Faculty

What we can do for your students

We are the campus resource for assisting you and your students with writing projects and all topics related to writing! We offer one-on-one tutoring and guidance to current members of the UTSA community, including undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty and staff members. We want you to be aware of our services so you can promote them to your students.

Writing Center Blurb for your Syllabus

At the Judith G. Gardner Center for Writing Excellence, peer tutors help undergraduate and graduate students with any step in the writing process, from brainstorming and understanding an assignment to planning and revising. We can help with all types of writing assignments. In addition to one-on-one tutoring, we offer workshops throughout the semester on documentation and other writing topics. We have two locations: JPL 2.01.12D (main campus) and FS 4.432 (downtown campus). We also offer online tutoring seven days a week. To learn more about our hours and to make an appointment, visit our website: utsa.edu/twc.

Online Appointment System

By using our online appointment system, students can make two tutoring appointments a week and they can make appointments up to two weeks in advance. But before students can make an appointment, they need to register online (at utsa.edu/twc) with our appointment system.

We would appreciate it if you would encourage your students to visit the Writing Center. Students do not need to have a completed essay before they work with a tutor. Our sessions can be more helpful if students come in earlier in the writing process, and then have the chance to revise their essays using the guidance provided by the tutor. In fact, if students don’t know how to begin their essay, our tutors can help with brainstorming and planning.

Classroom Visits

As time permits, we are also available to visit your classroom to give an overview of our services, explain our appointment system, and describe what a tutoring session entails. Those classroom visits take only about ten minutes but often provide students with the encouragement they need to make their first appointment.

In-Class Workshops

Tutors or the Associate Director can visit your classroom to present workshops on writing topics (documentation, the writing process, the revision process, common grammatical errors), but we can also create a workshop just for your students targeting skills they need for upcoming assignments. We can come to your classroom, or you can schedule a workshop at our Writing Center Computer Lab. Email me to schedule a workshop.

Reserving the Computer Lab

In addition to tutoring services, the Writing Center offers technological support in the form of our computer lab. Our lab is located on the 2nd floor in the JPL (2.01.12C) and contains 28 computers loaded with software specially tailored to student research and writing, projection support for class lectures and presentations, as well as staff on-hand to offer instant IT support. To reserve the Lab for classroom instruction, please make a reservation through our appointment system. If you would like to reserve the lab outside our regular hours (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), please email me.

Required Visits

Are you planning to require students to visit the Writing Center or offer them extra credit for doing so?

oOften, students who are required to visit view it as punishment or as a waste of time, or as a stressful inconvenience, making the appointment itself less effective. Students are generally more receptive to the assistance of a tutor if the student voluntarily makes an appointment. Also, since we have a limited number of appointments each day, our schedule can get clogged with students who are required to make an appointment and don’t want to make the effort to engage or participate in the discussion with the tutor.

However, if you do plan on requiring your students to visit our Center, please give us advanced notice so tutors can be better prepared for your students. Please fill out this form and email it to me, providing a copy of your assignment and any notes on your specific expectations for the tutoring sessions. When students work with a tutor, they will receive a Verification of Attendance slip, if requested.

If you are requiring your student to visit the Writing Center, consider having a tutor visit your class to explain our appointment system and to describe what to expect in a session. We will remind students that a tutoring session is a participatory experience where they will have a conversation with the tutor about what areas the students want to work on. Also, we will inform students that tutors or not editors or proofreaders but that they will help students learn to edit and proofread more effectively.

If you have other questions, please feel free to contact me. My email is Martha.Smith@utsa.edu.