Faculty Services

Because faculty are in regular contact with students and read their work, they can help students understand the advantages of going to the Writing Center for support. If you would like to put a statement in your course description to tell students about the Writing Center, here is some language that you can use:

Writing Center

The Writing Center, located at 317B O’Hara Student Center, is an excellent resource for working with an experienced consultant on your writing. You can choose to work with a faculty consultant or a trained undergraduate peer tutor. Although you should not expect consultants or peer tutors to “correct” your paper for you, they can assist you in learning to organize, revise, and edit your work. They can also help you get started!  Consultants can work with you on a one-time basis or throughout the term. Their services are free. You can browse the services they offer or make an appointment by visiting www.writingcenter.pitt.edu

Below are answers to questions that faculty frequently ask.

Is it possible to send an entire class to the Writing Center? 

We are typically running at nearly full capacity, so we cannot accommodate entire classes of students. It is more effective and efficient to send individual students to the Writing Center rather than issue a requirement for an entire class. Good tutorials rely on student input; students who don't want to be here or don't see the need to be here take up time that might otherwise be spent with students who would benefit from our services. If you'd like your students to experience the Writing Center, you can suggest that every student come here to work on a paper of their choice at any time during the semester. You may also want to schedule a Writing Center orientation, so that a consultant can talk to your students about how the Writing Center could help them.

How can I arrange for my students to learn more about the Writing Center?

By contacting Patrick Manning, Outreach Coordinator, you can arrange to bring your class to the Writing Center for a brief orientation or to have a consultant to come to one of your class sessions. You can e-mail Patrick at p_manning@pitt.edu or call him at 412-624-6556. Read more >

How can I find out if a student has been to the Writing Center? 

The best way is to ask students and have them explain (or even write about) what they worked on. It is our policy not to sign papers or provide evidence that students have attended the Writing Center.

If the Writing Center doesn't correct papers, what happens in a tutorial? 

Our goal is to support writers at all levels, to help them become aware of their writing process and to take responsibility for it. A typical tutorial might consist of a brief conversation about how the paper was written; the consultant will ask the student what she wants to focus on in the tutorial. We encourage students to shape the direction of the tutorial through our questions.  Sometimes we ask students to read their work out loud; other times, a consultant will model editing and proofreading strategies that the student can try on her own later in the paper. This means we often do not get through an entire paper in a session but expect the students to complete the work on their own, using what they learned in their session.

When is it appropriate to recommend students to the Writing Center—before or after they've written a paper? 

Students can come to the Writing Center at all stages of the writing process from brainstorming to drafting to revising to editing and proofreading. They can bring their assignments before they start writing, or they can bring part of a paper they are already working on.

How does the Writing Center work with students who need help with grammar and punctuation? 

The Writing Center teaches students strategies for working with error in their own writing. We generally don't use drills; instead we help students learn to identify their patterns of error and correct them on their own. We direct students to handbooks, style books, online writing labs, and other resources that they can access when they're writing their papers.

What happens when students go to the Writing Center and their writing doesn't improve? 

Writers develop their habits—good and bad—over a period of time. Any change in writing requires practice; the more students write, the more changes you'll see in their writing. Because we don't correct or proofread student papers, their papers may still have errors. Some students might need multiple appointments over the course of a semester. The degree of improvement depends on students' individual needs and the time they're able to put into their writing.

How do students arrange to see a consultant? 

Students can make an appointment online or call our front desk at 412-624-6556.

What about graduate students who need help? 

Graduate students can use the Writing Center and are subject to the same rules and policies as undergraduates. It's important to remind graduate students that the time available to them is limited and that we are a teaching service: our goal is to help writers, not to correct individual pieces of writing. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for proofreading or editing, line-by-line, entire long documents like theses and dissertations. In collaboration with the Writing Institute, the Writing Center offers many different kinds of support. These opportunities are advertised via email from the office of the associate dean for graduate studies. 

Can the Writing Center help faculty?

Yes. We can meet one-on-one with teachers to help them think about how to address writing in their classrooms. We can work with teachers on writing assignments or help them talk through approaches for working with students on their writing.

We are also happy to work with faculty members on their writing. You can make an appointment with Dana Nowlin-Russell to work on grant writing or with other consultants to discuss your academic writing. Meeting with a consultant can offer you a fresh perspective and can help you learn things about your writing and your writing process.

Keep in mind that the Writing Center is not an editorial service. We are happy to talk to you about your writing and your process, but we can't help you edit every sentence of an article or book. Since we will have limited time together, what are your priorities? Read over your document thoughtfully. What questions do you have? What parts of your process would be useful to talk over with a consultant? If your project is more than four or five pages, please identify the pages you want to focus on in this session. You can mark these sections in the margins, for example. Our consultants do not have the resources to read or comment on documents outside of appointments in the Writing Center.

If you want to hire an editor for your writing, the Writing Center maintains a list of freelance editors for hire. We don't vet the editors, set pricing, receive money, or supervise the editors in any way, but because so many faculty and graduate students are looking for editors, we offer a list. If you ask around iin your department, you may find that your colleagues also know editors for hire, and they may have more direct experience in your field.

Can you direct me to other resources on the teaching of writing?

The Writing Center is part of the Writing Institute. The Writing Institute site offers useful information for faculty, including the Faculty Writing Program, news about upcoming workshops, sample writing assignments, the requirements for W-courses, suggestions for responding to student writing, and more.