Beyond the Graduate School's English for International Student (EIS) program's language assessment and course offerings, we support two services for international graduate students that are particularly important resources for later-year students:
1. At Duke’s Writing Studio, international graduate students can work on any writing assignment, project, proposal, journal article, or the dissertation with trained writing tutors. The Studio now has an ESL specialist and all tutors are trained to work specifically with non-native speakers. Students may request a specific tutor, if they wish, and can work with the same tutor over multiple appointments.
Duke Community Use Policy
The main mission of the Writing Studio is to support Duke undergraduate students. Through an arrangement with the Graduate School, international graduate students may also sign up ahead of time for appointments, although the number of available slots is limited. This arrangement includes Nicholas MEM students, but it does not include students from the other professional schools. We ask graduate students to limit themselves to a maximum of one appointment a week.
We are also happy to meet with Duke faculty, other graduate students, and staff on a space-available basis. These users of the Writing Studio must wait until the day of the desired appointment to sign up online. Due to the steadily increasing demand for our services, these users are able to schedule a total of five appointments. The emphasis of these five sessions will be to familiarize users with online resources and self-revision techniques.
2. Analogous opportunities for speaking are provided through the EIS program’s Oral Skills Coaching service.Students can meet in one-on-one sessions with an experienced ESL speaking coach to develop and rehearse any type of oral presentation. Students use this service to rehearse and receive feedback on typical oral presentations such as departmental and conference presentations, poster sessions, interviews, job talks, proposal defenses, and qualifying and prelim exams.
Additional resources for international students at Duke University include:
For further assistance, contact the Office of Student Services.