The Writing Center
The Online Writing Center
Welcome to the IVCC Online Writing Center! We're happy to be able to offer you a user-friendly online method for receiving quality feedback on your writing assignments. We look forward to helping you with your writing assignment. Before submitting to the Online Writing Center, we would like you to understand the following:
Important Information for the Online Writing Center User
The Online Writing Center is a service offered by the Writing and Peer Tutoring Center, located in the Computer Resource Center in Building D on the IVCC main campus. It is a newly developed service of the Writing Center, and we appreciate your comments, suggestions, and patience as we learn how to best serve you. When using the Online Writing Center, it is important to remember three key points.
- The Online Writing Center, like the Writing Center on the IVCC campus, is happy to help students at any stage of the writing process. At the Online Writing Center we encourage the submission of your brainstormed ideas for your writing assignment, topic outlines that detail your thesis and topic sentences, drafts at any stage of completion, etc. Also, as with the Writing Center on campus, the Online Writing Center is not a proofreading service but is instead a service which provides students with feedback aimed at improving such areas as organization, analysis, citation, and patterns of writing errors.
- The Online Writing Center aims to return feedback to submissions within three business days. We will respond to all submissions but cannot guarantee the three-day time frame for feedback to all submissions.
- You will be contacted through Blackboard and encouraged to make a face-to-face appointment to see a tutor at the Writing Center in the Computer Resource Center in Building D if the Online Writing Center is unable to respond with quality feedback within three business days.
How to Submit to the Online Writing Center
The Online Writing Center uses Blackboard software to respond to student submissions, so the first submission step is to log in to Blackboard and left mouse click the Writing Center under your "My Courses" menu. If you are a first time user, please use the following link for instructions on how to self enroll as a user for the Online Writing Center: Blackboard Self Enrollment for Students.
Please follow the instructions below once you have successfully completed the login to Blackboard and have entered the Writing Center course:
- Left click on the "Essay Dropbox" button on the left side of the screen.
- After your new screen appears, left click the "Send File" button near the top of the page.
- The new screen will read "File Information" near the top of the page. Under "File Information" will be four blank spaces or fields with the following titles: "Select File or Upload New File," "Name," "File," and "Comments." Ignore the "Select File or Upload New File" blank.
- In "Name," type the following information using this format: Last Name, First Name, Assignment Name. Example: Doe, John, English 1001 Painting Analysis
- In "File," left click the "Browse" button. When you find the file you want to attach, double left click on it. Your file will now be attached.
- In "Comments," please provide a web address or link for where the Online Writing Center tutor can find a copy of the instructor's assignment description. If this is not possible, then please provide a thorough description of the instructor's expectations for the assignment.
- Left click the "Submit" button in the lower right side of the screen. You have now made a successful submission to the Online Writing Center and will be receiving a response from us within three business days.
How to Receive and Use Online Writing Center Feedback
Once you have submitted your materials to the Online Writing Center, please be sure to log in to Blackboard, enter the Writing Center by left clicking on the link under "My Courses," and periodically check your "Essay Dropbox" for a reply from the Online Writing Center. For further directions on how to receive and use your Online Writing Center feedback, please follow the instructions below:
- Once you are in the Writing Center course, left click on the "Essay Dropbox" on the left side of your screen.
- If the you have received feedback from your submission, left click on the link and follow the instructions on the screen to open the feedback as a Word file. If you have not received any response from the Online Writing Center within three business days, please e-mail Tara Coburn at Tara_Coburn@ivcc.edu or call (815) 224-0335.
- Use the feedback from the Online Writing Center tutor to help you in revising your essay into a stronger, more polished product. If you would like additional feedback once you have made your revisions, and time permits for your assignment, feel free to submit your newly revised material for further feedback from the Online Writing Center. Follow the same directions you used with your original submission. Also, please submit any questions or comments about the feedback provided to you by, once again, following the same directions used for submitting your original materials to the Online Writing Center.