Question 1

How will the course help you in English Composition?

Accepted Answer

You'll do well in your composition course: 90% of students who meet 4 times with a writing consultant receive the grade of B or higher in their first-year English composition course, according to the past 5 years of data.

You'll increase your feeling of confidence as a writer.

You'll stay on track with your English composition assignments throughout the semester--time management will become a lot easier!

You get feedback that's relevant to you as an individual writer. Friendly, trained writing consultants will work with you on a one-to-one basis.

Question 2

What are the requirements?

Accepted Answer

The requirements are easy to complete and designed to suit your individual schedule:

Meet in person or online at least 4 times with your writing consultant during the semester.
Attend online for an hour per week, at any time you choose, to work on assignments from your English composition course.
Complete a short, informal reflection about yourself as a writer at the beginning and end of the semester.
That's it!

Question 3

How is the course graded?

Accepted Answer

The course is graded as S/NC (Satisfactory/No Credit) and does not affect your UTK GPA. You receive 1 hour of elective credit with the S grade.

Question 4

How much does the course cost?

Accepted Answer

The course does not cost extra for anyone registered full-time.

Question 5

Who are the writing consultants?

Accepted Answer

The writing consultants are also students, both undergraduate and graduate, who come from various departments all across campus. They go through a year-long training to prepare them to work with writers like you! They’re here to talk with you about your writing and offer you helpful feedback.

Learn more about our staff here.

Question 6

What is a meeting with a writing consultant like?

Accepted Answer

Writing consultants are friendly and good listeners. They understand that writing can be a struggle. You and the consultant will set the agenda for the conversation collaboratively, and you can talk about any part of the writing process. Meetings can include:

Discussing course concepts and assigned readings
Reviewing the assignment sheet for an upcoming paper
Brainstorming topics
Locating credible sources
Developing a research plan
Receiving feedback on a completed draft
Assistance with sentence-level correctness and citations
Or, anything else about writing that you need help with!

If it's writing, we can help!

Question 7

What do students who have taken the course say about it?

Accepted Answer

100% of the students who complete the course say they met the writing goals they set for themselves at the beginning of the semester.

Click on each of the items below to see what students said at the end of last semester about how the course helped them.

> I feel more confident as a writer now.

I learned that I’m growing more confident as a writer and that planning and outlining make my writing clearer and more organized. I’ve changed the way I think about writing: work is no longer that stressful, and neither is my writing. I grew the most from regular practice, feedback, and through revising my work.
In the beginning of the semester, I wasn't very confident in my abilities as a writer, but by working with the writing center and setting aside time for myself to sit down and really concentrate on my work helped me grow more confident and stronger as a writer.
My relationship with writing has become more confident and intentional. I’ve developed habits like outlining before drafting and setting aside dedicated revision time. I’m more comfortable experimenting with style and structure, and I’ve begun to overcome procrastination by breaking assignments into smaller tasks.
I have become a much more confident writer, and I have gotten better at my writing style and much better at finding reliable sources for papers or projects. My change in my \"relationship\" with writing is that I have learned to love it again. I used to enjoy writing so much and fell out of this habit, and going to the writing center through this English class helped me start loving writing again! The thing that most helped make these changes was the people I had the meetings with.
Taking English 103 definitely helped me make changes because the course allowed me to spend consistent time in writing every week. Furthermore, the writing consultations were so helpful and encouraging to me since I've never had much confidence in my writing. Overall, this semester flew by. I am super grateful for the progress I made as a writer, and I owe a lot of that to English 103.
At the beginning of the semester, I definitely did not think I was very good at writing, nor did I have a good \"relationship\" with it. However, the writing consultations and workshops that I attended throughout the semester made me feel more confident about my writing, and helped me to brainstorm topics that I was actually interested in, which also positively affected my writing.
I learned ways to start writing that made it feel less intimidating and different ways to structure my writing. I am still not a big fan of writing, but I feel more confident about my writing abilities.
I met my writing goals, especially by becoming more confident in my own writing. I have learned that if I take the time and do a little each day in my writing, it boosts my confidence and the overall meaning of my paper. Becoming more confident, I think, was key to my success in ENGL 101. I feel like talking to others during the Writing Consultations helped me the most.
I would say my relationship has gotten much better since taking English 101 and 103, I have felt significantly more confident turning in papers if I had completed a writing consultation regarding those papers.
I met the writing goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the term. I mostly wanted to become more confident in my writing, which I did accomplish.

> Writing feels easier after taking this course.

In high school, I would wait until the last minute to complete my rough drafts as well as final drafts, but now I break up essays into finding sources, making an outline, a rough draft and then a final draft. I no longer procrastinate my work, which used to be a big weakness of mine, but now I break it up into smaller assignments, creating less work for me all at once. I would say having \"attendance\" for this class helped me develop my skills largely because it allowed me to set aside at least one hour of time each week to work solely on English work.
In the past, I struggled with getting started and expressing ideas clearly. Now I can write in a more organized and patient way. I’ve learned to break essays into smaller steps. One of the things that helped me most was meeting with a writing consultant. Those meetings taught me a lot about how to approach writing strategically.
My relationship with writing has changed because I feel a lot different with the writing process now. I am now thinking about the writing process as steps and a place where I can continue to shape and improve, instead of something to just get done right away. What has helped me with these changes is the constant feedback I have been given.
I think the biggest thing I learned as a writer is that I'm not as bad as a writer as I once that I was, I just had to approach writing differently. Learning the process behind writing the actual essay helped me a lot with my overall product. Learning how to be more effective in the writing process was the biggest thing I learned in this term. I believed what helped me make that change was the combination of a very helpful teacher in English 101 and all the wonderful tutors in English 103.
Making writing appointments has helped me with this because it forces me to sit down and start my assignments prior to the due date. These helped me so much, so I will continue to do them in the future.
This semester, I believe that I progressed in the English space much more than I had anticipated. Taking this course along with the in-person meetings not only improved my solid work; it encouraged me to spend the time working. I learned that while I may not be the best writer, if I take my time and think with different perspectives, I can work well. A change in my relationship with writing comes in my confidence. I used to struggle articulating my thoughts, the reps I have put in over this semester have boosted my confidence

> My writing improved.

I did meet the writing goals that I set at the beginning of the term. I wanted to have professional papers and good grades on my English 101 assignments, and I accomplished that goal.
My writing flows better than it did in the beginning, I'm better at using strong vocabulary, and I'm better at incorporating scholarly sources into my work.
I became a more versatile and dynamic writer this past semester.
I became better at researching a topic and then using that information to craft a strong argument with credible supporting ideas. Connected to that, I learned that I am actually a pretty good writer.
I've learned how to do meaningful research and construct my paper so that my information is well placed and analyzed. Some new habits I have gained are creating a solid and detailed outline to help me approach my writing. I think my professor and talking it out in my appointments with the writing center helped me be more comfortable with my writing.

> One student described all of these benefits: increased confidence, better writing habits, and improved writing.

(The student's comment is long, but worth it!)
The structure of English 104 proved to be an effective way to help my evolving relationship with writing. My primary goal entering the term was not necessarily to master a specific grammatical technique, but to fundamentally transform my approach to the writing process itself. I specifically wanted to conquer the habit of procrastination and the resulting cycle of high-stress, cramming writing. Reflecting on the semester, I can confidently say I achieved this foundational goal, mainly because the enforced discipline mitigated my worst writing habits.
What I have learned about myself as a writer is that my greatest weakness was never a lack of ideas, but a lack of pacing. Before this class, I would ignore a paper for weeks, then attempt to complete the entire assignment in a single, desperate rush, leading to burnout and overall not my best work. The required one hour of dedicated weekly work gave my writing more structure and forced me to make time for writing. It forced me to treat writing less like an emergency and more like a consistent practice, establishing a routine in which I touched my assignments even when they weren’t due. I developed the strength of sustained focus and discovered that I produce better, clearer work when my mind is fresh, rather than frantic. This simple scheduling change has shifted my relationship with writing from one of dread and avoidance to one of predictable, manageable effort.
In terms of technical growth, the consultation process helped me overcome a key weakness in my argumentative structure. I often wrote thesis statements that were descriptive rather than truly analytical, summarizing my points without advancing a clear, debatable claim. During my first consultation, this was pointed out to me, and I noticed it more and more as I was developing my writing. This high-level, targeted feedback was invaluable, as it identified a habit I couldn’t initially see in my own work. My weekly writing sessions were then focused not just on meeting the hourly requirement, but on drafting and testing genuinely analytical thesis statements. This eventually translated into a new strength: the ability to create more sophisticated, focused roadmaps for my essays, ensuring every paragraph connects back to a challenging core argument.
The factors that helped me make these critical changes were the required consultations and working with the structure of my English 102 class. The weekly work provided the necessary discipline and low-stakes environment to form new habits. Still, the monthly consultation provided the crucial direction, and my English class always had something to work on. The consultation was far more effective than a general peer review because the grad student was able to identify issues in my writing across multiple assignments. This personalized, expert perspective showed the structural weaknesses that the consistency of the weekly hour allowed me to then address. Without the protected time for practice, the consultation’s advice would have been helpful, but the chances of me acting upon it would’ve been slim to none. Ultimately, the successful pacing and growth I experienced this semester were the direct result of a mandatory balance between disciplined practice and helpful feedback.

Overwhelmingly, students report being very satisfied with the ease of attending and meeting with writing consultants--both in person and online. View this video about what students have to say about the benefits of writing help.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center
College of Arts & Sciences

English 103 & 104

Email writingcenter@utk.edu if you have any questions or encounter any issues registering.