Early Bird

Don’t forget about this great campus resource

This semester, the Writing Center is offering new services and opportunities geared toward student and faculty success.

By Lindsey Coulter

January 9, 2019

As the spring semester approaches, take a moment to reacquaint yourself with all the ways the Metropolitan State University of Denver Writing Center can make your courses more dynamic and your students more successful. There’s even something in it for you!

The Writing Center doesn’t cater only to struggling student writers.

The Writing Center helps any student, including graduate students, with any writing project, whether it’s school-related or not, says Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Ph.D., who heads the Writing Center. The center helps students with every aspect of writing, including understanding their assignment, breaking a big project into manageable chunks, supporting their point, drafting, revising and editing — and is valuable for writers of all skill levels.

This semester, the Writing Center is also piloting sessions focused on proofreading, called 2in20, at the Administration Building location. Students can bring in two pages of writing. In the first 10 minutes of the appointment, a consultant will help proofread the first page. In the second 10 minutes, the student proofreads the second page and the consultant checks it. It’s a great hands-on way for students to learn how to become better proofreaders!

It’s also a great resource for faculty.

Writing Center staff members are happy to give class presentations that target particular areas of writing support, such as how to not procrastinate, how to document sources or how to organize paragraphs. Staff can also consult with faculty about how to create engaging writing assignments and help faculty improve the quality and depth of their comments and feedback. Fun fact: Most faculty spend too much time making comments that don’t help students improve.

More resource details are available on the center’s website.

Faculty members are the Writing Center’s greatest champions.

Sixty percent of the students who use the Writing Center say they heard about the resource from a faculty member, Kleinfeld says. As such, Writing Center staff depend on faculty to spread the word. A simple way to do this is to include a Writing Center blurb in syllabi. Faculty can also schedule a Writing Center orientation in which a peer consultant will visit a class to explain Writing Center services.

“Students are much more likely to show up engaged and with a positive attitude at the Writing Center when faculty present going to the Writing Center as a smart thing for all writers — rather than a thing for bad or struggling writers,” Kleinfeld says.

Spanish-speaking assistance and resources are available.

Concerned about the best way to help non-native English-speaking students succeed? The Writing Center’s Roadways Into Developing English Skills is specifically designed to help English Language Learners improve their English grammar and usage skills.

It’s possible to be “plagiarism-proof.”

Many faculty are worried about plagiarism. Rather than focusing on catching plagiarists, faculty members who work with Writing Center staff can get help developing assignments that require original writing — and get tips on using SafeAssign to help students learn about effective source use.

The Writing Center wants you to use your WITS every Wednesday.

Through the Center for Teaching, Learning and Development, the Writing Center facilitates a faculty-and-staff write-on-site group called Write It This Semester to jump-start your professional/passion projects and keep the creative juices flowing. WITS meets Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m. To join, email Kleinfeld at ekleinfe@msudenver.edu.