For Faculty
Encourage Your Students to Visit the Center for Writing Excellence
The Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) is a free resource for all writers at UWEC. A staff of more than 30 skilled writers from all disciplines are on hand to provide individual writing support at any stage of any writing project. From brainstorming and idea mapping to thesis development and improving clarity, we have your back. Writing Interns focus on systemic issues like organization and argumentation, so it's best to visit early in the writing process.
Preparing your students for a visit to the CWE:
- Have them bring a written copy of the assignment
- Highlight your expectations for their writing within your discipline
- Make clear the citation style they should use within your discipline
- Have them bring any previous feedback they have received
- Have them think about what they want to address in the session, as this will focus their writing efforts and get the process of self-reflection started, which is an instrumental part of the writing process
Request a Workshop or Class Visit
The CWE offers a variety of workshops to assist your students within your courses. In order to request a workshop, you will first need to create a WCOnline account. Once registered, select the "Faculty Workshops" schedule to select your desired session.
Note: We ask that you please schedule one week in advance. Once you select a desired time slot on WCOnline, our administrative team will send you an email to confirm we can accommodate your request.
Types of Workshops We Offer
Introduction to the Center for Writing Excellence (CWE)
Duration: 15 minutes
Have you considered inviting CWE Writing Assistant Interns into your course to provide a brief overview of our services? In this presentation, we introduce your students to the non-remedial nature of the CWE, demonstrating how we can assist at all stages of the writing process through. We describe how our conversational sessions work, as well as the types of questions students can ask to get the most out of a session.
Taking a Conversational Approach to Peer Review
Duration: 45 minutes
Did you know—the writing center is peer review. Let us come talk with your students about our process. In this 50-minute workshop, we provide an overview of what peer review is and why it matters. We address strategies for garnering more helpful feedback—e.g., by asking more specific questions and through active listening. Following this overview, students break into groups, with the opportunity to ask questions of our interns as they listen and share feedback.
Edit for Style: Cut the Fluff!
Duration: 30 minutes
What does it mean to edit and polish? In this workshop, we offer a method for polishing our writing to foster an active voice and more concise writing. We ask that students come prepared with drafts.
MLA Citation
Duration: 30 minutes
Would you like an overview of MLA Citation? This workshop explains the nature of MLA format, complete with visual examples and helpful resources.
APA Citation
Duration: 30 minutes
Would you like an overview of APA Citation? This workshop explains the nature of APA format, complete with visual examples and helpful resources.
Faculty Fridays
Is your scheduling filling up? Are you struggling to write amid all your other responsibilities? We understand! If you're looking to protect your time to focus on creative and scholarly work, join us on Friday mornings from 9am to 11am in Centennial 2104. Feel free to stop by for all (or part) of this time. Jonathan Rylander will be around to support you and your work.
To RSVP and/or be added to our Canvas site, email Jonathan Rylander at rylandjj@uwec.edu.
If there is any way we can support you, your students, or your writing, please reach out!
Faculty Fellows
The goals of our Faculty Writing Fellows Program is to work with faculty across campus to design more pedagogically sound methods to the teaching and mentoring of writing in their courses, departments, and fields.
This program provides faculty the opportunity to work with the CWE director and assistant director to design resources, assignments, or other materials to ensure student success in their course(s) and departments.
Specifically, faculty in the program have the opportunity to:
- Research and explore best practices in writing within their departments and fields
- Engage in discussions of writing center theory and writing-across-the-curriculum approaches with CWE administration
- Observe current undergraduate and graduate writing assistants tutoring in the CWE—to better understand hour embedded tutors can enhance courses across the curriculum (including their own).
After completing the semester-long program, participants are then eligible to receive and embedded tutor in one of their courses. These high-achieving tutors work with faculty to ensure disciplinary conventions are communicated properly and register with students in meaningful ways. Finally, faculty who complete the program could list on their CV "UWEC Faculty Writing Fellow."