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English Language Resources at Williams

This webpage provides a list of resources for multilingual students at Williams hoping to better understand academic expectations around writing and communication.

While the information on this page will help international students for whom English is not the language of academic experience, these tools and guidelines can help all Williams students. We encourage you to explore this page to contextualize the academic culture and expectations at Williams and to excel in your written work and in the classroom.


  • The Writing Center: Our mission is to support your journey through programming intended to inform and enrich the experience of writing for all Williams students. We offer individual peer tutoring through our Writing Workshop and we work with faculty across the curriculum to support student writing.

    A Word from the WC about Plagiarism: Plagiarism as defined in the United States is the representation of another’s words or ideas as your own. Even copying a short phrase can be considered plagiarism, and certainly if you copy a paragraph or entire pages, this is plagiarism. This can be especially confusing for international students from countries where direct repetition of concepts and phrasing is standard in academic writing.

    Please read this page before writing your first college paper, and seek help in the Writing Center if you’re unsure what sources to cite, or how to cite them. (See Citation Guidelines from the Williams Libraries for more information.)


  • Subject Tutoring
    Tutoring at Williams is free, flexible to your schedule, and performed by fellow students who have been through the courses you’re taking. Tutoring is readily available throughout the academic year for many 100 and 200 level courses. Click here to schedule a tutoring appointment.

    Academic Coaching and Study Habits
    All students need to make some changes to adjust to academic life at Williams due to the rigorous and independent style of learning that is expected. The Director of Quantitative Skills Programs regularly meets with students individually to talk through possible strategies for studying and managing your time that can help you learn more effectively and meet your academic goals. Click here to set up an appointment.


  • The Office of Accessible Education (OAE)  has as its primary mission, the support of students based on needs presented by specific diagnosis that impact health and academic performance.  In collaboration with the International Student Services Office, The Writing Center, Academic Peer Support, OAE does provide support to students who require English language support.  

    Those supports include:

    • Communication with faculty to provide language-based assistance for exams and writing assignments.
    • Connecting to professionals who can assess health issues that may impact language acquisition and proficiency.  
    • Assistive technology such as:
      • Grammarly: An online tool that will proofread your written work, check for grammatical mistakes, and provide feedback for your writing style and tone. [Note: if you use Grammarly on a paper, indicate that in your list of sources to avoid concerns over plagiarism.]
      • Kurzweil: Text to speech software that creates an audible version of written text in over 18 languages.  Kurzweil includes additional features that allow text to be read in a variety of formats at varying speeds.  
For more information, please contact: