For Faculty & Staff

Supporting Students as Writers 

In addition to the peer support we offer to students via in-person & Zoom consultations, written responses to short writing projects, small-group workshops, writing resources, and specialized work with thesis and dissertation writers, the Writing Center can help faculty and staff support their students in more structured ways.

Write to Dr. Juli Parrish, Writing Center Director, or Dr. Olivia Tracy, Writing Center Assistant Director, at wrc@du.edu to explore options, or fill out our request form.

Request Support

  • Syllabus Statements

    Simple Syllabus Statement

    The Writing Center offers individual and group writing support for all undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff at the University of Denver. Many students, even those who are confident writers or are well into their academic programs, have questions about writing. Working with peer consultants in the Writing Center can help students develop or refresh their habits, learn new strategies to take to future classes and writing situations, and make informed and meaningful choices about their writing and language use.  

    Our offerings include individual 45-minute consultations in person in Anderson Academic Commons 280 or over Zoom; 20-minute consultations at our satellite sites in various buildings on campus; written peer responses to papers of up to 5 pages; drop-in hours for short conversations; our "Ask a Writer" form for quick questions with a 24-hour turnaround; writing groups; small-group workshops; and more. 

     

    Welcome Video

    We encourage you to include this short video, in which a range of students talk about their writing center experiences, in your Canvas site. 

    Regular visitors to the Writing Center talk about their experiences.

     

    At a Glance: Syllabus Statement Add-ons for Spring 2024

    • The Writing Center (in Anderson Academic Commons 280 and Zoom) is open Mondays through Thursdays 9am–10pm; Fridays 10am–5pm; and Sundays 12pm–8pm. 

     

    • All students can make appointments at du.mywconline.com for individual, 45-minute consultations online in Zoom or in person in AAC 280 from Tuesday, April 2, through the end of finals. 

     

    • Students can request written peer response on papers of up to 5 pages with a turnaround time of about a week. Peer response is not ideal for every situation but can be useful for writers who benefit from individually processing feedback, or who have busy schedules or unreliable internet. Peer response does not involve editing or proofreading but focuses on identifying opportunities for revision, asking questions, and suggesting strategies. 

     

    • Our ~35 peer consultants are graduate or advanced undergraduate students, with graduate-level training in writing center practice, from a variety of fields of study. 

     

    • Consultations are collaborative, non-evaluative, learning oriented, and anti-racist / anti-ableist. Our goal is to support students in finding meaningful ways to build their writing habits and skills and in making choices about their writing practices and language choices. 

     

    • Our Writing Resources Site includes a variety of writing resources; we are always updating this site and are happy to develop or find resources in response to requests. 

     

    • We encourage students and faculty to be specific about their goals when seeking writing support. For example, "editing" is often used to mean revising, planning and outlining, integrating texts, revisiting structure, building evidence, and even returning to the assignment prompt, as well as the more sentence- and paragraph-specific work of copyediting or proofreading. We can help with all of these actions and more: understanding assignment prompts, reading, planning and outlining, developing and refining research questions, texts, analyzing and synthesizing, building an argument, learning to use a citation style, making decisions about code-meshing and language use, and much more. 

     

    • Students can bring academic, civic, personal, professional, career-oriented, and creative writing to us at any stage in their process, from the moment they receive an assignment prompt to the moment they are putting the finishing touches on a paper. Whether they are working on an academic paper, a speech, a discussion board post, or a study abroad application, they can find support through our Writing Resources Site. 
  • In-Class Introduction to the Writing Center

    Consultants can visit your in-person or Zoom class to introduce the Writing Center's offerings to your students. All introductions include an overview of our in-person, online, and asynchronous writing support and writing resources, helping students understand why they might visit the Writing Center and what they can expect.

    An in-class introduction to the writing center typically takes about 15 minutes and can be scheduled starting in week 2. We ask that you request introduction visits at least six business days in advance so that our consultants can prepare. 

     

  • Required / Incentivized Appointments

    Building a set of Writing Center appointments or drop-in studio hours into your course can be a great way to introduce your students to the practice of talking through their work with a peer consultant. 

    These appointments are more effective when our staff knows about them in advance and can prepare by reviewing the assignment and refreshing their knowledge of relevant genres and writing processes. Your students will have a richer experience if our staff has some context. 

    Here's how to build a set of required or incentivized appointments or short-visit studio hours into your course:

    • Let us know at the beginning of the quarter, or with at least two weeks' notice! A quick email to wrc@du.edu will start this process. Include your course name and number, the number of enrolled students, and the writing assignment prompt and due date. 
    • We will follow up with a few questions for you, some questions about scheduling, and a handout to share with your students. This handout helps to shape their expectations and to show them how to make appointments. 

    Peer consultants should not be considered experts, and they don't assess, correct, or check work. Rather, they ask questions, offer perspectives, identify relevant resources, help identify opportunities for revision, and work to support students in editing and revising their own work. 

    We suggest  you frame writing center visits as an opportunity for students to work on their writing with a consultant, rather than as an opportunity to perfect a paper. Writing Center consultations are aimed at promoting learning and helping writers to do the work of developing their writing skills and processes.

  • Peer Review Sessions

    Peer review can be a critical part of the writing process, and we can help you to integrate an effective peer review session, customized to your writing assignment, into your class. 

    Peer review sessions can happen either in your classroom or in Anderson Academic Commons if space is available. We require at least three weeks' notice for peer reviews. 

     

     

  • Writing Resources

    We can identify, curate, and collaborate on creating writing resources for a specific assignment, genre, concept, or strategy for you to share with your students. 

    Creating resources can help your students, but it also helps our consultants, who learn more about the particular writing your students are doing. 

    A minimum of two weeks' notice is required.

    Writing Resources Site

     

  • Writing Workshops for Departments, Programs, and Student Groups

    We can facilitate a structured conversation or interactive workshops on a specific writing topic, concept, practice, or conversation for a department, program, or student cohort (~45-60 minutes).

    A minimum of two weeks' notice is required.

    If you are seeking support for a specific class, we encourage you to request a peer review session or set up a round of required appointments instead. 

  • Research Poster Support

    To talk about whether the Writing Program can host an interactive workshop on poster design and print research posters for a small fee, please write to Writing Program Manager Amanda Thompson at writing@du.edu.  

 

Supporting Faculty and Staff 

The Writing Center works with the larger Writing Program to support faculty and staff as writers and as teachers of and resources for writing. 

  • Writing Resources

    Our Writing Resources Site has a wide range of writing and citation resources, including support with: 

    • Specific writing situations, like literature reviews, abstracts, proposals, etc.
    • Ethical language use 
    • Writing for American academic contexts 
    • Crafting effective thesis statements 
    • Citation styles and practices 
    • Research posters, abstracts, and proposals
    • And much more

    If you don't see the resources you need, please get in touch; we are always updating our Writing Resources site. 

  • Writing Consultations

    We provide the same type of collaborative consultations for faculty and staff as we do for students. We work regularly with faculty and staff on book proposals or chapters, article revisions, career materials, and other writing projects. 

    Faculty and staff have the option to work with another faculty member or with an advanced graduate student. Please write to Juli Parrish or Olivia Tracy at wrc@du.edu.

  • Teaching Writing Resources & Consultations

    The Writing Center is part of the Writing Program, which offers extensive resources for faculty teaching writing across the curriculum:

    • Writing accountability groups
    • ASEM support
    • Pedagogical / teaching resources
    • Advising

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Read on for answers to questions that faculty and staff often ask us. More questions? Write to us at wrc@du.edu 

  • How can I encourage my students to visit the Writing Center?

    The Writing Center is part of the Writing Program, which offers extensive resources for faculty teaching writing across the curriculum:

    • Writing accountability groups
    • ASEM support
    • Pedagogical / teaching resources
    • Advising

     

  • What kind of support will my students get when they visit?

    The Writing Center staff is primarily made up of peer consultants: graduate and advanced undergraduate consultants from across a range of humanities, social science, and STEM fields. 

    What your students will experience is a non-evaluative and inquiry-based conversation about their work with a peer consultant.

    Peer consultants should not be considered experts, and they don't assess, correct, or check work. Rather, they ask questions, offer perspectives, identify relevant resources, help identify opportunities for revision, and work to support students in editing and revising their own work. 

    We suggest you frame writing center appointments as an opportunity for students to work on their writing with a consultant, rather than as an opportunity to get feedback or guarantee quality. Writing Center consultations are aimed at promoting learning and helping writers to do the work of developing their writing skills and processes.

  • How will I know if a student goes to the Writing Center?

    Our consultants write a short note after each session and email that note to the writer. Your students can simply forward that email to you; alternately, if they provide your name and email address to their consultants, we can send that email directly to you.

    We do count on students to provide your contact information and to give us permission to contact you.   

  • Can I require my students to visit the Writing Center for a particular assignment?

    Most likely yes, as long as you work with us to support those visits. 

    We are happy to work with you to arrange for all your students to visit the Writing Center to work on a particular assignment. To make this visit as effective as possible, we will ask you a few questions about your class, your students, and the assignment in advance. Please note that we cannot promise to accommodate required visits unless we are involved in the planning. (Two weeks' notice required, available in weeks 3-9 only.)

    If our schedule is unable to accommodate individual visits, we can set up paired or small-group visits or set aside some dedicated writing studio hours for your students to work on their projects and ask questions of consultants. 

    If you would like to arrange for your students to work with Writing Center consultants for required/incentivized appointments, please contact us at wrc@du.edu at least two weeks in advance to discuss options. Please send your course name and number, the number of enrolled students, and a copy of the assignment and due date.  

  • What can a writing consultation do and not do?

    Writers who visit us online will participate in an interactive, collaborative discussion about their papers with peer consultants, who will help to set goals, generate strategies, and identify resources; ask questions about assignment prompts and previous feedback; and help students to learn new skills and concepts. 

    Our consultants do not involve reviewing papers in advance or guaranteeing correctness. Consultants do not proofread or edit for students, mark up papers, or check citations. 

    Consultants can talk about and help students to do all of these things, but please note that the Writing Center is a learning site, and individual students retain agency and responsibility for their learning and writing choices.