The Writing Center is a free, peer-to-peer tutoring service available to all of UT’s students. The center offers general, online, off-site, and departmental tutoring and focuses on helping students become stronger writers. The Writing Center is not a proofreading service, but it does provide feedback on a wide range of writing concerns, including grammar and usage. The primary concern of the Writing Center, however, is to teach students how to address their own writing concerns, not necessarily correct all of a student’s mistakes. Most importantly, however, the Writing Center recognizes that it’s most successful when working in tandem with UT’s faculty. The resources below have been developed to allow faculty to collaborate with the Writing Center to ensure student success.
In an effort to create consistency in writing across campus, The Writing Center and UMAC have developed this style guide for Utah Tech University faculty and staff, especially those who write for an external or formal audience: https://umac.utahtech.edu/brandingguide/writing-style-guide/.
The Writing Center always welcomes the opportunity to visit classrooms to familiarize students with the center’s services and staff. Most presentations last only 5-10 minutes and provide students with a general overview of our services, resources, and policies. We believe that these brief presentations greatly increase our accessibility to students and help students feel more comfortable when visiting the Writing Center. To schedule a classroom visit, please contact the Writing Center directly.
In an effort to support Utah Tech’s faculty, the Writing Center is happy to provide tutor assistance for in-class peer reviews. However, because of the Writing Center’s limited staff, we generally are only able to send 2-3 tutors to a given peer review. That said, incorporating Writing Center tutors into classroom peer reviews allows students to become more familiar with the Writing Center’s staff while simultaneously increasing the effectiveness of the peer reviews’ feedback. To schedule a classroom visit, please contact the Writing Center directly.
We encourage faculty to promote our services to students (regardless of writing ability). Although we believe that classroom visits and peer reviews are two of the most effective means of encouraging students to visit the Writing Center, there are numerous ways for faculty members to promote the Writing Center’s services:
1. Emphasizing writing as a process and discussing the benefit of sharing work with a peer
2. Linking to the Writing Center’s website and supplementary materials whenever possible
3. Arranging a classroom visit and/or peer reviews close to an assignment’s due date
4. Providing the Writing Center with copies of assignment descriptions and expectations
5. Stopping by the Writing Center to talk with tutors and learn more about the center’s resources
We believe that requiring students to visit the Writing Center or offering extra credit for attendance can provide students with the necessary push to work with a tutor. We’ve found that students required to visit the Writing Center often continue to visit the center even after they are no longer required. Additionally, because the Writing Center provides notification to professors whose students have visited the Writing Center, it is easy for faculty to hold their students accountable for working in the Writing Center.