The University Writing Center offers the following resources to support faculty as teachers, writers, and scholars:
The JMU Link Library
The JMU Link Library can be a useful resource for teaching faculty. If you are looking for new ways to explain a writing or citation concept, additional writing resources for your students, or a quick reminder grammar review for yourself, you might find what you need in the JMU Link Library. Please feel free to contact us at feathejj@jmu.edu if there is an additional resource you would like to see.
Syllabus Statement
The University Writing Center discourages faculty from giving class credit to students who visit the center. Students often come to these sessions with very little motivation or willingness to work. In addition, having our services tied to a grade also contradicts our mission. We want to work collaboratively with students to empower them as writers. We want students to feel they can come to the center to work on assignments and develop their writing without being fearful about grading or judgment.
If you would like to encourage your students to use the Writing Center, feel free to copy and paste this syllabus statement into your syllabus or Blackboard classroom.
Class Visits & Workshops
Our consultants and peer tutors can visit your class to promote Writing Center services or to provide mini-workshops on specific topics. Contact Paige Normand to coordinate a visit.
Individualized Writing Consultations
We welcome faculty to take advantage of the same individualized consultation services that we offer to students. You can make an appointment through our convenient online scheduler.
Teaching Consultations
Writing Center consultants can assist faculty who teach writing in any discipline with assignment design and troubleshooting, evaluation techniques, and classroom strategies for enhancing student performance on written assignments. Guidelines for providing effective essay feedback to students can be downloaded by clicking here. Contact Jared Featherstone for additional information.
Scholarly Writers' Groups for Faculty
In partnership with JMU's Center for Faculty Innovation, the University Writing Center offers various programs to support faculty scholarship across campus. The Scholarly Writers' Groups provide structured, writer-centered environments for faculty to work on scholarly manuscripts, books, or other writing projects. Each group provides individualized objectives, support from peers, accountability for progress, and celebration of successes. Please contact Kurt Schick for additional information.
Designing Effective Assignments
Not getting the results you want from writing assignments? Looking to improve your prompts? Wondering how to help students manage major assignments or group projects? The University Writing Center has created a video series to show you exactly how students struggle with writing assignments. If you would like to schedule an one-on-one consultation about your writing assignments, please contact Jared Featherstone.
Undergraduate Writing Fellows Program
The Writing Fellows Program pairs advanced undergraduate writing tutors with courses in a variety of disciplines. In these classes, writing fellows help lead writing workshops, deliver mini-lessons, hold individual student conferences, and collaborate on assignment design. Learn more about hosting a writing fellow in one of your courses here.
Diagnostic Grammar Tests
Want to assess the grammar and punctuation problems of your students? These self-scoring diagnostic tests can help students identify the problems they need to work on to improve their writing. The test results can also give you a clear idea of the strengths and weaknesses of your students .
Intermediate
The following diagnostic test from Prentice Hall uses multiple choice questions to evaluate students understanding of the following topics: spelling, homonyms, capitalization, commas, apostrophes, quotation, subject-verb agreement, verb tense, pronoun agreement, adjectives, adverbs, run-ons, comma splice, fragments, and pronoun reference. A form at the bottom of the page allows students to e-mail the test results to you or print them out.
http://www.prenhall.com/grammarassessment/
These diagnostic tests from Grammarbook.com use a multiple choice format to test students on a variety of grammar and punctuation topics. Explanations are provided to help students understand their errors. The site offers a Pre-test and a Mastery Test, along with some shorter quizzes covering specific grammar topics.
Pretest:
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/grammar_pretest.asp
Mastery Test:
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/grammar_mastery.asp
Advanced
This diagnostic test from Edict.com tests students on a very extensive list of grammar and punctuation topics, using pull-down menus to complete sentences. The test explains each specific topic using technical grammar terms, which may be difficult for students unfamiliar with analyzing grammar. If you are interested in having your students gain a thorough knowledge of grammar terms and rules, this test can be a good exercise. The site gives students a thorough feedback report after they submit their answers and provides links to lessons and additional exercises for each topic area in the report. Their test results and comments can be saved and printed.
http://www.edict.com.hk/diagnostic/
