Student Incentives and Requirements

Faculty encouragement is the single greatest influence in a student's decison to seek help from the Writing Center. Many faculty successfully implement incentives or requirements to further increase student use of Writing Center support. Incentives for completing a Writing Center session could include

• allowing extra time for completing an assignment.
• raising a grade for an effective revision of a graded assignment.
• adding extra points to an essay grade for students who work with a Writing Assistant.
• assigning a reflection of  their Writing Center session.

Faculty requiring entire classes to schedule Writing Center sessions are asked to email the Writing Center to provide your course information, number of students, and timeframe in which visits will take place. Attaching a copy of your assignment guidelines and rubric will help us serve your students more effectively.

Note that required visits are effective only when students are prepared to be active participants in our highly collaborative sessions, and we therefore ask that faculty do the following:

• Help students understand what to expect in a Writing Center session by directing them to that information on our website.
• Require that students who are coming for mandatory visits have a draft ready to discuss.
• Emphasize that students should have specific goals, topics, or questions for their Writing Assistant.
• Provide students with feedback that enables them focus on areas in which you see room for improvement.