To help students with their writing, to promote revision, and to discourage procrastination on writing assignments.
To recommend an individual student to the writing center for help:
After you've evaluated the student's writing project, write your recommendation at the top of the student's paper rather than as part of your comments at the end of the paper about how the student's writing did not meet your expectations. A friendly and specific recommendation such as "The Writing Center (110 EPB) can help you to focus your argument and to clarify your wording" is much better than something terse like "This is not college-level writing. You need help with your focus and sentence structure. Go to the Writing Center."
To assist larger groups of students:
Consider working with Writing Fellows (undergraduate Honors peer tutors who tutor all the students in your class) if you are a professor teaching a class of 20-40 students
To help instructors in working out the purpose and wording of the writing assignments and projects for their courses:
To receive feedback on drafts of writing assignments, e-mail them to us at writing-center@uiowa.edu. We will also be happy to discuss assignments with instructors face to face.
Announce the writing center's services to the entire class the firs week of school and again when you give your first writing assignment.
Refer your students to our website (under W in an A-Z search on the University of Iowa's website) for more information.
Include Writing Center services in your syllabus. Feel free to use the following paragraph:
The Writing Center is available to any U of Iowa student, faculty, or staff for help with any kind of writing, academic, personal, or professional. All writers can use feedback on their writing and someone to act as a sounding board for their ideas. Three programs are available: the Enrollment (twice a week program), the Evening and Friday appointment program, and E-mail tutoring through the web site at www.uiowa.edu\~writingc\ Tutors help you with any aspect of writing--from brainstorming an assignment to comma placement.
Take your students on a brief field trip to visit the writing center:
Call us at 335-0188 or e-mail us at writing-center@uiowa.edu to arrange a brief visit, preferably toward the end of the class period. A writing center staff member will talk to your students for a few minutes about how the writing center operates, and then your interested students can sign up for either enrollment or appointment hours.
Invite the writing center into your classroom:
Call 335-0188 or e-mail us writing-center@uiowa.edu to arrange for a speaker to come to your class and talk about the writing center services and the writing process in general.
Over the years, Writing Center tutors have found that different instructors have widely varying notions of what constitutes “good writing.” The best thing you can do for your students is to clarify in as much detail as possible and in writing exactly what you expect of your students. Here are some suggestions for writing assignments effectively:
Many instructors find it useful to include a detailed criteria sheet with their assignment that indicates what they will look for when grading papers.
Others prefer to include a section on the assignment that stresses the importance of such factors as grammar, organization, and quality of research.The most confusing types of assignments for students and their tutors include:
1) Vague assignments such as “Write a 5 page paper analyzing the use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter.” The more detail you can give in terms of your definition of “good writing,” the easier it is for students to write the paper and for tutors to make sure student papers meet an individual instructor’s expectations.
2) Assignments whose tones clash with the feedback students receive. For example, if an assignment is written informally and encourages students to just have fun with a topic, it is confusing to the student to receive comments on their papers that are highly critical of the form or the students’ ideas. It’s best to communicate your expectations up front.
3) Assignments that are unclear. Make sure your assignments are written with your particular audience in mind. If you use highly theoretical language that is unfamiliar to your students, they will have a hard time understanding, and therefore fulfilling, the assignment.
Please avoid making Writing Center visits mandatory for your class or giving your students extra credit for Writing Center visits or using e-mail tutoring. Our mission has always been to help all interested students who willingly seek our services improve their writing. We find that we simply can't handle the numbers of students wanting appointments and e-mail tutoring when instructors provide these extra credit opportunities. In addition, when we are helping students who are motivated solely by extra credit, it can take time away from students who are motivated by a genuine desire for feedback for revision.
These are some of the many ways the Writing Center can help you and your students. Thank you for encouraging your students to visit the Writing Center.