Faculty FAQS

Your students, your former students, even you!
Yes! We’ve had faculty request appointments to work on scholarly articles. They work with our director or assistant director and generally in the more private group study rooms where we tutor in the Post Learning Commons, but we'll follow your lead and your comfort level.
Drop our name—a lot. Writing Center. Writing Center. Writing Center. We also have a syllabus statement that you are welcome to cut and paste into your syllabus. You can find that here. Students also tell us that they are more likely to come to the Writing Center after tutors visit your classes to pitch the Writing Center. And we endorse bribes—the extra credit kind. Whatever you can do to get students into the Writing Center, short of requiring them to come, do; in turn, we’ll do our best to serve them so well that they want to return again and again throughout their college careers
If your student okays us communicating with you, then you will receive an email of our Client Report Form, which includes a description of the writing issues that your student addressed during their tutorial. The Client Report Form is written by the tutor.
Tutors are available to visit your classes to make brief presentations (5-10 minutes) about the Writing Center’s services. To request a class visit, fill out this form.
Yes! We have bookmarks with our locations and hours. Please stop by one of our locations to pick some up and give us a shout and let us know how many you need. We'll have someone drop them by your office or pop them in intercampus mail.
It seems like such a good idea, but, in practice, it doesn’t work out that well. We end up with a bunch of grumpy writers filling seats that could be occupied by writers who really want to be there. So, please don’t require your students to come to the Writing Center. Nudge. Urge. Shove. But don’t require.
That we don’t mind. Why? Your students still must take the initiative to seek our help for their writing. It’s their initiative, their responsibility. We’re okay with the extra credit dangling at the end of the stick.
Yes. We welcome students for whom English is not a first or home language. All of our tutors are trained to assist such students. Remember, though, we don’t assist students solely with grammar. To that end, if you think of us as a fix-it shop for grammar while you handle the content, everyone will emerge from the process disappointed. Just as we do with all writers, we step back and look at the whole, and when we find grammatical errors, we help students learn to recognize and correct those errors themselves. It’s a journey. Please encourage your students to come, and come often. (They are eligible for up to three hours of free assistance per week!)

Also, we host an ESL Conversation Group from 4 to 5 p.m. every Thursday in the Center for Inclusion and Diversity (Campion 211). Research shows that conversation practice can help improve ESL student writing.
Yes. However, we do require students to allow us to send a Client Report Form to you detailing our session. We advise students to make sure ahead of time that you permit your students to seek outside assistance on exams.
For students working on group projects, we require that all writers who contributed to the document be present for the tutorial. If only one group member attends the tutorial, we can only work on the part of the project that that group member composed.
Sure, we’re happy to help. Contact Director Jenny Spinner at jspinner@sju.edu or (610) 660-3272. You might also consider enrolling in the Writing-Intensive Summer Seminar, which is held every May.