At the Writing Center, we believe that supporting our students includes supporting our faculty!
Use the drop-down menu below to learn more about our faculty resources. You can send any questions to onlinelrc@csun.edu.
In-Class Visits and Special Workshops
We would love to make a presentation to your class about a particular topic, or about Writing Center services in general! Past topics have included:
- The writing process with a timeline for the particular assignment
- Peer review session
- APA or MLA format
- Literature Review
- Scholarship essays
- Personal statements for grad school applications
To arrange a visit, email onlinelrc@csun.edu. Please note that we cannot be a substitute for you; professors must be in attendance during a Writing Center visit or workshop.
Borrow-A-Tutor
Would you like some extra help during synchronous class meetings or activities, such as workshops or breakout groups? We can send someone trained, knowledgeable, and ready to work with you in your virtual classroom. Let us know what you need, and we’ll pair you with the right tutor.
To find out more or to request a tutor, email us at onlinelrc@csun.edu. Please note that we cannot be a substitute for you; professors must be in attendance during visits from a tutor.
Faculty Development - Transparent Assignment Design
This October, join the LRC in collaboration with Faculty Development for our five-part series as we work towards creating more transparent prompts and rubrics, and more effective collaborations between instructors and the Writing Center to help address student writing improvement across the disciplines and at all levels. There are still spots available; click here to sign up.
Prompt Feedback
Whether you're teaching face-to-face or virtually, it's not as easy to explain prompts or revise for transparency. If you submit your prompts via this link, we will have our lower division student consultants give you feedback to improve clarity, transparency, and accessibility from a student's point of view. Professors who have used this service tell us they plan to use it for all prompts going forward as the feedback has saved students (and them) a great deal of time and confusion. We also welcome syllabi and other course documents.
Proof of Writing Center Conferences and Writing Workshop Attendance
Do you assign credit for Writing Center visits? We can provide proof of attendance for your students who come to our consultation sessions and writing workshops!
When students attend a workshop or session with us, instructors will receive a link to an Excel spreadsheet on Box via email that will contain information from the session including notes about the session from the writing consultant. This spreadsheet will be updated on a weekly basis, at the end of the week.
We ask that instructors remind their students that they must ask for proof of attendance for each session they attend, otherwise our staff will not know to send it to you. At this time, we can only provide proof of attendance via email to the professor, not to students directly. Thank you for understanding.
Faculty FAQ's
What happens during a Writing Center conference?
Consultants work individually with students to help them communicate more clearly and effectively in writing. During the 30- to 60-minute appointment, a consultant typically:
- Helps students review the written assignment to be sure they are following instructions.
- Reads over the draft and asks questions to help students see where the work may be challenging to follow, unclear in expression, or in need of deeper development.
- Asks students what area in their paper they want to focus on (e.g., the organization, the clarity, a particularly troublesome part, the use of sources, addressing patterns of error, and so on).
- Instructs students on how different elements of the reading and/or writing process work.
- Works out strategies with the student for addressing concerns.
- Helps to develop a plan for action.
How can I encourage my students to visit the Writing Center?
There are many ways to encourage your students to use the Writing Center. You can recommend our services, mention us in your syllabus, give bonus points for meeting with a tutor, send students to our workshops, or require that all your students come to visit us. We do ask that you try and refrain from targeting particular students, however; tutoring gets a remedial wrap, but in reality, ALL writers benefit from talking through their ideas with others!
You can also make a Writing Center visit part of your assignment. If you decide to send your entire class, please encourage them to make an appointment well before the due date, as we may not be able to see a large number of students in the day or two before a paper is due.
At the end of a conference, students will be given a pink sheet with the date and time of their appointment, as well as some notes regarding what was discussed. Note: during this time of virtual learning, our proof of appointment slips are emailed directly to faculty.
The most important thing you can do to help your students write better is to explain to them why effective writing matters, both to you and in your field of study. Thank you for your commitment to improving student writing at CSUN.
How should my students prepare for an appointment?
To make the most of the time:
- Encourage your students to come to see us at least 24 hours before the work is due.
- Let them know that rather than editing or proofreading, writing consultants teach about writing and help students to develop skills and strategies while also being critical readers that allow students to understand how their work is presented on the page or screen, and how it might be improved with further work. Students who visit us will to be asked to involve themselves in the process of strengthening their work.
- Remind students to have the prompt on hand as well as the draft.
- Help students understand that 30 to 60 minutes may not be enough time to discuss an entire assignment, especially if it is lengthy, but they can always come back!
- Email any material you would like us to have on file (rubric, prompt, etc. ) to onlinelrc@csun.edu.
What about help with exams?
When an assignment is labeled an "exam," a consultant will ask for written evidence that the student has professor permission to seek help on the paper. If you want your students to go over an exam in the Writing Center, it should be stated in the assignment that students can ask for outside help, or you can email to give permission: .
If there is explicit permission, consultants will work together with students to help them read the assignment with understanding, and improve the organization, development, and general clarity of the response. As always, consultants will not edit a paper for students as they sit by, but they can discuss patterns of error and ways to address those. Consultants will not give answers to questions, but may ask questions like, "What do you have in your notes?" or "How would you prove that to be true?" to help students brainstorm and organize a response.
What workshops do you offer?
Writing is a complex skill. It takes commitment, hard work, and time. If an individual student has the requisite motivation, he/she/they is/are very welcome to make weekly appointments. In conferences with the same consultant over the course of several weeks, the student can practice strategies for organizing, developing ideas with evidence, and proofreading. Taking time to revise with the help of a Writing Consultant can be a major step in improving writing skills. We have many students who find a consultant they enjoy working with, and take advantage of this opportunity to learn.
We also offer walk-in sessions when there is a consultant with an available time slot, which students are welcome to sign up for should they have already had an appointment that week. Walk-ins are subject to availability and are not guaranteed.
Does the Writing Center help grad students?
Yes. All the Writing Center's consultants can help grad students with their writing. They will not proofread for students, but they can work together with grad students on longer projects as well as class papers.
Please see the Graduate Students tab for our full list of programs specially designed with grad students in mind.
Where can I find out more about supporting student writing?
Here are some good resources for faculty. If you have a resource not listed here, please recommend it and we will add it.
This page offers advice on how instructors can best support the success of students who are multilingual. Advice includes teaching key vocabulary to making explicit the rhetoric of academic writing in a particular genre.
This page from our University shows deadlines and offers links to pdf’s on formatting guidelines for theses/dissertations/projects. It also links you to necessary guidelines for research on human/animal subjects.
This page defines what plagiarism is, why it happens, and how it can be effectively addressed.
Scroll down the page and you will see advice on this topic. Several different sources are linked here.
This page describes what it means to read as a common reader and discusses types of responses that may be given (facilitative, directive, corrective, evaluative).
