Appointment letters are official documents sent electronically to writers after every appointment. They summarize the work you and the writer have done, and help writers remember key learning opportunities from the appointment. They also help the Writing Center keep careful records of our work with writers.
Appointment letters enact the Writing Center’s core belief that “writing facilitates creating and sharing knowledge.”
Letters give us the opportunity to reinforce learning with writers, and help us share that knowledge with others at the writer’s request.
Letters document your work, provide opportunities to reflect, and help to refine and improve our practices.
Letters make the work we do visible to different audiences:
While letters have multiple audiences, the primary audience is the writer, because their desire to work with a peer writing tutor is the main exigence for the appointment and any record-keeping that results from that appointment.
Letters extend Vincentian personalism beyond the appointment, by allowing you to display “a sensitivity to and care for the needs of each other” (DePaul University Mission and Values). Through a personalized letter to the writer, you connect with them, reinforce the accomplishments of each appointment, and show them how much you value their writing and their inclusion of you in their writing process.
Sometimes administrators or tutors will look at letters as part of researching our practices, given that letters are the central way that we document our work at the Writing Center.