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Writing Center Support for Faculty

The Writing Center provides instructional design support for faculty members who teach writing-intensive courses.

We acknowledge the importance of preparing students to write for a wide variety of purposes and audiences. Five types of writing commonly used within the discipline of nursing are:

  1. Formal, scholarly writing: typical writing assignments found in academia (research papers, literature reviews, formal case studies, policy papers, etc.).
  2. Technical writing: documentation of patient assessment and care such as nursing care plans and progress notes, symptom analyses, detailed physical assessments (head to toe, nutritional, functional, community, etc.) and writing specific to nursing specializations.
  3. Writing to educate: material written to educate patients, staff, or student nurses. Attention to learning objectives and health literacy issues are essential in this type of communication, which can include short papers, syllabi, professional posters, brochures, and PowerPoint presentations.
  4. Informal, or writing to learn: assignments that help learners clarify their thinking, foster the development of higher-level thinking skills, and employ short writing tasks to explore and integrate new concepts. The focus is on idea development rather than correct style, grammar, or spelling. Common assignments include Cornell notes, analytic summaries, journals, reflection papers, annotated bibliographies, blog entries, and online discussion postings.
  5. Professional communication: resumes, portfolios, personal objectives, letters, emails, etc.

Faculty support is commonly provided in these areas:

  • Redesigning writing assignments to engage students
  • Clarifying assignment instructions
  • Creating rubrics that are easy to use and align with course objectives
  • Rethinking how to give students formative feedback
  • Using the hierarchy of writing concerns as a way to focus your comments within the student’s cutting edge of learning

If you are interested in working with a writing support specialist, please request support through the link below. You will have the option to meet virtually or in-person.

We look forward to working with you!

Request Writing Center Support

Additional faculty resources:

APA 7 Resources for Faculty

What Students Should Know About CAPS Writing Support

What Faculty Should Know About CAPS Writing Support

We respond to requests within two business days and schedule student meetings as soon as possible, depending on their availability and ours. We recommend that students submit requests about a week ahead of the due date. Once we have met with the student, the faculty on record will receive an email notification with a brief summary of the topics addressed. A faculty satisfaction survey will be emailed once the request has been resolved.

CAPS works on a self-referral system, so you can suggest to the student that they would benefit from our services. If the situation justifies an academic alert, you will have the option to create a CAPS writing request on the academic alert form. If you do so, please provide a brief statement in the text box labeled “Please enter information about the nature of this request” to let us know how we can best assist the student in the context of your course and/or assignment.

We receive notice of your referral identifying the student, referring faculty, the course, and any notes that you included in the text box labeled “Please enter information about the nature of this request.” We will reach out to the student to request a meeting. We may also contact you for additional information about the needs of the student specific to your course or assignment.

We encourage you to make all of your students aware of CAPS services, but prompting the entire class to meet with us is not practical. There are limited writing support appointments available and they do fill up quickly. For general writing information and resources you can share with your students, check out https://rochester.box.com/s/obbeo8wnb431xb2gqqs5b9sex63sw7ty. If you have a course-specific writing support need, please contact Rebecca Wolf.

We work with all students to improve the clarity of their writing, and we’ve watched many students make great strides over several semesters. However, we do not offer proofreading or editing services. We also do not provide tutoring services for English language learners. The university maintains a list of English language resources that can be accessed by students here: https://www.iso.rochester.edu/living/culture/english.html Students have found this series of tutorials helpful for improving their basic academic writing skills: https://youtu.be/ETbCf8SvHW8

Writing Center Coaches

Rebecca R. Wolf, EdD Contact Information

Rebecca R. Wolf, EdD

Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing
Writing Center Coordinator

Rebecca's Profile
Rebekah Greene, PhD Contact Information

Rebekah Greene, PhD

Assistant Professor of Clinical Nursing
Writing Coach

Rebekah's Profile