Collaborate with the Writing Center
The Writing Center helps undergraduate and graduate students in all disciplines become more effective, more confident writers. One way we do this is by visiting classes, student groups, and events to provide students with more information about the Writing Center, facilitate retreats and jams, and teach about writing in collaboration with partners throughout campus and beyond.
Since our services are in high demand, please submit your request at least two weeks in advance, or at the beginning of the semester if at all possible. Our outreach coordinator will contact you within 2-3 business days of receiving your request and to let you know if we have availability to collaborate with you. Please know that we make our best efforts to provide outreach services to as many partners as possible, but our ability to accommodate a particular request will depend on the flow of demand as well as instructor availability.
At that point, we will follow up with you to discuss and confirm session goals. During this meeting, a Writing Center instructor will help identify best practices to support your students’ writing and work with you to structure and lead an accessible and inclusive event or workshop.
While we may be able to accommodate two-part visits, the number of sessions we can provide a single instructor or organization is determined by the overall volume of requests we receive in a particular term.
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Helping Your Students to Use the Writing Center Effectively
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An Overview of the Writing Center for Instructors
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Teaching Resources
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Collaborate with the Writing Center
Get Support for Teaching with and Assessing Writing in Your Course
The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) team supports UW–Madison faculty, instructional staff, and teaching assistants in teaching with writing to enhance student learning. Request a consultation to discuss designing and assessing writing assignments and activities in your course.
Learn more about how we can collaborate with you:
Writing Center instructors can join your resource fair and set up a table with information, handouts, and other items related to our offerings for students.
Writing Center instructors can join your class, event, or resource fair to talk about the writing process and provide an overview of the services and resources available through the Writing Center. Our brief introductions are typically scheduled for 10-20 minutes and can be tailored to particular student audiences.
Study jams provide students with focused time to study and meet with a Writing Center instructor on a drop-in basis.
Writing retreats provide students with focused time to write in a community setting. Students come together at the beginning to set goals and at the end to debrief. Students have the option to consult with a Writing Center instructor as needed throughout the retreat.
Work with a Writing Center instructor to co-design and co-facilitate a workshop for or about writing. We ask our partners to schedule the workshop for a day when they or someone from their team can be present to co-facilitate the workshop. Options for workshops include a:
- Pre-writing, drafting, or revising workshop
- We can assist your students in the writing process by teaching them brainstorming strategies, tips for getting unstuck, and revising techniques.
- Peer review writing workshop or other in-class writing activity or exercise
- We can work with you to co-design and co-facilitate a pre-writing and drafting workshop, peer-review writing workshop, or other in-class writing activity.
- Interactive presentation on a writing genre
- Partner with a Writing Center instructor to co-design an interactive presentation on common aspects of academic and professional writing, such as developing research questions and problem statements, writing literature reviews, integrating sources, composing an effective cover letter or resume, or writing a compelling personal statement for graduate school. Our instructors can also work with you to design a presentation about a particular genre or writing assignment required in your class or program, such as writing capstones, graduate-level research proposals, academic articles, fellowship applications, or policy briefs. Our interactive presentations are typically scheduled in 30 to 90-minute time slots and are preceded by a 30-minute preparation meeting to discuss and confirm session goals.