Academics

Requiring Students to Visit the Writing Center

Requiring visits to the Writing Center is a good way to help your students expand their opportunities for feedback on their written work, spend time intentionally developing strategies and habits that will help them in writing for your class and beyond, and get acquainted with this campus resource. It's far preferable to require all your students to visit than to single anyone out.

Best Practices for Requiring Writing Center Visits

Let us know your students are coming

Talk to us about how you can make your required visits meaningful. The best way to reach us is at writing@bsu.edu.

Consider when an appointment will be most helpful for students

Often, students don’t visit the Writing Center until they have a complete draft, but our tutors can also help writers when they’re just getting started. In fact, we recommend that writers plan a visit as early in the process as they can so they get the most out of their visit. (Although we’re always happy to work with writers at any stage of the process, we find when writers visit the center right before their assignment due date, we often can only focus on surface-level features in their work.)

Set expectations with your students ahead of time

Talk to your students about the Writing Center, and please invite us to your class to give students a brief introduction to our services. Even if we talk with your students, however, it’s important that you also help them understand what you hope they’ll get from their visit, and why you think it’s important. You might even share your own experiences with writing centers, peer review, writing groups, and feedback from colleagues or peers to help students understand the value of working with others on their writing.

Build in goal setting and reflection

Help students make the most of these visits by encouraging or requiring them to reflect on what they want out of the appointment ahead of time. This ensures students are prepared for their visit and have set concrete goals and expectations. You might also consider having students reflect on the appointment afterward, particularly if you want to focus on transfer of learning.

Set flexible time windows

Because we have a limited number of available appointments each week, we strongly recommend you give students an extended period of time in which to visit the Writing Center, to enable us to accommodate your class. For small classes, at least a two-week window can work. If your class is larger than 25 or so, however, we'll need to work with you on the logistics. Dividing the class into groups and requiring different groups visit during different weeks can also help ensure that your students and others will be able to find slots that work for them on our schedule. This option can work especially well if you want to encourage students to try visiting the Writing Center at different stages in their research and writing processes.

Sample Assignment for a Required Visit (make sure to customize it to your class!)

The Writing Center is a free resource available to all BSU students, staff, and faculty. The Writing Center helps writers at all stages of the writing process, whether you’re just getting started or polishing a final draft, and it’s useful to writers at all levels. Even if you write alone, writing is not a solitary act; you’re always writing for an audience and in tandem with the voices of other writers in your world. Learning how to use this resource and practicing talking about your work with others is an important part of developing as a writer.

To learn about this campus resource and practice talking about your writing, you are required to visit the Writing Center before the end of the semester. You might choose to visit at any of the following times:

As you’re getting started on your draft, to get help brainstorming and outlining your project (WEEKS 9-10)
After you’ve started working on your draft, to get feedback about what you have so far. (WEEKS 10-12)
After receiving feedback on a rough draft from your peers or instructor. (WEEKS 13-14)
When you’re procrastinating so much you’re worried you won’t ever actually sit down and actually start working. The Writing Center even offers “accountability appointments,” where a tutor will sit with you and help you stay on track while you work.

Here's what you need to do:

Note that this assignment involves reflecting before and after your Writing Center visit. Do not wait until your visit is over to read these instructions and complete the steps!
Decide when you will use the Writing Center. It’s best if you make a plan in advance, but make sure you have something to work on before you make an appointment. You can make an appointment for any point in the semester, but plan ahead and schedule it now so you’re sure to get a spot.
Make an appointment. Go to bsu.edu/writingcenter and click Make an Appointment. The scheduling program will open. Create an account. Then, log in, navigate to the week you want to go, and choose a tutor to make an appointment with. Note that the Writing Center has appointments in Robert Bell 295 during the day, and evenings in Bracken Library. You can also have an online appointment during any of the open hours.

Before your appointment, reflect on the following in writing:

When and with whom is my appointment? (This is so I know when you went.)
What do I want to work on in this session? What are my goals? You might have specific questions for your tutor about your writing, or maybe you just want to use this time for accountability. Either way, list at least three goals and/or things you want to work on.
What challenges am I facing right now with this assignment?
What materials do I need to bring with me?

After your appointment, reflect on the following in writing:

What did I talk about with my tutor? How did the session go?
What went well about the session?
Is there anything that didn’t go well? Is there anything I could do differently next time to have a better experience?
What is my plan for my project? What are my next steps?