• To serve the entire George Mason Community by empowering students, faculty, staff, and alumni to become better writers, critical thinkers, and communicators.
• To create face-to-face partnerships between writers and tutors, one-to-one and in small groups, as well as virtual partnerships through the Online Writing Lab (OWL).
• To participate actively in Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives through tutoring writing in all majors and degree programs, offering workshops on writing and research, building an array of online and on-site resources for writers, and collaborating with units across campus to provide various discipline-specific services.
• To participate actively in English as a Second Language (ESL) initiatives by providing specialized services and support to non-native speakers of English.
• To provide information, resources, and links related to the writing process through topic-related workshops, the Writing Center website, and freely available handouts.

Who may use the Writing Center?
If you are a member of the George Mason community--a student, a staff member, faculty, or alumni--you may use the Writing Center's free services. Clients must have a current or former Mason student ID number to use the Writing Center.

Tutoring Services only
Please remember that the Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service. We will work with you to improve your own proofreading and editing skills, but we don't simply correct mistakes for you. We want to help you learn to become your own best proof reader and editor.

What are the rules and regulations for clients and tutors?

• can make up to two appointments per week.
• can make up to ten appointments per semester (this includes sessions at any of our locations and through OWL).
• can not make back-to-back appointments for the same paper
• who miss more than two sessions without cancelling in advance may not use the Writing Center again until the next semester.
• who arrive more than ten minutes late for their session give up their exclusive right to that time slot.

• may help you with different drafts of a piece of writing over multiple sessions.
• will help you learn how to proofread or copy edit your writing, but they won't do it for you.
• will work with you for 45 minutes per session.
• are not permitted to help you with take-home essay exams, unless you have written permission from your instructor.
• are not permitted to help you with writing that has legal or financial implications or is related to an appeal of a university decision.

Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a difficult issue for any writing center. Our tutors generally assume that the writing brought to them is the client's own. If there are concerns with how and when research is cited, tutors do point out these concerns and explain the necessity for correct and thorough citations.

Tutors will not report suspected plagiarism to anyone outside of the Writing Center. But if a tutor feels that a paper is clearly not the work of the client present for tutoring (and this includes any student bringing in another student's work for "proxy" tutoring) that tutor may cancel the session at his or her sole discretion.