Resources for Faculty

What We Do

The Santa Barbara City College Writing Center offers writing support services to all SBCC students in all subject areas. Our goal is to help students become more confident, self-directed, and informed writers so that they can achieve greater academic and professional success. The Writing Center offers one-on-one tutoring, workshops, and a variety of helpful support materials.

Writing Skills Workshops

Writing Center Orientations

Handouts

The Writing Center can play an important role in supporting students. 

On average, students who use the Writing Center have a 15% higher success rate than students in the same classes who do not. In addition, students rate their online visits with us very highly (4.8 out of 5).

TUTORING

 

How faculty can connect students with Writing Center services:

• Add us to your navigation bar in Canvas.

 

Other Ideas:

• Mention the Writing Center in class and recommend its services.
• Include a section about Writing Center services in your syllabus. (Click here to see an example.)
• Require students to visit the Writing Center as part of the assignment itself. Many students who are required to visit us come back later on their own. (Please let us know if you plan to require visits.)
• Offer extra credit to students who use the Writing Center.
• Offer extra credit to students who watch a Writing Skills Workshop and take a quick quiz afterward. (We can provide quiz participation as proof of attendance.)
• Invite a representative from the Writing Center to visit your class for an orientation on our services. (We can Zoom in to synchronous classes or provide a short video for asynchronous ones.)
• Incorporate one of our handouts or worksheets into a classroom activity or assignment. You might also make use of our Writing Resources.
• Share your writing assignments with us ahead of time so that we can collaborate with you in supporting your students. (Email to writingcenter@sbcc.edu. Two weeks before is ideal.)
• Contact us to talk about the ways we can support your students. (writingcenter@sbcc.edu)

We are looking forward to supporting you and your students during the 2023-24 school year!

 

INDIVIDUALIZED, "LEARNING-CENTERED" SUPPORT

We are committed to providing opportunities for students to be active participants in their own learning. We are also committed to methods that are responsive to the learning process and the needs of learners in all their diversity. The enormous advantage of working one-on-one with students is that tutors can focus exclusively on addressing the dynamic and highly individual process of learning for each particular student. Tutoring is not simply more of what happens in the classroom, but rather a uniquely valuable opportunity when a tutor can adapt practice to support the individual writer. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LASTING SKILLS

While students’ individual goals are often practical and immediate—getting the best grade on their papers—tutors assist students in looking beyond the individual assignment and toward the acquisition of lasting skills. These skills frequently extend beyond writing skills per se and include other skills critical to student success, such as time management, self-reliance, and self-awareness as learners. Tutoring helps students acquire the skills they need to strengthen themselves, to find their own voices, to recognize their own areas for improvement, and to participate in a process that will not only improve the document at hand but also the development of enduring skills and habits.

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM (WAC)

Writing is a skill that is valued across the disciplines, and one-on-one writing tutoring is an effective complement to classroom instruction across the curriculum. Writing tutors assist students in meeting the demands of different types of writing assignments for a variety classes, including English, ESL, History, Philosophy, Early Childhood Education, Biology, Psychology, and Business Management.  We encourage instructors from classes across the curriculum to invite students to work with Writing Center tutors on any type of writing for their courses. 

THE WRITING AND LEARNING PROCESS

Writing is a mode of learning. Planning to utilize writing tutorials over the course of the semester gives instructors and students the advantage of receiving developmental and interim feedback on writing and critical thinking as it is happening, not just as it appears in a final document. Writing Center statistics continue to show a substantially higher level of success for students who use this service compared to peers in comparable courses who do not.

 Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our services. We look forward to working with you and your students.