University of Minnesota
student writing support
center for writing
writing.umn.edu


Student Writing Support.Center for Writing's home page.

Resources for instructors

Introducing SWS to students in your class

Our surveys show that more students use Student Writing Support because of their instructors' advice than for any other reason. Your support of our services is vital, and we greatly appreciate it.

For Fall 2023, we are unable to schedule informational visits to classes. However, if you would like to arrange a time for your class to come to Student Writing Support's Nicholson or Appleby Hall locations for an on-site introduction to SWS, please email writing@umn.edu. We will do our best to set something up!

Outside of tours/visits, here are some materials to help you introduce SWS to your students:

Text that may be used in your syllabus

Student Writing Support (SWS) offers collaborative one-to-one writing consultations to help student writers develop confidence and effective writing strategies. Writing consultants will listen to writers' goals and concerns, read and respond to their written work, pose questions that help them clarify and articulate their ideas, and affirm the experiences and abilities that they bring to their writing. SWS values writers' life experiences and languages, and SWS seeks to provide a supportive space for them to share and develop their voices.

Consultants work with writers at any stage of the writing process, such as brainstorming and organizing ideas, developing a thesis statement or line of argument, creating cohesive paragraphs, revising sentences, and documenting sources. A consultation is often focused on a specific assignment or writing task, with the goal of supporting writers as they develop more effective and productive writing strategies to apply to future writing projects.

For Fall 2023, consultations will be available by appointment in 15 Nicholson Hall, Zoom, and SWS.online, and on a drop-in basis in 9 Appleby Hall. For more information, go to writing.umn.edu/sws.

In addition, SWS offers a number of web-based resources on topics such as avoiding plagiarism, documenting sources, and planning and completing a writing project.

SWS policies that you need to know about

Because we are an elective resource that relies on student collaboration and trust, we cannot accommodate “required” appointments nor provide instructors with proof that student visits have taken place. Instructors who would like to offer students extra credit for working with an SWS consultant might ask their students to summarize what happened during the session.

Especially for multilingual students

Instructional consultations and web resources for teaching with writing

All instructors are encouraged to visit the Teaching with Writing (TWW) portion of this site, which contains a wealth of resources that help instructors effectively incorporate writing into their courses. Professional teaching consultants are available to meet individually with instructors about all aspects of teaching with writing. For more information, please go to the TWW consultations page.

Additional resources for instructors at UMN