Services for Graduate Students

We do not currently have tutors who are especially trained to work with graduate students or faculty.  While our tutors, who are mostly Master's candidates, are experienced readers and thinkers, none of them have experience with theses and dissertations, though we are happy to provide you with what help we can as long as you understand this.

We encourage you to make either an in-person or online appointment with a tutor if you would like help with your project, understanding that we are not editors and have certain limitations.

We recognize that some graduate students may be working professionals. We will try to find convenient hours, but this semester, we will be working mostly during our regular Monday through Friday hours.

If there is a tutor you enjoy working with, we will try to provide continuity for longer projects.

If you would like a meeting with a tutor, email writinglab@louisiana.edu and mention that you are a graduate student or faculty member. We will try to set you up with our most experienced tutor. Give us some available times that you can meet.

We generally work with only 10 pp. of text at a time in our 50 minute time period.

NOTE: It is important for graduate students and their advisors to understand that we do not provide an editing / proofreading service. We are tutors, not editors.

To explain the difference clearly, we have prepared the document below.

What the Writing Lab Will Do for Graduate Student Thesis and Dissertation Writers

We will

• work with students to help them craft clearer sentences
• offer students suggestions with regard to the organization of their documents
• offer students comments and provide them with instruction, models, and resources for proper grammar and mechanics
• help students to observe the style guidelines of their chosen or required citation style (e.g., MLA, APA, IEEE)
• work with students to help them paraphrase, cite, and avoid plagiarism
• help students to find the answers to their questions about the style guidelines of their chosen or required citation style and/or the guidelines outlined by the Graduate School.

Our Limitations

We will not

• rewrite sentences or sections for students
• proofread or edit student documents line by line
• fix or format student documents so that they conform to the style guidelines of their chosen or required citation style or to the guidelines outlined by the Graduate School.

Faculty and Advisors

If you are a faculty member who would like to have one of our staff make a presentation about our services to your class, please contact the Director of the Writing Lab, Dr. Nichole Stanford at nichole.stanford@louisiana.edu