Writing Support
The StAAR Center Writing team approaches writing as an inherently collaborative, recursive process. We strive to provide a supportive environment for you to discuss your ideas, develop your writing, and engage in a robust process of drafting and revision.
Our Writing Consultants can work with you to:
- brainstorm and get started
- organize and clarify your ideas
- refine your argument and deepen your analysis
- revise and reorganize
- edit and clarify language on the sentence level
- develop your writing process, style, and voice
- better understand writing in different genres and subject areas
- incorporate sources into your writing
Program Highlights
Writers and Projects We Support
First-Year Writing
We assist first-year students with the transition from high school to college writing.
Writing for any Class
Your development as a writer doesn’t stop outside of English class or after the first year of college. Work with us throughout your Tufts career to enhance your writing experiences!
Personal Statements
We can help you develop and revise personal statements for various applications. Tufts students can make an appointment through Tutor Finder. Alumni of Tufts ASE programs are permitted up to three (3) appointments to work on personal statements but typically do not have access to Tutor Finder, so email us with the type of statement you’re working on, your deadline, your general availability for a virtual meeting, and any specific concerns. (Note: We cannot match alumni with writing consultants at the end of the semester when final papers are due (typically mid-Nov through early Jan and mid-April through mid-May.)
Senior Honors Thesis
Because longer projects can benefit from early planning and discussion, we recommend senior thesis writers meet with the same writing consultant. We also offer thesis-specific workshops and popular weekend thesis write-ins, which provide dedicated blocks of focused writing time.
Multilingual Writers and International Students
We are dedicated to helping you develop your voice and ideas. Along with structure and organization, our writing consultants can work with you on sentence-level clarity and can demystify American academic conventions and essay structures.
Graduate Writers
Work with us on any graduate-level project, from seminar papers to qualifying papers to theses and dissertations. You can meet regularly with the same graduate writing consultant if you’d like. We also offer graduate-specific workshops, writing groups, and writing retreats. Learn more on our Graduate Resources Page.
Addressing Obstacles to Writing
Our writing consultants are trained to help all writers build confidence and develop strategies for overcoming barriers to writing. For a personalized referral, email Kristina.Aikens@tufts.edu.
Writing Fellows Program
Faculty can partner with us to incorporate writing support into specific writing-intensive undergraduate courses. Learn more about the Writing Fellows Program here.