Writing and Communication Center

Whether you're in the planning stages or have already started to write, you can visit the Oxford Writing Center for help with any of your writing projects, such as academic writing assignments, emails, letters, thank-you notes, and professional writing projects such as resumes and cover letters. We only offer professional writing counseling during our workshops and write-in events. Oxford Counseling and Career Services can better help you with your professional writing projects. 

Our writing consultants offer great advice about "higher order concerns" such as topic and thesis development, organization, incorporating/citing sources, and audience. Meanwhile, they also help you with sentence-level issues such as grammar, diction, and so on. They cannot, however, "proofread" for you, which means we don't "correct" your errors without telling you what, why, and how. 

While the Writing Center offers drop-in consultations, it is recommended that students sign up for an appointment in advance. To do so, please visit https://oxford.mywconline.com or click the "make an appointment" button below. When you arrive to your appointment, please bring in a copy of the assignment instructions and, if you've already started drafting, a copy of your latest work in either print or digital format. Our consultants' time is limited; please make every effort to keep the appointments you make. Excessive "no-shows" or late cancellations may result in loss of Writing Center privileges.

Make an Appointment

Who We Help

We help students and faculty in the Oxford College of Emory University. We serve any major.

Each tutor is trained to consult with you no matter what type of writing you might bring to the OWC. While some tutors may not be as familiar with the standards for writing in your discipline, they are all interested listeners who know a lot about writing generally, and can help you figure out how to best write to your audience and genre.

Maximum of One Appointment Per Day

Writers are not allowed to have more than one appointment per day. A walk-in appointment counts as one appointment. This policy is to ensure that we can serve all of the writers who want to schedule appointments and to prevent writers from relying too heavily on our tutors' time and energy. One of our goals is to empower students to take greater ownership of their writing; we do not want to foster overdependence. 

Maximum Appointment Length of 45 Minutes

Our regular tutoring appointments are 45 minutes in length for good reasons:

• Longer appointments become unproductive as tutors and writers become tired and as writers become overwhelmed with the amount of material discussed.
• We absolutely need the fifteen minutes between sessions for writers and tutors to complete important paperwork. We need this paperwork for accurate record keeping and in order to get feedback from writers that enables us to improve our service.

The 45 minute limit policy will be strictly enforced by all tutors. For longer projects that may benefit from more than 45 minutes of conferencing, we ask that writers schedule an additional appointment on a different date.

Reserving Appointments

Clients must register with WCOnline to make Oxford Writing Center appointment reservations. Clients must use their Emory email address to register with WCOnline. Clients may have one WCOnline account only. Duplicate WCOnline accounts will be deactivated.

Expectation for Coming Prepared and on Time

Writers must be punctual and will lose their scheduled appointments and be counted as no-shows if they arrive more than ten minutes late. In addition to a hard copy of their papers, writers should come prepared by bringing a hard copy of their assignment instructions, any other relevant writing (notes, research), and a plan for what they want to work on.

No-Shows

Writers are responsible for canceling their appointments via our online appointment system, WCOnline. If a writer fails to show up for a scheduled appointment and has not cancelled the appointment on WCOnline, he/she will be counted as a "no-show." Writers who arrive more than 10 minutes late for an appointment will also be counted as no-shows. If a writer is a no-show two times, he/she will automatically be blocked from making appointments for the rest of the semester (and for the first month of the following semester if the offense occurs near the end of the semester). Writers who are blocked from making WCOnline appointments are also prohibited from having walk-in appointments. Many students who want appointments at the Writing Center cannot get them. Failing to show up for appointments without canceling them in a timely manner is discourteous and disrespectful to one's fellow students. This policy will therefore be strictly enforced.

Cancellations

Writers are expected to cancel their appointments as far in advance as possible, so those appointments become available for other students. Writers must use WCOnline (the Writing Center's online appointment system) to cancel their appointments. WCOnline will not allow writers to cancel an appointment less than one hour before its scheduled start time. If a writer does not show for his/her appointment and fails to cancel that appointment one or more hours before the start time, that writer will be considered a "no-show." 

Bring a Hard Copy of Your Writing with You

If writers lack a hard copy, they will be asked to print one using the EaglePrint station in the Writing Center. Exceptions include media that by their nature cannot be printed: websites, videos, and audio recordings. (In that case, we welcome working from writers' laptops.) If those media are accompanied by a paper, writers must still bring in a hard copy of the paper.

Policy against Composing, Proofreading, or Editing Students' Work

In accordance with the Emory Honor Code, EWC tutors will not write work for other students. Writing includes composing, revising, proofreading, and editing. Instead, tutors work with writers to discuss strategies and resources. It is not a violation of academic integrity for a writer to generate ideas based on a conversation with a tutor or for a tutor to model revision or editing with a short passage.

Appropriate Behavior

We ask that writers respect tutors, other writers, and the OWC space. If a writer harasses another person in the Writing Center, exhibits violent behavior, or deliberately damages OWC property, he/she will be asked to leave and will be suspended from using the OWC.

Take Home Exams

We only work on take home exams when the writer provides written permission from his/her instructor granting permission to receive peer feedback.

The OWC continuously collects writing related resources for instructors and students. Our print resources include:

• Grammar Handbooks
• Style Manuals
• Dictionaries and Thesauri
• Composition & Professional Communication Textbooks  
• Grammar Handbooks
• Books on Writing Studies & Writing Center Studies 
• Tutor Handbooks

Course Handouts & Materials 

Below is a list of online resources we recommend:

Online Reference Materials (Dictionaries, Thesauri)

1. Bartleby’s Reference Books Online includes links to dictionaries, thesauri, English usage books, books of quotations, and a variety of sources for specialized topics.
2. Cambridge Dictionaries Online includes links to American English dictionaries, French-English and English-French dictionaries, as well as Learners, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs dictionaries.
3. Merriam Webster Online includes a search box for dictionaries and thesauri.
4. Your Dictionary.com provides a dictionary search as well as an online translator.
5. dictionary.reference.com includes a dictionary, thesauri, language resources, and an online translator.
6. One Look Dictionary allows you to browse several dictionaries.
7. thesaurus.com is a link to Roget’s Thesaurus, which also provides links to language resources, dictionary.com, and an online translator.
8. Biographical Dictionary contains references to over 28,000 individuals.

Online Style Manuals

1. The Modern Language Association’s homepage.
2. The American Psychological Association’s homepage.
3. Purdue OWL guides to Modern Language Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association APA styles.
4. Purdue OWL guide to Chicago Manual of Style.
5. Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is available online.

Writing in the Disciplines & Writing Across the Curriculum Resources

1. WID: Definition & Resources from the WAC Clearing House 
2. Havard College Writing Center
3. Columbia College's WID Website
4. WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University.
5. Northern Illinois University’s WAC Homepage offers historical information about writing across the curriculum as well as a variety of student and teacher resources.
6. Purdue University’s Writing Across the Curriculum website provides general information about WAC programs and links to a comprehensive list of WAC programs in other universities.
7. Bibliography and annotated bibliography of articles about writing across the curriculum.
8. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s website contains a bibliography divided by discipline.

ESL Resources:

1. Purdue University’s OWL ESL page has resources for teachers, including online journals, syllabi and assignments, general reference, and teaching specific tasks.
2. Dave’s ESL Café.Links to over 3000 resources for ESL students and teachers.
3. Useful Online Resources for Developing English and Academic Skills, developed by Denise Dolan, Emory ESL Services
4. Emory ESL Learning Resources
5. Using English

Professional Writing Resources:

1. Purdue University’s online writing lab provides information and links about job searching, resumes, cover letters, employment letters, memos and reports, academic applications, and general business writing.
2. Emory Career Center
3. EWC: The BBA Application Essay
4. EWC: Personal Statements
5. UCDavis Internship & Career Center
6. Harvard Office of Career Services 
7. Ohio State Center for the Study & Teaching of Writing 
8. What, How & Why ePortfolios?
   • What is it?
   • YouTube Sample
   • Google Sites
   • LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Acedemiaedu, Wordpress, etc.
   • Why ePortfolio? Why digital portfolio? 
9. Consultants at OWC are trained by Ami from Career Services on Résumes and cover letters. Please feel free to schedule appointments with our writing consultants. 

Grammar and Usage

10. Grammar Girl(Blog)
11. GSU's Writing Studio Handouts(academic paper organization, affect & effect, apostrophes, colons, commas, compound/complex sentences, critical thinking, homonyms, me & myself, modifiers, parts of speech, quoting paraphrasing, semicolons, sentence fragments, and so on. )
12. Purdue OWL(General Writing Resources on general writing concerns, punctuation, spelling and capitalization, parts of speech, sentence construction, etc.)
13. Grammar Brushup(Videos at Weber State University)
14. Writing Frequently Asked Questions(From the University of Louisville Writing Center)
15. Writing Workshop Videos(From the University of Louisville Writing Center)

Science Writing Resources

1. The Science of Science Writing(National Center for Biological Sciences website)
2. CARS Model(PDF)
3. EWC: Writing Biology(PDF)
4. Carnegie Mellon University's Global Communication Center
5. History Writing Resources
6. Emory History Department's Tools of the Trade
7. Writing and Speaking Handout from Agnes Scott College
8. OWC Handouts (copies available, online materials upcoming)

In addition to the Writing Center, Career Services offers professional writing support on resumés, cover letters, and workshops. We work with Career services to train our tutors on professional writing. 

Thanks for your interest in becoming a writing consultant or fellow!

There are many reasons to become a writing consultant or fellow. Writing Center work can provide students with opportunities to

• Develop communication skills.
• Develop leadership skills.
• Receive mentorship from the OWC director and lead student tutors.
• Prepare for future employment.
• Become better writers themselves.

Requirements

In order to apply, you will need to provide:

• At least two writing samples. Although the Writing Center does occasionally work with creative writers, it is recommended that you submit academic writing (i.e. research essays, thesis-driven arguments, etc.) rather than creative writing. These samples may be from any class you have taken, although we recommend that you submit recent writing from your Oxford courses, rather than from high school, as these show off your most recent, professional thinking and demonstrate your ability to understand writing expectations in a college-level setting. Please also consider submitting your best work and not just your longest essays.
• The email addresses of two references who are willing to provide references for you. One of these references should be an Oxford or Emory faculty member. The other can be a second faculty member, an Oxford staff member, or even another student (all references should, however, be affiliated with Emory). References should know you well enough to comment on your willingness to help others, your maturity and professionalism, and your ability to collaborate with others who may be different from you. Please speak to your references in advance to confirm their willingness to provide a recommendation."
  
• A brief (300-600 word) statement discussing why you want to work for the Writing Center and any previous experiences that influence either your interest or your qualifications for working in the center.

All applicants must also meet the following requirements:

• You have read the job descriptions.
• You have discussed your application with your faculty recommenders and have asked them to submit their references by the deadline.
• You agree to take (or will have already taken) ENG202E, the 1-credit Writing Center Practicum during the first semester being a writing consultant or fellow. 
• You must be able to tutor at least 3 hours per week for at least one semester at Oxford College (tutor for 2 hours and attend an hour-long biweekly staff meeting). Please think about your intended graduation semester and your schedule in the next semester.
• You must have completed one full semester at Oxford College by the start of the semester in which you wish to work as a writing consultant/tutor.
• You have demonstrated excellence in writing and communication during your time at Oxford College.
• You agree to follow the instructions and policies of the Writing Center, as well as represent the Writing Center professionally in all settings.

Writing Fellows for either Bio142WE or English 186 must be available to work for at least 7 hours per week, which may include attending class or meeting with the faculty members teaching the course to which you are assigned. Biology Writing Fellows must additionally demonstrate competence with a range of scientific genres, such as lab notebooks, lab papers, and scientific presentations and must have successfully completed Bio 142WE (your 142 instructor should be one of your two references). 

Applications will generally open in April in spring and October in fall; application deadlines are typically early May for spring and late November in fall.  Please go to our application website to submit your applications.

Rehiring

Appointments

To make an appointment, complete a simple registration form before logging-in to the site for the first time. Tutors also sign in to this system to view appointments for the day and to submit tutor reports.

Clients may also “walk-in” without an appointment and wait for the next available writing consultant/tutor.  The OWC takes clients with appointments first, so “walk-in” clients must wait for an opening — or make an appointment!   If clients do walk-in, work with them, but after the visit create a tutor report for them in the system so that 1) the OWC has a record of the visit, and 2) the OWC can send surveys to “walk-in” clients. These reports and surveys are hugely important to the future of the OWC, so please don’t forget!

Getting Hired

All Oxford students are invited to apply for the position of peer tutor, or writing consultant, and the position of writing fellow, in the Oxofrd Writing Center.  Some students, however, are specially recruited based on their achievement of excellence in writing during high school and/or college.  Whether tutors are recruited or choose to apply on their own, all prospective tutors are required to submit a full peer tutor application via our application website.

Rehiring

Rehiring is based on disciplinary needs at the OWC, as well as consultants' overall performance (tutee reports, observation reports, attendance to staff meetings, class performance in ENG 202, and other leadership and teamwork qualities).

All prospective peer tutors will be interviewed by the OWC Director. Tutors are selected on the basis of their writing samples, course performance, faculty recommendations, and the interview itself.  Students are interviewed and hired both in spring and fall semesters.

Paperwork

When you are hired as a writing consultant in the Oxford Writing Center, you must complete the following steps through the student employment office. 

U.S. Citizen/Permanent Resident

1. Complete documents on the website www.hr.emory.edu/orientation.
2. Turn in the I9 documents for identification from list of acceptable documents to the student employment office. 
3. Do not work at your job until you hear from student employment with the clocking information.

A list of acceptable documents used for identification is listed on the orientation site.   You will need one item from column A or an item from column B and C.

Please follow these steps as soon as you accept our offer to become a Writing Center tutor.  If you have questions, please ask!

Tutor Work Shifts

All Oxford Writing Center tutors work between 3-10 hours per week during the semester.  If you are part of the Federal Work Study Program, you can work a maximum of 10 hours per week.  All other tutors can work a maximum of 6 hours per week in the Writing Center. 

Clocking In and Out/Timesheets

All positions in the Oxford Writing Center pay $7.50 per hour, and all student workers are paid biweekly.  In order to be paid, you must clock in and out for work. Below are the instructions on how to do this.

Time and Attendance Instructions For Oxford College Students

To clock in/out:

1. Dial 2-6666 from a designated phone in your work area. Your clock code is listed above.
2. Enter your 7-digit student ID number followed by your 2-digit clock code. Example: (123456700)
3. The voice will say "enter the clock code." This means 1 or 9.
4. Enter 1 to clock in.
5. Enter 9 to clock out.
6. In order for your time to be recorded make sure you do not hang up until after you have heard the thank you message.
7. Ask someone at the library desk for the blue timesheet binder and record your time on the sheet. While doing so is redundant, it’s also essential for administrative reasons.

It is essential that we all stay right on top of the time and attendance system.  This will make sure you are paid in a timely and efficient manner.  Please keep schedule adjustments through the online timecard system to a minimum; repeated mistakes make the WC look bad to higher administration at Oxford.

As always, if you have questions, please do ask!

Lateness, Absences, and Scheduling

1. You will know your personal tutoring schedule the week before the OWC opens. The first day of tutoring usually takes place during the first or second full week of classes for each semester.
2. If you need time off your regularly scheduled writing shift, the general rule is to make your request at least two weeks prior to the date(s) in question. First, try to find coverage on your own by making your request on our private Facebook group, Oxford Writing Center Tutors. Once you’ve found a sub, email me just to inform me of the shift change. I won’t change the online calendar; your sub will just show up to meet the appointments listed on your calendar. You should also email me if no one responds to your requests after a few days so I can help to arrange coverage if need be.
3. Do not just fail to show up for your shift in the Writing Center or cancel appointments for yourselves in WConlinewithout your supervisor’s consent. Excessive absences and shift swaps put stress on other tutors and send the message that you don’t care about your work. Tutoring is a paid position, so please treat it like one!
4. All tutors are required to arrive at the Writing Center on time, and you must remain for your entire scheduled shift.  Please don’t leave early or arrive late—not even five or ten minutes.  This causes unnecessary confusion with shift changes and sends the wrong message to clients who visit the center. 
5. Do not click “missed appointment” or “no show,” or take any kind of action that is harmful to tutees’/students’ WCOnline records if you are the person who is missing or not showing for the appointments. See conduct rules 2 & 3. 

Length of Sessions

When clients arrive at the Writing Center, please greet them warmly and ask if they have an appointment. If they do not know which room they signed up for, help them check WCOnline.

If a client arrives at the Writing Center and does not have an appointment, please explain that appointments take priority — but he or she is welcome to wait for the next available tutor.

Writing Center tutoring session are scheduled for 15, 35, and 55 minutes. We will discuss how to conduct appointments in more depth during our class meetings throughout the semester, but our main goal in the Oxford Writing Center is to help clients make changes in the way they go about writing.  This means that our goal is to engage clients in discussion, conversation about their ideas, and their process for completing a writing assignment. Such discussion takes time. We do work with clients on sentence-level issues and grammar, but as a group we prioritize “global” issues in client writing, such as understanding the assignment, idea development and organization, structure, strategies for supporting the main idea or thesis, paragraphing, transitions, etc. When working with clients on sentence-level issues, our goal is to help them practice tools and strategies for revising their own work.

If a client seems unwilling or uninterested in working with you for 45 minutes, try explaining that you’d like to work on global issues – or ask them open-ended questions about the assignment and their main idea or their approach to structuring the work.  If a session ends up especially short, make a note of this detail in your tutor report, but don’t try to bully clients into staying longer.

Please let clients know that you have to end the session 5-10 minutes earlier to fill out administrative paperwork and that they'll be receiving a short survey to fill out.  Stress that these surveys are hugely important to the future of the OWC. Proving that we’re useful is how we get the funding to stay and grow on campus.  

When the client leaves, please make sure you fill out a tutor report for every writing session you conduct.  See more information about the tutor report directly below. The reason we start sessions on the hour (5-6pm, 6-7pm, etc.) is that we leave 45 minutes for tutoring and 15 minutes or so tutor reports and time to “reset” before your next appointment.  Your tutor report should take 5-10 minutes or so. Don’t be tempted to work with clients for the full hour; this 15-minute break is essential, and clients need a consistent experience from all tutors.

Tutor Reports

Please file a tutor report after each conference or tutoring session in the Oxford Writing Center.  It is extremely important that you complete a tutor report for each and every conference. This will allow us to keep accurate data on all OWC conferences. 

You should complete your tutor report directly following each tutoring session.  You should allow yourself at least ten minutes to complete each report.

1. Click on the student appointment block in WConline.
2. A pop-up with the appointment data should appear. Click “Add New Client Report Form.”
3. Write a brief narrative summary of your conference in the appropriate space.
4. Submit the report!

Questions to address in your narrative summary include:

What did you focus on during the conference or tutoring session and why?

What strategies did you employ?  Were they successful?

How do you feel about the conference?  How do you think the client felt?

The narrative summary of your conference should be about a paragraph in length.  Please do not agonize over this part of the report.  The narrative summaries are meant to give us a basic idea of what happened in your tutoring session.

And remember to fill out a tutor report directly following each tutoring session so things are still fresh in your mind!

Sharing Community Space

It is everyone’s responsibility to help keep the Writing Center clean and functional.  If you have some “down” time, when you’re not tutoring, you can busy yourself with a number of things.  You can catch up on your scheduled reading for your next ENG 202 meeting — more information on this class meeting are listed below. And you can make a clean sweep of the WC area — pick up loose ends, trash, etc., and replenish needed supplies. If you can’t find something you need, feel free to ask. 

Please remember that the WC is intended to be a social space, but it is important to be a good neighbor. Try to keep your voice down, whenever possible, and never leave your personal belongings in the OWC! We can’t guarantee that what you leave will be there when you return.

Tutors should be in the Writing Center only during hours of operation: Sunday-Thursday, 3-11pm.  The center is closed on Friday, Saturday, and college holidays. If there is a problem or emergency during these hours, please contact campus police.  They are close by and the number is posted in the Writing Center: 770-784-8377.  Better yet, put this number in your phone in case you need it!

ENG 202 Class Meetings

As mentioned above, all tutors are required to attend the approximately 1 hour ENG 202 Practicum class meetings offered each week during the semester.  This one credit course lasts about 45 minutes to an hour and the location will be announced at the beginning of each semester. You should be able to check your canvas to see class location.

The pedagogical focus of ENG 202 is tutoring skills, writing center studies, and other research and practical competence in writing studies, writing in the disciplines, as well as professional writing. I view this directed study course as a collaborative learning environment, so all tutors will also help plan and develop future programming related to the WC and the writing culture among diverse student populations and in a wide range of disciplines at Oxford College.  This is not only a wonderful opportunity for you to become actively involved in building a vibrant writing program across the college, but also your gateway course for professional development in writing studies in general and may lead you to the opportunities at the writing centers at Emory College and beyond. 

For most class meetings, you will be required to complete relevant readings prior to class, although most of the time we will read and discuss the readings together.

Biweekly Staff Meetings

You must attend no less than half of the staff meetings each semester. Your work contract will be ineffective once you violate the OWC conduct code. 

Other Responsibilities

If you have late evening shifts, please keep the OWC properties safe before you leave. Lock the loanable computers to the cupboard in room 117A.

 The OWC continuously collects writing related resources for instructors and students. Our print resources include:

• Grammar Handbooks
• Style Manuals
• Dictionaries and Thesauri
• Composition & Professional Communication Textbooks  
• Grammar Handbooks
• Books on Writing Studies & Writing Center Studies 
• Tutor Handbooks 

Below is a list of online resources we recommend:

Online Reference Materials (Dictionaries, Thesauri):

1. Bartleby’s Reference Books Online includes links to dictionaries, thesauri, English usage books, books of quotations, and a variety of sources for specialized topics.
2. Cambridge Dictionaries Online includes links to American English dictionaries, French-English and English-French dictionaries, as well as Learners, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs dictionaries.
3. Merriam Webster Online includes a search box for dictionaries and thesauri.
4. Your Dictionary.com provides a dictionary search as well as an online translator.
5. com includes a dictionary, thesauri, language resources, and an online translator.
6. One Look Dictionary allows you to browse several dictionaries.
7. com is a link to Roget’s Thesaurus, which also provides links to language resources, dictionary.com, and an online translator.
8. Biographical Dictionary contains references to over 28,000 individuals.

Online Style Manuals

1. The Modern Language Association’s homepage.
2. The American Psychological Association’s homepage.
3. Purdue OWL guides to Modern Language Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association APA styles.
4. Purdue OWL guide to Chicago Manual of Style.
5. Strunk and White’s Elements of Styleis available online.

Writing in the Disciplines & Writing Across the Curriculum Resources

1. WID: Definition & Resources from the WAC Clearing House 
2. Havard College Writing Center
3. Columbia College's WID Website
4. WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University.
5. Northern Illinois University’s WAC Homepage offers historical information about writing across the curriculum as well as a variety of student and teacher resources.
6. Purdue University’s Writing Across the Curriculumwebsite provides general information about WAC programs and links to a comprehensive list of WAC programs in other universities.
7. Bibliography and annotated bibliography of articles about writing across the curriculum.
8. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s website contains a bibliography divided by discipline.

ESL Resources

1. Purdue University’s OWL ESL pagehas resources for teachers, including online journals, syllabi and assignments, general reference, and teaching specific tasks.
2. Dave’s ESL Café.Links to over 3000 resources for ESL students and teachers.
3. Useful Online Resources for Developing English and Academic Skills, developed by Denise Dolan, Emory ESL Services
4. Emory ESL Learning Resources
5. Using English

Professional Writing Resources

1. Purdue University’s online writing lab provides information and links about job searching, resumes, cover letters, employment letters, memos and reports, academic applications, and general business writing.
2. EWC: The BBA Application Essay
3. EWC: Personal Statements

Grammar and Usage

1. Grammar Girl (Blog)
2. GSU's Writing Studio Handouts (academic paper organization, affect & effect, apostrophes, colons, commas, compound/complex sentences, critical thinking, homonyms, me & myself, modifiers, parts of speech, quoting paraphrasing, semicolons, sentence fragments, and so on. )
3. Purdue OWL (General Writing Resources on general writing concerns, punctuation, spelling and capitalization, parts of speech, sentence construction, etc.)
4. Grammar Brushup (Videos at Weber State University)
5. Writing Frequently Asked Questions (From the University of Louisville Writing Center)
6. Writing Workshop Videos (From the University of Louisville Writing Center)

Science Writing Resources

1. The Science of Science Writing (National Center for Biological Sciences website)
2. CARS Model (PDF)
3. EWC: Writing Biology (PDF)

History Writing Resources

• Emory History Department's Tools of the Trade

Please use or adapt the following language on your syllabus:

Writing Center

The Oxford Writing Center (OWC) mission is to help students grow as flexible communicators and thinkers. The OWC supports students working on all forms of writing – whether for academic, professional, public, or personal purposes – through individual writing consultations, college-wide workshops, and an on-site library of writing resources. The OWC’s peer consultants are trained to support writing, presentations, or multi-modal assignments for any class; they are available at any point in the process, from brainstorming to argument development to polishing. The OWC is located in Pierce Hall 117, and appointments are recommended but not required. For more information, please visit the website at https://inside.oxford.emory.edu/academics/writing-center/index.html.

Policies

1. Please do not require students to visit the Writing Center. This policy is maintained for two reasons. First, there is way more demand for Writing Center conferences than we are able to meet, so we simply do not have the ability to accommodate entire courses being required to come. Second, Writing Center conferences are much more productive and enjoyable--for tutors and writers--when writers come of their own volition. If you would like for all of your students to experience the Writing Center, please contact the Writing Center Director. In addition to brief class visits introducing your students to the Writing Center, the Director can also work with you to develop in-class workshops with Writing Center tutors or other programming tailored to your students.
2. Provide written permission for students to discuss take-home exams with Writing Center consultants. In order to adhere to the Oxford Honor Code, we ask that instructors provide written permission (on a syllabus, assignment sheet, or personal note) if they wish to allow students to receive peer feedback on take home exams. Without this written permission, we cannot conference with students on exams.
3. Tell groups to come as groups. If students are working on a collaborative project, ask that all members of the group come together for a shared Writing Center conference.

Tips

1. Communicate the role of the Writing Center clearly to your students. Include a section on your syllabus about the Writing Center by using or adapting the syllabus language we provide. In addition, consider requesting a five-minute class visit from one of our tutors.
2. Give students clear, thorough, written assignment guidelines and ask them to bring those guidelines with them to their Writing Center conferences.
3. Have students review our appointment policies for students.
4. Encourage students to make Writing Center appointments at least three days in advance to increase their likelihood of securing an appointment. Our schedule often fills up several days in advance, and we can only take walk-ins on a very limited basis.

The Oxford Writing Center offers class visits for all courses at Oxford College. If you recommend a class visit, a Writing Center tutor will come to your class to introduce your students to the Writing Center and suggest ways that students can use Writing Center resources to support their success in your class. Class visits last approximately 5-7 minutes. We request that instructors give at least one week notice when requesting a class visit. Class visits are often most successful when they occur a few days before a major writing assignment is due. Faculty can request a visit by emailing leigh.elion@emory.edu with "class visit request" in the subject line. In your email, please include:

• Your full name
• Your course name and number
• The location of your course
• Your first and second choice of a class visit time
• What assignment/s your students will be working on at the time of the class visit