Required Tutorials for a Whole Class

Ideally, students visit the Writing & Speaking Center of their own volition. This personal investment helps ensure the productivity of writing tutorials. We are happy to accommodate professors who wish to require Writing & Speaking Center visits for an entire class, but we ask that you consider the following suggestions when framing your requirement in order to help students retain some level of personal investment in this process.

If you are considering required tutorials for a particular assignment:

Notify and Prepare Us

If you are interesting in requiring tutorials for students outside of LEAD 101 or 301, please e-mail Mandy Taylor at apheatwole@smcm.edu to make arrangements before sending your students. At this time, the Center can only accommodate required tutorials for whole classes (instead of individual students) to work on incorporating instructor feedback into writing assignments or practicing delivery for speaking assignments. We also cannot accommodate required tutorials for extra credit.

Prepare Your Students

• Discuss your expectations with your students in detail. Let them know how to prepare for the tutorial and what you expect them to get out of it. Do they need to bring a whole draft or just an outline? Can they come just to brainstorm ideas? Do they need to formulate questions for the tutors in advance?
• Stress to students the necessity of making tutorials in advance of the due date. Our usage varies, and the schedule sometimes fills suddenly and unexpectedly. This is especially true when an entire class is trying to visit the Center at the last minute. Additionally, students who make last minute appointments are often less able to adequately incorporate suggestions.

Structure the Requirement

Consider having students complete some assignment based on the tutorial itself. This could be a reflection activity, suggestions for how to improve the requirement in the future, notes they take during the tutorial, etc. These kinds of assignments help students engage with the tutorial process as a learning experience.

Allow Plenty of Time

Give students as much time as possible to arrange visits, and keep in mind that time is relative. For example, if you allow students two calendar weeks to complete tutorials, the Writing Center will only be open 10 out of those 14 days. Some of those 10 days may already be full at the time you announce your requirement, and some of the scheduled hours may conflict with your class time. Our usage varies, so please feel free to e-mail Amanda Taylor to get an idea of current availability.