Faculty & Staff Guide

The Writing Center offers your students free support for their writing assignments from peer and professional tutors. Student tutors are carefully trained in the course ENG 218: Advanced Composition/Peer Tutoring in Writing. In a friendly, informal atmosphere, students work on writing assignments from all courses, college application essays, resumes, and other personal writing tasks. Our aim is to support the development and self-confidence of individual writers by serving as guides—asking questions, making observations, challenging the thinking of the student, directing the focus on editing issues and documentation issues—not as editors who simply "fix" errors in papers for the student.

Orientations for your students to the Writing Center
Writing Center staff can give your students a 10-15 minute orientation to its tutoring services, either in the Center itself (Hudson 503) or in your classroom. We recommend orientations to be scheduled early in the semester, but they can be requested anytime. 

Workshops for your students
Workshops led by our professional tutors can be requested year-round. Topics range from: resume and cover letter writing, college applications, modes of writing, MLA/APA style and formatting, research practices and documentation, plagiarism, and scholarship essays. 

Assistance in designing written assignments
We are happy to offer you help in creating clear and effective writing assignments. Having seen many assignments from many classes and observing students' problems in understanding and responding to them, we can offer suggestions about useful language in your assignments' guidelines. All of our professional tutors are instructors themselves and have faced the same situations. We'll be glad, if you wish, to field test an assignment with our student tutors, who have given faculty highly useful feedback about making their assignments more "user friendly" for students.

REQUEST A WORKSHOP OR ORIENTATION

Please be encouraging to students about their writing and their use of the Writing Center
Avoid making students feel as if going to the Center is a punishment for their "bad" writing; if you do, we'll have to work hard to overcome negative attitudes. Instead, let your students know that (1) you value effective written communication, and so will their future employers, and (2) ALL writers, at any level of skill, can benefit by testing their ideas and measuring the effectiveness of their writing with the support of a skilled listener and reader. The Writing Center provides the place where students can find this support, free of judgment or grades (and free of charge!).

Contact us in advance about your students' assignments
Let us know when we can expect to see your students with their major writing assignments from your classes, particularly if you’re requiring them to visit us. Send us a copy of your assignment; we can review it with our tutors and help them prepare for students' likely concerns and difficulties.

Stay in touch
Our students are best served when there is mutual understanding among students, faculty and staff, and Writing Center staff about your objectives for students' learning and our services for helping them achieve those objectives. Your questions, comments, and suggestions help us improve our programs.