Faculty

Writing Center

Resources for Faculty

Mission

The Writing Center is a respectful, inclusive space dedicated to supporting student writing across the curriculum. We believe writing facilitates learning and clarifies thinking. We approach writing as a process and encourage students to bring their writing at any stage. We provide appointments and scheduled drop-in hours, and are staffed by peer tutors who have undergone extensive training in writing center methods and practices. We do not edit or rewrite student papers, instead our tutors provide interactive one-on-one sessions in which they help students identify the strengths and weaknesses in their writing and take ownership of their own work.

Learn More

  • Syllabus Statement and Information for Faculty

    Thank you for supporting the BCC Writing Center. While we do ask faculty not to require students to visit the Writing Center, we are very eager to work with your students and to learn more from you about the kinds of writing you assign and how we can help.

    Syllabus Statement:

    BCC's Writing Center: Staffed by trained student tutors, the Writing Center exists solely for the purpose of helping students improve their writing. We can work with you to improve your writing for any course (not just English classes), at any stage of the writing process (understanding your assignment, drafting, revising, etc.). You can schedule a virtual or in-person session, submit a draft for written feedback, or stop by Melville 401 during our scheduled drop-in hours on the main campus. For more information about the Writing Center, including drop-in hours this semester, free writing resources, and answers to frequently asked questions, visit BCC's Writing Center.

  • Schedule a Writing Center Class Visit

    Students often tell us that they didn't even know that the Writing Center existed. But a quick visit from a Writing Consultant to your class can change that! Additionally, a class visit can help all students understand that there's no stigma in coming to the Writing Center. In fact, the strongest writers know that feedback and revision are essential aspects of the writing process. Please schedule a brief visit to any (all?) of your classes. If it's a remote class, we can do that, too!

  • Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)

    For more inforamation about assigning writing in your discipline along with additional resources just for faculty, check out WAC at BCC.

  • Academic Integrity

    The Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) recognizes that "plagiarism is a multifaceted and ethically complex problem" that demands ongoing conversations and shared responsibilities, among students and faculty. In your own classes, it's important to distinguish between - and to speak with your students about - the misuse of sources (which is often unintentiona) and plagiarism (which is understood as deliberate). Additionally, the more you model and explicitly demonstrate the appropriate conventions of research and documentation in your classes, the clearer these expectations become to students, in letter and in spirit.

    Assignment Design is also crucial in helping students learn and uphold academic integrity. The more specific, unique, and scaffolded your writing assignments are, the more effective they will be in helping students recogonize that research, like writing, is also recursive. By contrast, generic, broad, and/or overly generalized assignments can lead students to assume that the instructor is looking for a 'canned' response or that their own work is not important enough to warrant a personalized assignment.

    Want to learn more? See "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices."