Faculty Support Services
Using Writing (see below) | Assignment Design | Plagiarism | How We Can Help
Resources | Presentation archive | Syllabus Statement on Writing Center Services
Writing-Intensive Courses and Forms | Writing Center hours
Using Writing in Your CurriculumAssigning writing in your classroom: two aims
- Writing to Learn: Students can learn a great deal by writing - about themselves and about course content. Providing frequent ungraded opportunities to write allows students to work through ideas, explore concepts, and generate opinions before responding to a graded assignment. Note-taking, outlining, free-writing, and journaling are all ways that students use writing to examine topics, learn, and remember.
- Writing to Communicate: By writing, students learn the conventions and rhetorical practices of your discipline. Helping students develop proficiency as writers contributes not only to learning what is expected in the discipline, but also to developing skills that enrich self efficacy. Providing students with opportunities to write allows them to convey concepts being learned and show their developing skills in critical thinking.
Helping your students become better writers
As an educator, you understand the importance of using writing to assess the knowledge of your students. However, what you expect of your students and what they are capable of producing in their writing may be incongruous.
Aside from informing them of your expectations in class, there are several things you can do to help your students become better writers.
- Place information about Writing Center services on your syllabus (link here).
- Schedule a Writing Center tour or have a consultant visit your class with a 10-minute presentation to introduce services and give students the opportunity to ask questions about how the Writing Center can meet individual needs.
- Participate in whole-class or small-group Spotlight Workshops where a writing specialist and a writing consultant come to your class on a specified date to work with your students and their drafts.
- Inform students of the array of tutoring and supplemental-instructional services that we offer to assist your students in producing and submitting quality written work in your courses.
Assignment Design
If you want stronger papers, you need to design stronger assignments
Improving what you do with writing in your classes is key to the success of your students. To receive better papers from your students, giving them a well-designed assignment is essential. The Writing Center can help you by offering the following services:
- Faculty workshops focusing upon assignment design and the manageable, equitable grading of those assignments
- Individual faculty consultations on course writing objectives, writing assignments, in-class heuristics, and grading tools
- Faculty day in the Writing Center: develop, refine, and/or revise one or a series of writing assignments with a faculty writing specialist
- Workshops specific to issues related to the writing of international students and English language learners
- Workshops and individual consultations regarding plagiarism (see resources at the bottom of the page)
Call X88234 to learn more or email the Writing Center.
Plagiarism: Issues and Resources
Encourage responsible research: plagiarism and you
Plagiarism is a topic of ongoing concern within the WOU community. To prevent plagiarism, you need to take an active part in designing courses that educate students about the academic conventions of scholarly research. To clarify your commitment to high standards of academic integrity, you can take the following 6 steps:
- Place a no-tolerance statement about plagiarism on your syllabi
- Introduce students to your discipline's style guide (e.g., MLA, APA, Chicago)
- Explicitly educate your students regarding proper citation practices to deter unintentional plagiarism
- Make students aware of the WOU Code of Student Responsibility to deter intentional plagiarism
- Introduce your students to the services of the Writing Center: request (by e-mail) a 5-minute presentation in your class(es) and place a Writing Center services description statement on your syllabi
- Review the Writing Program Administrators (WPA) statement on defining and avoiding plagiarism: best practices
The first step toward preventing plagiarism and encouraging original scholarship is to make students aware of how American academic institutions define and address plagiarism, and how and why academic scholarship defines and values originality and intellectual integrity.
The Writing Center Can Help
What we can do for you
The Writing Center is the only academic support unit on campus specifically designed to promote the development and success of your students as college writers. The consultant team is available to assist your students both in person and online with one-on-one writing help. Skill development workshops are also offered to help students develop specific skills to improve their writing. We have 12 student tutors, 3 professional tutors, 2 professional staff and 2 faculty members on staff.
Students are invited to utilize Writing Center services at a variety of stages in their writing processes:
- understanding assignment directions
- brainstorming ideas
- creating "maps" or outlines
- checking to see that a project specifically meets directions specified by you
- exploring practical routes for revision and development
- adhering to discipline-specific style guides (e.g., APSA, APA, CBE, and MLA)
While tutors avoid "fixing" students' writing, they do help your students become conscious of, and proactive about, particular error patterns that emerge in their written work. Additionally, the Writing Center maintains a library of reference texts and take-home handouts.
How will you know when a student uses our services?
At the end of each session, the tutor provides the student-writer with a gold-colored confirmation slip to serve as proof of her/his visit. While most students are not required by their instructors to seek writing assistance, they often choose to attach the slips to their final papers as evidence of their investment in your assignment. For an online tutoring session, a post-consultation e-mail confirmation notice will be sent to the student. The sender line will show the following address: "writingcenter@wou.edu." The subject line will read "Writing Center Confirmation Slip for Online Tutoring Session: Student's Name."
Writing-Related Pedagogical Resources
- Defining and avoiding plagiarism
- Creating a writing-enriched environment in any class
- Models of grading rubrics
- Managing the paperload
- Managing grammar
- Sequencing and scaffolding writing assignments
Writing Intensive Courses and Information
A writing-intensive course includes formal and informal writing as integral parts of learning: that is, students in W courses write not only to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject matter (tests and research/term papers) but are engaged in informal, exploratory writing, writing that they use to push their thinking, to deepen their understanding of the subject matter, to explore questions they have about the subject matter. In a W course, the goal is to give students as many opportunities as possible to write (exploratory writing-to-learn using informal formats and writing-to-show-knowledge in formal assignments), to receive feedback from their peers and their instructors during the writing process, and to demonstrate how to write in a particular discipline, understanding the requirements regarding writing styles inherent in that discipline.
- Writing-Intensive Guidelines and Forms
- Faculty Senate: Writing Intensive Committee Website (coming soon)
Archive: Writing Presentations & Workshops
"Understanding the TOEFL Test: What the Scores Mean" presentation powerpoint
Jennifer Morris
April 2009
"Working with International Student-Writers" presentation powerpoint
Dr. Robert Troyer and David Hoffman
May 2008
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Writing Center Hours and Locations The Writing Center opens for business in week two of the term and closes on the Wednesday during exam week. Additionally, the Writing Center is closed during university breaks and holidays. Most Writing Center services are offered at our main location in APS 301, where student-writers can make appointments, meet with tutors, utilize our writer's reference library, and obtain handouts on various writing issues.
APS 301
Monday-Thursday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Friday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
appointments & walk-in sessions available
Night Hours: Hamersly Library, Room 116
Sunday-Thursday, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
walk-in sessions only: first come, first serve
Online tutoring
by appointment only