Faculty and Instructor FAQs
Faculty and Instructor FAQs
Absolutely! The CWE is open to all members of the Baylor community, including faculty and staff who need feedback on writing projects like articles, grant proposals, book chapters, syllabi, or assignment prompts. We recommend making an appointment with the Division of Graduate Writing. To make an appointment, visit https://baylor.mywconline.com/, call the CWE at (254)710-4849, or stop by in person in Moody Library (2nd floor).
No, we do not copyedit in the CWE. However, we do keep a list of consultants who are willing to copyedit outside of their writing center work. In this case, a consultant would work with you individually to set up the pay rate, determine the workload, and see if this partnership is a good fit. If you would like to be put in touch with a consultant willing to provide this service, send us an email at CWE@baylor.edu and we will put you in touch with one.
To encourage students to use the Center for Writing Excellence, we encourage you to introduce our services early on, through syllabus statements and classroom visits. Let your students know that it’s better to get started earlier, rather than waiting too close to a deadline. For more a set of pre-written syllabus statements and information on scheduling a classroom visit, please see our Faculty and Instructors resource page.
Absolutely! The Center for Writing Excellence offers options for both undergraduate and graduate students. The Division of Undergraduate Writing offers intro class presentations, live mock tutoring demos, and specialty presentations on a variety of writing-related topics. The Division of Graduate Writing offers brief informational sessions or longer, content-oriented presentations on topics such as rhetorical concerns in research writing, research organization skills, concise writing, the writing process, revision strategies, and more. You are also welcome to request a class tour of the Center for Writing Excellence on the 2nd floor of Moody Library. Please see our Faculty and Instructors resource page for more information, including how to book a session.
The Center for Writing Excellence supports faculty who would like to require student visits, though we ask you to review our Guidelines for Required Visits on the Faculty and Instructors resource page. Due to limited staff, the Division of Graduate Writing encourages graduate instructors to contact the director, Dr. Becca Cassady, before requiring a visit. All requests for required visits are subject to staff availability.
At the Center for Writing Excellence, our consultants are trained to focus first on higher-order concerns like a paper’s thesis statement, organization, and structure before attending to lower- or later-order concerns like grammar and style. Part of the function of this training is utility—if a paper completely ignores the assignment prompt but is perfectly formatted, the writing will have failed in its purpose. The Center for Writing Excellence believes in the importance of grammar in conveying a writer’s message, but our consultants will first focus on bigger picture concerns.
Consultants are also trained to focus on patterns, rather than correcting every instance of error. Since the Center for Writing Excellence is a learning space, our consultants are trained to teach writers to self-identify and self-edit their own work. The Center for Writing Excellence will not edit or proofread work, but will equip writers with the tools to complete this stage of the writing process.
In addition to classroom visits, workshops, syllabus statements, we offer instructional consultations for faculty and instructors. Our professional staff is happy to work with you in designing your writing assignment prompts. We can help you consider how to compose the prompt, structure the assignment, scaffold mini assignments, and create a rubric. We can also provide guidance on how to effectively give feedback to students on their writing. If interested in a consultation, email us at CWE@baylor.edu. Our Faculty and Instructors resource page also contains a link to helpful handouts on a number of writing-related topics.