Undergraduate Programs

Services for Faculty

Explore the numerous services, professional development, and resources the Writing Center can provide faculty and staff.

Writing Center Drop-in Assistance
The Writing Center provides one-on-one consultations with trained undergraduate Writing Advisors who are available to conference on any paper at any point in the process. Topics include but are not limited to understanding prompts, brainstorming and organizing ideas, revising drafts, applying instructor feedback, and reviewing citation guidelines.

Hours & Location
The Writing Center is located on the 1st Floor of Brandel Library (123). Drop-in conferences can be attended 1) in person by visiting the Writing Center or 2) online  in the form of a synchronous conversation (audio or video) over a shared text. We open for drop-in conferencing starting Monday, January 31. No appointment needed.  Visit us in person, or virtually “drop-in” by accessing the Writing Advisor schedule posted on our writing center website/outside our office door and initiating an online drop-in conference by sending a message via your NP Outlook email or the MS Teams chat function to the drop-in  WA on duty.

Our drop-in hours are Sunday, 4 pm – 8 pm; Monday-Thursday: 10 am to noon, 1 pm – 5 pm, and 6 pm – 10 pm CST.

Additional info and resources can be found here: https://www.northpark.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/academic-assistance/writing-center/

ESL1000/ACSR1020 (1 sh)

The English Language Clinic is for students interested in attending one-on-one coaching sessions with an ESL professor in order to improve the formal academic writing they do for any undergraduate course. Please contact Suzanne Shenker (slshenker@northpark.edu) or Melissa Pavlik (mpavlik@northpark.edu) if you would like to add this course. We specialize in helping students to

  • identify second language interference issues (grammar help)
  • develop academic vocabulary in writing
  • apply instructor feedback to revisions
  • understand organizational patterns common in American essay writing
  • format papers using guidelines that pertain to writing American-style essays

Request for Assigned Writing Advisors_Fall21 and send to Melissa Pavlik at mpavlik@northpark.edu or via campus mail to the Writing Center, Box 38.

Please note that Cornerstone and WRIT 1000 classes are the top priority for assigned WAs. WR classes are the next priority, then WI classes. Because many of the Cornerstone sections run in the fall, fewer WAs are available for other classes. The supply for WR/WI classes is greater in the spring, though there may be some WAs available in the fall semester, depending on the number of Cornerstone/WI sections being offered and the number of WAs available. We’ve been able to cover requests for spring WR and WI classes, plus some other classes in which a heavy load of writing is a part of the teaching/learning strategy.

A list of projected outcomes intended for the Core Curriculum as a whole. Each of the levels of the Core Curriculum contributes to students meeting these outcomes and it is only through the sequence that a student can be expected to meet all the outcomes.

First-Year Outcomes for Written Communication and Critical Thinking

Writing Outcomes for Writing-intensive and Writing-Research Classes

Written Communication and Critical Thinking Rubric and Outcomes

Cornerstone Syllabus Template

Factors of Success — C. Martin

A list developed based upon the research of the Documenting Effective Educational Practice project of the Center for Post Secondary Research at Indiana University. It includes the level of academic challenge, active/collaborative learning, student interactions with faculty members, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment.

Grade Characteristics and Criteria — C. Martin

A standard set of criteria according to which essays will be evaluated, including:

  • Richness/Originality of Ideas or Synthesis
  • Thesis and Topic Focus
  • Development of Reasoning
  • Organization and Coherence
  • Expression
  • Correctness

Would you like a WA or Writing Center staff member to visit your class and give a brief introduction to our services? Look for an email at the start of each term inviting you to receive a visit, and we’ll coordinate our visit to suit your schedule and needs. You can also request a visit at any time. Contact the Writing Center to schedule a visit.

Class visits will likely be conducted remotely via Microsoft Teams, but we may be able to conduct a limited number of in-person class visits as safety permits.

The underlying assumptions for this faculty development seminar are that all disciplines want students to think well and that the process of writing can be an effective starting point for thinking: ergo, writing can be a useful teaching method, if our goal is to induce students to think. That’s all fine and good, of course, but how do we effectively incorporate writing into our teaching?  This seminar is designed to work at responding to that question. We’ll do some background reading in and discussion of general pedagogy and writing pedagogy, but we’ll also do some hands-on work using our own syllabi/syllabuses and writing assignments and North Park student essays. This is a wonderful opportunity for sustained, in-depth conversation with colleagues from across the whole array of disciplines and for strategizing teaching plans for next year. Participants receive a modest stipend, and all books and copies are made available to you gratis. Contact Melissa Pavlik for further information.

The Writing Center reviews writing prompts for faculty who would appreciate (anonymous) student feedback on writing assignments before assigning them in their classes. Faculty send their assignment to Melissa Pavlik, who removes identifying features, and then circulates the assignment to seasoned WAs. The WAs review the assignments, write up their observations, and send comments back to Melissa. She removes identifying features from the comments and returns the commentary to the faculty member. Those who made use of this service in the past a) thought that their assignments were probably already in pretty good shape, and b) found the feedback useful anyway. Please allow at least two days’ lead-time.

Browse our collection of PowerPoint presentations for examples of effective PowerPoint design and tools for in-class writing instruction.

Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Writing Instruction/Pedagogy Presentations

For her classic journal article “Responding to Student Writing,” Nancy Sommers studied instructor feedback and found that commentary on student papers was not specific to each student’s essay and could be “rubber-stamped” from one essay to the next. In contrast, here are some examples of responses from our Writing Advisors that give students’ work a fair and thorough reading on its own terms and that respond with feedback designed to generate new, deeper ideas. These are not intended to be entirely exemplary—there is way more commentary here than one instructor could possibly be expected to give. These are meant to give examples of the kinds of comments you could make… not an example of how many you should make!