Referrals, Syllabus Language, and other FAQs

Below, we’ve collected answers to the questions we most commonly hear from faculty. Please send any additional questions to the Writing Center’s director at diana.hamilton@baruch.cuny.edu.

Refer a student to the Writing Center

If you’d like to encourage one or more students to schedule a sessions, please complete our referral form. Students tell us that your referral is the most influential factor in their decision to use our services.

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Syllabus language

If you’d like to direct your full class to our services, consider using the template language below on your syllabus:

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Policy on required visits

We rely on faculty to refer students to our services, and we’re grateful for your support and encouragement! We ask, though, that you not require an entire class to visit the center. Our reasons for this are both practical and pedagogical.

• Practical: We’re often booked solid days or weeks in advance, and we don’t have the resources to guarantee that a whole class will be able to find appointments.
• Pedagogical: Students who are required to go the Writing Center often come without the investment necessary to be productive, since our pedagogy requires active work and participation throughout the session or workshop. Students who come with the primary goal of getting a signature certifying they’ve been here tend to get a lot less out of our resources.

That said, we understand there are many instances where requiring a visit simply makes it easier for the student to find the resources they need. For this reason, we’re happy to work with you on connecting a few of your students to required sessions—we just ask that you not require the entire class attend.

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Other FAQS

Who can use the Writing Center?

All Baruch students—undergraduate and graduate—currently enrolled in a degree-granting program.

Who are your consultants?

Our consultants are graduate-trained teachers of college writing. Most hold graduate degrees in Writing, English, TESOL or a related field. In addition to their work in the Writing Center, they teach courses here at Baruch and at other institutions across the city, and many write or edit professionally. Their bios are available here.

What happens during a Writing Center consultation?

A lot of that depends on the student. Generally, though:

• Students spend the first 5-10 minutes of each session in conversation with their consultant, as we learn more about their concerns, their assignment, where they are in the drafting process, and what they’re hoping to get out of the session.
• After the student and consultant decide together what the session’s goals will be, they spend the majority of the 50-minute session working towards those goals.
• Students write a lot—taking notes, brainstorming, revising, and drafting new writing. They’ll learn and practice new techniques for reading, developing arguments, researching, and editing. There’s a lot of conversation and plenty of time to answer questions along the way.
• In the last 10 minutes, students write a session record with their consultant—they’ll get a copy, which will help them remember what they learned, how they learned it, and how they can practice it in future writing. If they give us your email address, we can also send a copy to you.

What doesn’t happen during a Writing Center consultation?

• Consultants will not edit, proofread, or otherwise re-write student’s work. They will happily help students develop editing and revision skills, though!
• They will not discuss (or make predictions about) grades. Where appropriate, they will encourage students to re-read the assignment prompt to ensure they are meeting all stated expectations.

I am concerned about a student’s writing or language skills. What should I do?

We’re here to help you support students with writing and language needs. You’re welcome to refer students to our consultations and workshops. We welcome, too, conversations with you about your students’ writing, whether concerning a whole class or a particular student. Contact us and we’ll collaborate to develop the support your student needs.

Can someone come to my classroom to do a workshop on a specific writing topic?

The writing center offers many of our workshops in-class. Read over our lesson plans to find out more, and submit an in-class workshop form to make a request.

My student worked with someone in the Writing Center, but there are still errors/problems in the paper. Why?

Writing is a process, and improving writing takes time. Because we focus on long-term, transferable skills, you can expect each session to be packed and productive, but also to focus only on 1-3 key areas for improvement.

We also expect the student to continue to write and revise independently after a session. Note that we never directly edit or proofread students’ writing (though we help them develop strategies to do so themselves), so there may very well be errors after they leave the Center.

Will I know if my student has used the Writing Center?

At the end of a session, your student has the option to send you a copy of the session record, co-authored with their consultant, that summarizes the work they’ve done. Some students are reluctant to send this record, so we recommend letting them know if you’d like to receive these reports. If you’d just like to know if a student came to see us, you can call or email the front desk, where one of our assistants can check the schedule to confirm attendance.

What if the consultant at the Writing Center tells the student something I disagree with?

Readers often have different reactions to the same piece of writing; colleagues often have different approaches to teaching writing. It’s a good opportunity for conversation on these topics—with your student and with us. As a policy, you should know that we never discuss grades with students. If you have questions about the feedback your student received, please contact the center’s director at diana.hamilton@baruch.cuny.edu.

What’s your policy on ChatGPT and other generative AI?

Many professors ban the use of generative AI programs (like ChatGPT) outright, whereas others explicitly encourage students to make creative use of these tools. For this reason, Writing Center consultants can’t make assumptions about course policies.

If we believe that a student’s draft includes AI-generated lines, we’ll start a conversation about that fact—emphasizing the stylistic or rhetorical features that led to that assumption—and we’ll direct students to consult their syllabi and assignment guidelines for the class policy.

For further information, you might consult the Center for Teaching and Learning’s guidelines on the use of AI in the classroom.