Support For Faculty - St Thomas University

1. How do I request an in-class presentation from the Writing Centre?

If you are delivering in-person, synchronous classes and you would like the Writing Centre Coordinator to deliver a class presentation, please fill out this form. If you have any other needs for in-class presentations to accommodate your course delivery this year, feel free to reach out to the Writing Centre Coordinator at hmac@stu.ca.

2. What happens during a tutoring appointment at the Writing Centre?

Our tutors can assist students at any stage of the writing process, from understanding assignment instructions to brainstorming ideas, developing outlines, and revising drafts. We can teach students how to properly punctuate and structure a sentence; we also help students learn how to incorporate other sources into their own writing responsibly through paraphrasing, quoting, and citing.

Appointments are approximately 50 minutes long. At the beginning of an appointment, the tutor will ask the student what they would like help with; the tutor will also ask to see any assignment guidelines the student has received. If the student has uploaded a draft to read through, the tutor will read with the student, and then stop to discuss any suggestions with the student before moving on. If the student is at the planning stage, the tutor will ask the student a series of questions, often jotting down the student’s responses; together, they will then review these notes and develop a rough outline, research plan, and/or thesis statement. If the student is seeking general information on a writing topic (e.g. basic essay structure or APA style), the tutor will likely review the relevant handout with the student and answer any questions.

3. How can I be sure that the writing tutors won’t just rewrite my students work?

We understand that it is important for students’ writing to reflect their own voice, abilities, and knowledge. For this reason, writing tutors are trained to edit and educate, rather than simply rewrite students’ work. Tutors are given clear guidelines regarding how to engage with students and the level of editorial intervention that is appropriate.

Unacceptable tutoring activities include, but are not limited to:

influencing the ideas or opinions expressed in a student’s assignment
supplying alternate phrasing
making direct changes to a student’s electronic document
allowing a student to copy comments/corrections from a tutor’s own notes.

If a passage in a student draft is unclear, the tutor will review that section with the student, ask them open-ended questions about their intended meaning, and have the student supply alternative wording. If there is an error or inconsistency, the tutor will point it out, explain why it is incorrect or inconsistent, and discuss ways to resolve it with the student. In all cases, the student is left to decide which changes to adopt, and how to implement those changes in their own draft.

4. Can a writing tutor help my student understand readings or concepts from class?

No. Although they excel in their own studies, writing tutors are not content experts; to prevent plagiarism, they are also prohibited from influencing a student's opinion, correcting inaccuracies, or significantly altering the ideas in an assignment (see above).

Students struggling with course content should instead seek help from Peer Tutors.

5. Should I make it mandatory for my students to book appointments with the Writing Centre for a particular course or assignment?

No. At our current capacity, the Writing Centre offers between 45-55 online appointments per week. In the interest of serving as much of the student body as possible and preventing blackout periods, we ask that instructors not make it mandatory for their students to attend the Writing Centre. We have also found that students are more receptive to feedback when they seek help voluntarily. However, word of mouth and direct referrals from professors have proven to be quite effective in motivating students to use our services.

6. How can I encourage my students to attend the Writing Centre?

Faculty referrals make all the difference when it comes to promoting academic support services.

*If you are planning on adding a blurb in your syllabus about the Writing Centre, please contact the Writing Centre Coordinator as our services have recently changed and we want students to be receiving the most accurate information.

You can also mention the Writing Centre in your assignment guidelines and/or add a link to our site (stu.ca/writingcentre) on your course Moodle page.

Referring struggling students to us in your written feedback on assignments, or mentioning us during one-on-one student conferences, can also be very effective.

7. How can I confirm that a student has attended the Writing Centre?

The Writing Centre always tracks appointment data for internal purposes. If you would like proof of attendance (e.g. for extra course credit, participation marks, or as a condition for a re-write), please notify your students of this in advance. When the Writing Tutor is completing the Client Report Form on MyWCOnline at the end of the session, an automatic email can be sent to you upon a student’s completion of an appointment for your records.

8. Are there any other writing resources available that I can use in class?

The STU Writing Centre webpage hosts many handouts and links on a variety of writing-related topics. Faculty are welcome to direct their students to this site, or to download them for use in on class Moodles.

9. Why doesn’t the Writing Centre assist with take-home exams?

Exams usually test comprehension of course material (rather than composition, argument, or research skills), and since the Writing Centre does not provide assistance with content per se, we are not able to help students significantly improve their performance on exams. Exams also provide faculty with a rare opportunity to test a student's understanding of course material, unaided. We do not provide assistance on seated exams, as this would violate STU’s policy on cheating and plagiarism; for the same reason, we do not feel we should be providing assistance on take-homes.

To avoid confusion on which assignments are or are not eligible for Writing Centre help, reserve the term “take-home” for final assignments that follow and exam-style format (e.g. multiple questions with shorter answers) and that are designed with the purpose of providing a comprehensive review of course material.