Frequently Asked Questions

The Writing Lab is a student-centred, confidential and encouraging environment to discuss and interactively work to enhance your academic literacy practices. Reading and writing at university is NEW for everyone and our support is NOT only for those who are struggling, but, rather for everyone to improve their writing at any stage of the writing process. We support both your assessment and authorial goals.

Yes, we are student-centred space that is focused on developing your academic language. Whilst the main medium of communication is English and grammar and spelling are an important part of meaning making, it is not our sole focus. We assist in communicating your ideas efficiently. Please refer to our list of editors for further help. 

We aim to enhance your understanding of writing as a process and encourage a thinking-through-writing approach. Whilst editing and proofreading are important parts of the writing process, we focus on the conceptualisation, expression and refining of ideas.

We offer both one-on-one and group consultations with two modes of engagement: face-to-face and online consultations (only for distance-based postgraduates), both focused on supporting your academic literacies development to become confident and independent, critical writers. See our Teaching for more information. We also facilitate workshops by request of the course convenor for Health Sciences programmes. Contact us for more information. 

We offer online consultations on our virtual consulting platform that is enabled with voice, video features and real-time 'chatting'. Ensure that you select the 'Online consultation' in your appointment form and return to your booking to access the link to the online platform or via your reminder email. 

After navigating to the online site, your consultant will virtually meet you to discuss your writing needs either via the real-time 'chatting' feature on the right side of your screen or via voice (enabled through your microphone on your laptop). On the left side of your screen is the whiteboard where you can import your document (arrow icon at the top right corner) and where your consultant and you can make real time changes (highlighted in different colours). You can also export the edited document for later use by using the same arrow icon at the top of the screen.

Our online platform allows our clients to access the chat and whiteboard edits at anytime after the consultation. All you need to do is navigate to the online platform via the link on your appointment form/email. You can download the changes by using the arrow icon.

Once you have made a booking, you will receive a confirmation email via your registered email on the Writing Lab schedule. This email will have all the details you need including the location of the Lab and the link to the online platform. You will also receive a reminder email on the day of your appointment. You can navigate back to the booking schedule and select 'Appointment Search' on the upper right of the screen (next to Help) - you current and past appointments will be shown.

You can navigate to your booking and make the necessary changes: either modify your booking to a later time slot or cancel it. You may cancel your booking up to 2 hours before your consultation. You can also email us to cancel at fhswritinglab@uct.ac.za

Our booking system constantly undergoes reviews to improve accessibility and currently is accessible using JAWS.

We offer the same services informed by the same academic literacies approach. However, our unit is based at the Faculty of Health Sciences for FHS students only. 

We assist up to a maximum of 15 pages at a time (including images and tables). Please see our guidelines when you make an appointment.

As we offer services to the entire FHS faculty, we are fully booked quite often. We advise that you make a booking at least two weeks in advance to avoid disappointment. Alternatively, we have a waiting list function that you can opt for. Navigate to the 'Waiting List' function on the day of your preferred appointment on the schedule.

Should you not be able to make a confirmed appointment, you MUST modify your booking by accessing the booking system and making the necessary changes. You can make another appointment, but if you miss TWO appointments, your account will be disabled and you will need to email the co-ordinator to re-enable your account (fhswritinglab@uct.ac.za)

Please email us (fhswritinglab@uct.ac.za), and someone will assist you in reactivating your account. We offer a professional service, and in order to create responsible scholars, we expect our clients to also respect and act in a similar manner. However, emergencies and life happens - one of our consultants will be happy to assist.

Register an account using your preferred email address and password (we advise using your myUCT credentials). You will then receive a confirmation email. Log in with those details, and you can make an appointment on the Health Sciences schedule (the white spaces are open slots). When you make a booking there will be guidelines to help you decide on the duration based on your needs.

There is no limit. However, our role is to develop independent and proficient writers. We expect you to apply what you have learned during the consultation/s to future texts.

The Writing Lab is a free service to all UCT registered students and staff. 

Bookings are done via our online system. Choose the Health Sciences schedule from the home page and make a booking using the white spaces as a guide to our available slots. If you are unsure, you can navigate to 'Help' for assistance.

Check that you have registered on our system; Change your password if you have forgotten it; Refresh your browser, clear your cache OR visit/email us to assist you.

Navigate to the booking system and choose 'Having trouble logging in? Reset your password.' You will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password.

Log in to the booking system, navigate to 'Appointments Search', find your appointment from your list and upload your document. Please read the instructions to upload your document carefully. We only accept document sizes of up to 1MB and prefer Word processing documents. Should you have images in your document that you wish the consultant to assist with, rather bring in the hard copy of your document or email it to us. To reduce your file size, we recommend that your upload text ONLY documents.

We are located within the Department of Health Sciences Education at the Old Groote Schuur Hospital Building, around the corner from the FHS Research Ethics Department, E-floor, Room 53-46. Please see our directions for more information here.

This service is outside the scope of our practice, but we have a list of editors available under our Resources

We value your feedback and it helps us to improve our services. Please email us with your name, concerns, appointment date and time, and we will get back to you.