UWC services are available at our West Campus location as well as in Evans Library.

Encourage your students to use our services.

Do you ever ask a colleague to review your writing before you submit it? Let students know the UWC can be their version of that trusted colleague. We serve as objective readers who can help students clarify thoughts and organize arguments. (We do commas, too.) Remind students that we offer consultations at both Evans and West Campus Library and have an Online Writing Lab as well.

Encourage, but don’t insist, that your students use our services.

Please don’t require students to get help from the UWC, since we can’t guarantee every student an appointment. In addition, we find that when students are required to use the UWC, it colors their experience. An uncooperative writer all but ensures an unproductive session. Many students already resist and resent writing; don’t make coming to the UWC one more hurdle to jump.

Put your assignment in writing and remind students to bring it along if they come to us.

Better yet, post it online, so students can refer to it even if they lose the hard copy. Consultants often ask to see the assignment: it helps if we know what the student is expected to do.

State your expectations.

Clients often ask things like “Is it okay to say ‘I’?” Conventions about using first person (“I,” “we,” “me,” etc.) vary from discipline to discipline and instructor to instructor. The same is true of rules on passive voice, citation styles, what to say in an introduction, and a host of other topics. If it matters to you, spell it out. When consultants are unsure about what’s expected on a paper, they advise clients to go back to their instructor for clarification.