Welcome to the Bryan Writing Center
The Writing Center at Bryan College of Health Sciences (BCHS) provides writing support to all undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and other members of the greater college community. As a campus resource, our goal is to support writers by providing individualized sessions between the writer and a trained writing consultant that work from the writer’s goals. We believe that everyone is a writer. We are here to support any type of writer, any form of writing, and any stage of the writing process by:
- cultivating a welcoming, respectful environment,
- connecting writers to resources on writing techniques, genres, audiences, and styles,
- and helping writers gain confidence and comfort with writing as a technical skill, creative medium, and form of individual expression.
“Receiving feedback was very efficient and helpful. This was only my second time using the writing center but I always find the feedback to be very helpful. I also enjoy that those who help in the writing center give me tips on how to improve my writing for the future. I will definitely be using the writing center again!” – BCHS Student Writer
What we do:
The Writing Center offers various services to students, faculty, and staff members at BCHS, including:
- Online and in-person consultations
- Online: live consultations with video/audio/instant messaging feedback options
- eTutoring: remote consultations with email feedback
- Face-to-face and walk-in appointments
- Writing workshops, pop-ups, and webinars
- Class visits and co-teaching sessions
Writing consultants can work with writers to build knowledge and skills across a range of writing areas, including:
- Pre-writing: Brainstorming/organizing ideas/creating an outline
- Drafting: Developing an abstract, thesis, or main idea/forming introduction and conclusions/constructing topic sentences
- Revising: Content organization/sentence structure and clarity/citing external sources
- Editing: Grammar/verbs/tenses
- Formatting: Citations/references/title page (APA 7, MLA 8, AMA)
- Please only upload a maximum of 10 pages per appointment. Writing projects with more than 10 pages attached will not be reviewed.
- To be respectful of the center's resources, writers who are more than ten minutes late to a scheduled consultation will be asked to reschedule.
These policies are in place to ensure that we are considerate of others time, energy, and attention.
FAQs (What we will and won't do):
- Will you judge me or make fun of my writing? No. We won’t judge you or your writing. All writers are growing writers. As such, we understand that each of us are at different stages in the writing process.
- Will you talk about me or my writing with others? No. We will respect you, your writing, and your privacy. All center staff sign a confidentiality agreement. Basically, what happens in a consultation, stays in a consultation. We will never share information about you or your writing with others.
- I haven’t started my writing project. Will you write it for me? No. We believe in supporting writers, not writing for writers. This means that writing is your responsibility, we simply provide resources to help you grow as a writer.
- Will you help me become a better writer? Yes. The Writing Center focuses on skills-based, goal-oriented growth. This means we focus on the process of writing, rather than the product. We will provide you with resources to grow your skills and knowledge as a writer.
- If I visit the writing center, that means I’ll get a good grade on my paper, right? No. We cannot guarantee a good grade. All writing is the responsibility of the writer. What happens to your writing project after it leaves the center is in the hands of the writer. All recommendations and suggestions for your writing are yours to use or not. We encourage you to do a final review to make sure your writing assignment has met all of the requirements from your instructor.
- I’m interested in helping out in the Writing Center. Can I become a writing consultant? Yes! For more information, email writingcenter@bryanhealthcollege.edu to ask about joining our team!
Resources for students:
What to expect:
- Writing is a form of creating, and sometimes, asking a stranger to review what we have created can feel uncomfortable (and scary!). Here is a brief summary of what to expect when connecting with the Writing Center:
1. First, writers should schedule an appointment. Writers are encouraged to fill out the appointment form with an assignment description and goals for the session.
2. Next, a trained writing consultant will review appointment information, facilitate a conversation with the writer to outline goals and actions, and provide guiding questions, recommendations, and activities to develop each writer’s knowledge and skills.
3. Then, the consultant will work with the writer to accomplish the goals of the session by reading through the writing project together.
4. Last, the consultant and writer will end the session with a conversation that summarizes the session and answers any final questions.
How to prepare:
- Schedule a consultation in advance of your writing project deadline or due date.
- Provide a physical or digital copy of the writing project, as well as any supporting materials about the project (course syllabus, assignment rubric, etc).
- Share ideas, ask questions, and set a goal for your consultation such as “I want to make sure I have APA 7 formatting down” or “My goal is to double-check that my main ideas are organized and make sense”.
Resources for faculty and staff:
What to expect:
Writing is a multidimensional concept and practice: it is a technical skill, a social identity, a form of individual expression, and a collaborative process that invokes audience, content, and form. The Writing Center seeks to teach-with rather than do-for the writers we serve through iterative and reflexive processes like listening, questioning, modeling, and mentoring. In addition to supporting student-writers, the center serves as a campus resource open to collaborations with the faculty and staff of BCHS. The Writing Center is available for:
- Co-teaching workshops designed for program or course specific writing
- Visiting classes (in-person or online) to present information about the Writing Center as a resource
How to connect with the center:
- Invite a Writing Center representative to give a presentation to your class.
- Include a paragraph about the Bryan Writing Center in your syllabi.
- Encourage student-writers visit the Writing Center.
Writing Resources: Coming Soon!
