Support for Teaching Writing

Course Design Consultations

Writing Center staff members are available to work with you as you plan a course that involves writing. In the past, we have helped instructors:

• Identify and articulate course and assignment goals.
• Incorporate active learning strategies into their teaching.
• Craft writing assignments that support course goals.
• Sequence writing assignments and opportunities for revision throughout a course.
• Develop techniques to provide useful feedback on student writing.

Classroom Visits

As schedules permit, peer writing consultants may be available to visit your class to explain to your students what to expect in a Writing Center appointment and how to make the best use of Writing Center services. Faculty members and students have found these brief student-to-student conversations to be very effective.

Writing Center staff members and peer consultants should not be used as "substitute teachers" when the course instructor is absent.

Classroom Workshops

Our staff-led classroom workshops are intended to introduce faculty members to strategies and approaches they might use themselves in teaching writing across the curriculum. We are glad to model any workshop listed below for an individual faculty member. Since classroom workshops on writing are most effective when course instructors participate in them, Writing Center staff members do not lead classroom workshops in the absence of the primary instructor. Faculty members may request assistance with a workshop no more than three times. Staff members are also available to consult with instructors on course design and teaching strategies. We are committed to helping increase the confidence of faculty from across the disciplines as they teach writing in their courses.

Available Workshops

Writing Center staff members will work with you to design and conduct the following workshops for your students during class meetings (1 to 1 1/2 hours):

Writer-Centered Peer Response

Students learn and practice useful strategies for responding constructively to each other's writing. In the process, they learn how to identify and articulate questions about their own drafts. This workshop is best scheduled when students have written a first draft of an assignment. Writing Center consultants customize these workshops for each course and assignment, so please plan for some lead time and discussion as we plan your workshop.

Oral Presentation Workshop

In this practice session, students learn effective oral delivery techniques and methods of providing constructive responses that will help a fellow speaker improve. This workshop is useful when students have been given an oral presentation assignment and can come to the workshop prepared to give a one to three minute practice presentation to a small group. Writing Center consultants customize these workshops for each course and assignment, so please plan for some lead time and discussion as we plan a workshop with you.

Consultations with Your Students

Professional consultants and peer writing consultants work with students on individual and collaborative writing projects. We can meet with students at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming through drafting and revising. We can also help students develop their oral presentation skills. Consultants are experienced in working with international and learning disabled students.

We ask that faculty members who encourage entire classes of students to make individual consulting appointments notify us well in advance and also share with us the goals of the writing assignment on which the students are working. Keeping the Writing Center informed enables us to share useful information about assignments with our peer writing consultants, as well as to anticipate increased demand for appointments.

Faculty members are welcome to attend one or more of our weekly peer consultant meetings to discuss their expectations for assignments that their students will be bringing to the Writing Center. Faculty members who have done this in the past have found the discussions to be mutually illuminating and worthwhile.