply about such matters as structure, organization, use of evidence, sentence structure, etc., and we scaffold learning about writing conventions such as grammar and punctuation.

WCOnline user accounts

Only the student registered with the WCOnline account is permitted to book appointments for themselves under this account. Please note that impersonating another student is considered an Academic offense under University of Waterloo Policy 71 – Student Discipline.

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