Tutor Lab, Writing Center & Conversation Hours

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies offers a free tutoring service to all students enrolled in 1xxx-level language courses. The service includes various time options to support your Spanish and Portuguese learning needs.

Our Tutor Lab has in-person and virtual drop-in hours; no reservations are needed. Bring questions from your homework assignments or about what you’re learning in class, and a Spanish instructor will help you find answers. During our virtual Tutor lab drop-in hours, go to our Zoom Drop-In Hours and enter the waiting room (or click the hyperlinks below). For in person drop in hours, visit us at Folwell 217 during the scheduled in-person hours below or join us virtually!

Fall 2023 Virtual and In-person Tutor Lab Schedule

The Tutor Lab is available starting Monday, September 11th- Friday December 15th, 2023

During Tutor lab drop-in hours, go to the Zoom Drop In Hours and enter the waiting room.  An instructor will meet with students in order of how they entered the waiting room.

Guidelines for Walk-in Tutoring Hours 

Only Spanish assignments can be printed in the tutor lab and students must pay for their printed work. The only payment method accepted is Gopher Gold. Due to the automated system, if you do not have your card, it is impossible to print.

Homework

• Remember that it is very important for you to rely on both your textbooks and your instructors. Tutors may help you find ways to make the most of your textbooks and your instructors.
• Before you visit the lab, first use your textbooks, then the dictionary and other resource materials to answer your own questions. Tutors may help you with the relevant sections in your assignments.

Essays

Since each course has separate guidelines, please identify your essay task or clarify your assignment when you work with a tutor.

Tutors will guide you to reformulate your own text or perform your own grammar corrections.

You, rather than the tutor, must author the essay text. This means that tutors will limit their assistance to suggestions that guide you in writing and help you use level-appropriate language, rather than correcting each individual error in an essay.

Tutors do

• Help students discover the questions they need to ask to complete their assignments.
• Guide students in isolating areas that need work on exercises and essays.
• Show students how to find the information to complete assignments, starting first with their textbooks.
• Help students learn to use the target language.

Tutors don't

• Spend more than approximately 20 minutes with a single student. Students can hire tutors for longer sessions on our tutor and translator list page. Students are encouraged to return for follow-up questions once they have had time to absorb the material.
• Walk students through entire homework assignments.
• Proofread anything.
• Spend time dispensing genders and verb conjugations.

Update:  The Writing Center hours will be offered via online mode only for Fall 2023 Semester. Please see appointment hours above. If you have any additional questions, please contact spwrite@umn.edu or spanport@umn.edu

The Spanish Writing Center is dedicated to helping Spanish students become better communicators by engaging students in the process of crafting a written essay. The center's objective is to empower students with strategies for writing in Spanish through a process of organizing, drafting, and revising their analytical ideas. We aspire to unite students who desire to be proficient and creative writers in a community with instructors and faculty.

We serve the analytical and critical needs of students in upper-division (3xxx-level) composition, literature, culture, and linguistic classes helping them to overcome some of the difficulties of writing in a second language.

Writing Center Activities

Check the Spanish and Portuguese department Facebook for events, and times and locations of the writing center's activities each semester. Announcements will also be sent via the Advising Listserv.

How to make an appointment

Please note- YOU MUST EMAIL YOUR PAPER TO spwrite@umn.edu AT LEAST 24 HS BEFORE YOUR APPOINTMENT with the required information in the google appointment slot. 

• INDIVIDUAL APPOINTMENT:  Schedule an appointment by visiting the Writing Center or scheduling your appointment through Writing Center’s Google calendar. Sessions are limited to 40 minutes (or up to 50 minutes for senior seminar students).
• ONLINE CONSULTATION:  Schedule an appointment through the Writing Center’s Google calendar for online consultation.  Then send your paper to spwrite@umn.edu the Wednesday (if possible) before your Friday consultation.  In your e-mail, please include the course information, your college (CLA, CEHD, etc.), whether you are a Spanish major or minor, a description of the assignment, and a full explanation of what you want the consultant to help you with. 
• WALK-INS: Stop by the Writing Center in 217B without an appointment (see schedule above).  Sessions are limited to 20 minutes. (Not Applicable for Fall 2023 Semester).

Fall 2023 Schedule - The Writing Center will be open starting Monday, September 11th, 2023.  The last day of appointments will be Monday, December 18th, 2023.

What We Can Do

• Read part of the paper depending on your needs, goals, or the time available.
• Discuss what works and what doesn't work in the paper.
• Explain grammar depending on your needs.
• Help you discover the questions you need to ask in order to complete your assignment.

What We Are Unable to Do

• Write the paper for you
• Tweak a particular document to perfection
• Edit or correct mechanical glitches. 
• Work on papers that are not part of your course assignments

What to Bring to a Consultation

• A concrete sense of the assignment.  What does the professor expect?  A copy of the assignment would be very helpful.
• A copy of your paper. What stage of writing are you in?
• Your own goals for the consultation. What kind of help do you really want?
• Specific questions for the Writing Consultant. What aspects or sections of your paper need attention?

What to Expect

• We will talk with you about the objectives of your essay and how you might more successfully fulfill those objectives. The process of becoming a better writer is not achieved through writing consultants simply correcting your errors. We will point out general problem areas in grammar, structure, and development as well as providing strategies for proofreading more effectively. You will practice skills that will improve your long-term writing ability
• Expect us to ask you to identify areas that have been most troublesome in reaching your writing goals and what you hope to accomplish with your writing consultation. Asking questions to get you to think about your paper may be more rewarding that reviewing each line that you have already written
• We may read all or only part of your paper, depending your needs, goals, and the time available

The Spanish Writing Center is staffed by advanced graduate assistants and with experience teaching upper level Spanish courses and a strong dedication to the undergraduate education program.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies offers a free Conversation Hour Service to all students enrolled in 3xxx-level Spanish courses.  There is no homework needed to attend, but we do ask that students go to the Conversation hour Session with at least two questions that they are planning to ask other students in the session, or a topic they would like to further discuss.

Conversation Hours have in person and virtual drop-in hours, no reservations are needed. During our virtual Conversation Hours drop-in hours, go to our Zoom Drop-In Hours and enter the waiting room (or click the hyperlinks below). For in person drop in hours, visit us at Folwell 217 or click the hyperlink to join us virtually!

Conversation Hours are available starting Monday, September 11th- Friday December 15th, 2023

Fall 2023 Virtual Conversation Hour Schedule

If you have any questions or concerns regarding conversation hours, please contact Megan DeLaCruz, the undergraduate assistant with the Spanish and Portuguese studies department at spanport@umn.edu.

We'll have a weekly bate-papo (Portuguese conversation group) from 12pm to 12:45pm on the Folwell lawn (the grass to the Southwest of Folwell Hall - the side that faces Pilsbury Dr., near Jones Hall). There will be a small sign that says "bate-papo." We'll hold the bate-papo every Wednesday at 12pm through November 15th, and we'll cancel it on any Wednesday that it's raining. 

All are welcome, and those in attendance may range from first-year Portuguese students to fluent speakers. Please join us, and feel free to bring your lunch. It's fine to stop by just once or to plan to come to every session.