Request an Event
Outside of classThe UWC offers presentations, resource tables, and other custom events to student groups and official Texas A&M departments.
Request us for your event!
What we do.
The University Writing Center offers educational presentations, workshops, feedback studios, informational tables, and other custom events. Student groups, official TAMU departments, and other organizations can request us for their events on a limited basis.
We are primarily student-fee funded, so most of these events must benefit undergraduate and graduate students, although we can consider other requests if adequate resources are available. Due to limited staff and availability, we may not be able to support all submitted requests.
What we ask of you.
To ensure our role in your event is impactful for attendees, we ask that you consider the following before submitting your request:
- Effectiveness. Some workshops work best with drafts. For example, Writing Clearly and Concisely, which has many practical revision tips, effectively supports students who have drafts that can be revised as part of the workshop.
- Attendance. To make the event worth our time, we prioritize requests that ensure audiences of at least 20.
- Scope. We accommodate custom requests, but depending on the topic, we may decline and point you to another department like the Career Center or the Graduate School.
- Timing. At least 2 weeks’ notice is required to schedule in most cases. This notice allows us to reserve time for preparation and travel.
Once you submit our event request form, our event coordinator will reach out by email in 1-3 business days.
Presentations & Workshops Available to Request
- Overview of UWC Services (15-20 minutes) — This introduction to the University Writing Center discusses how we work, who works here, how to schedule an appointment, and how to get the most out of a UWC consultation.
- Avoiding Plagiarism (35-45 minutes) — Plagiarism often stems from an unfamiliarity with expectations for academic writing. This presentation reviews when citations are necessary; why scholars use citations; how citations connect to ethical scholarship; and how to summarize, paraphrase, and quote effectively. The presentation examples can be customized for APA, MLA, or Chicago citation styles.
- Grammar and Punctuation for Writers (50-75 minutes) — Structured as a Jeopardy! game, this workshop covers the topics of common grammar errors, sentence structure concerns, punctuation usage, stylistic choices, and more. Each question includes an explanation screen that goes into detail about the rule or guideline discussed. Students compete in teams for points, and we bring prizes such as University Writing Center stickers while supplies last.
- The Writing Process (30-40 minutes) — This presentation covers how students might improve their essay writing by altering their writing process. Topics covered include the difference between topic and thesis, how to read an assignment with intention, and the steps of the drafting process. If students have an upcoming writing assignment, we can help them jumpstart the brainstorming and planning process. This workshop is most useful toward the beginning of a writing assignment.
- Managing Group Writing Projects (25-35 minutes) — Collaborative writing projects can be challenging and daunting for students. This presentation identifies strategies for successfully preparing, developing, and completing writing projects with groups. Strategies include setting a timeline, establishing member roles, and determining a writing and editing process.
- Managing Graduate Writing Projects (50-75 minutes) — This presentation offers suggestions and guidance to graduate students as they embark on writing projects. We discuss methods of selecting an appropriate topic, conducting research, planning to meet academic goals and deadlines, and staying motivated. We also conduct an overview of Texas A&M resources for pursuing and organizing research.
- Writing Clearly and Concisely (50-75 minutes) — In this workshop, students learn revision tips for sentence-level concerns to help minimize wordiness and clarify meaning while maintaining the complexity demanded by academic writing standards. As one of our most hands-on workshops, "Writing Clearly and Concisely" is most effective if students have drafts they can bring to class as there are built-in opportunities for direct application of the revision tips.
- Oral Presentations (40-50 minutes) — Fear of public speaking and lack of preparation often hinder students from giving effective presentations. This workshop covers the process of preparing a presentation, including invention, organization, incorporation of visual aids, practice, and delivery. Students also learn how to create effective slides and have an opportunity to critique sample slides during the workshop.
- Research Posters (20-40 minutes) — This workshop helps students plan and compose research posters. We review the basic components most posters include while emphasizing audience awareness, discuss basic elements of design, and provide presentation preparation best practices. Students also have an opportunity to evaluate sample posters.
- Scientific Writing (30-45 minutes) — This presentation explains important aspects of writing scientific papers, focusing on audience expectations for the genre, organization (IMRaD), and the goals of scientific writing. We also discuss research techniques.
- Abstracts (20-40 minutes) — This workshop begins by defining abstracts and their function in academic writing. We distinguish between informative and descriptive abstracts and show samples of each type. After we consider the writing process for writing abstracts, the workshop concludes with an analysis of sample abstracts.
- Personal Statements (20-30 minutes) — This workshop identifies important features of impactful personal statements and explains what common prompts may be expecting of applicants. This workshop also engages the audience by allowing them to critique a sample personal statement.
- Resumes (15-20 minutes) — Successful resumes are tailored to the individual, the industry, and the institution being applied to. This workshop covers the typical information included on a resume, gives ideas for formatting, and offers tips for crafting an effective bullet point. This workshop can stand alone but also pairs well with Personal Statements or our Overview of UWC Services.
- Writing Studio (50-75 minutes) — For a writing studio, University Writing Center consultants visit your event and, in moving informally throughout the room, provide individual feedback on drafts as needed. We can also offer peer review exercises as needed.
- Custom Workshop — We can combine any of these existing slide decks or develop new slides for any writing- or speaking-related topic you have in mind. We can also build-in time for specific workshop activities if the situation calls for it. Note: Custom requests may require more than two weeks' notice.