The Wits Writing Centre
The Wits Writing Centre (WWC) is a free and confidential service open to any Wits student or staff member who wants to work on their writing. We welcome anyone who would like to write better.
Any draft can be brought to the WWC, including essays, plans, drafts, practice exam answers and creative, non-academic writing. Some of our most successful consultations are with students who are already good writers, but who nevertheless realize the value of an attentive reader. All of us struggle with our writing sometimes.
WWC consultants will not edit or write for you. They will help you to decide what you want to say, in your own words, to successfully reach your particular readers. Sometimes this means working with you to learn the conventions of your discipline. In all cases WWC consultants will endeavour to help you develop, focus, and frame your thinking so as to achieve your intentions.
Currently our services are entirely online and the consultation process operates through emailed letters and annotated drafts. Last year we found significant advantages to this letter writing method, because we are forced to put our ideas, and our thoughts about our thinking, into written form in correspondence with another. Sometimes, without thinking too hard, clients began to sort out their problems and ideas themselves as they wrote to the consultant or responded to their queries.
We are currently working with online and face-to-face consultations.
Online consultations
You can request an online consultation by sending your draft with completed cover letter to writingresponse.WWC@wits.ac.za. Indicate in your cover letter your preference for an online consultation. The online process operates through emailed letters and annotated drafts and has been surprisingly successful. Apart from being convenient and saving time, letter writing makes us rethink and rephrase to an attentive audience. Sometimes, without trying too hard, clients solve their own problems and clarify their arguments for themselves as they write to the consultant.
Face-to-face consultations
You are also welcome to come in person to the WWC, which is housed on the ground floor of the Wartenweiler Library. Visit us for a writing consultation on work in progress or to browse our reference writing library. While we will endeavour to accommodate walk-in clients, you can also request a face-to face appointment through emailing your completed cover letter (see below) and sending your draft to writingresponse.WWC@wits.ac.za. Again, remember to indicate your preference for the mode of consultation in the cover letter, in this case indicating that you would prefer a face-to-face consultation. Remember to bring your draft with you to the consultation.
If you would like to try either type of consultation, fill in the WWC cover letter, see below, which includes a brief description of your writing concerns, and send the completed cover letter with your draft to writingresponse.WWC@wits.ac.za.
Your cover letter and draft will then be sent to a writing consultant who will either make an in-person consultation appointment with you or will email their response to your work within three working days. If you have any difficulty in completing the cover letter, simply note all the requested information in the body of your email to writingresponse.WWC@wits.ac.za