Center staff and Peer Consultants are available each semester to make brief presentations (10 min.) in your classes on the services available to your students.  These presentations cover the support services in writing and reading–individual sessions and workshops–and the Center’s location and operating hours. To request the Roadshow, fill out the Faculty Workshops Request Form on this page and send to Priscilla Tovey at ptovey@ramapo.edu at least two weeks prior to the event date./collapse]

The Consultant-Pairing program matches writing consultants with specific courses and instructors.  These consultants will meet with you to discuss your course writing assignments, introduce themselves to your class(es), and work with your students in the Center.  They’re also available to attend peer-review classes and facilitate short writing workshops.  While they are not expected to serve as TAs or do the course readings, they can provide some valuable assistance to you and your students.  For more information and/or to request a consultant, contact Priscilla Tovey at ptovey@ramapo.edu

Following are some comments from instructors who have participated in the program:

• “Amanda and I exchanged several emails before the semester began, and she visited my class and spent well over an hour going over the first essay topics. Amanda brought tips for effective writing and could not have been more engaging.  My students really responded well to her and welcomed her into our circle.  This is a great program! ” E. Dolgin
• “I am delighted with the effective help my students have been getting from Sarah.  As a former students of mine, she really knows what I tend to focus on and is familiar with the writing assignments.”  D. Tomko
• “Taylor is the tutor for my Readings in the Humanities class. She has explained the services of the writing center, done a lesson on the proper development of essays,  and is scheduled to do a culminating lesson on critiquing and research techniques.  She has done an outstanding job which is exemplified in the quality of my students’ essays.  This is undoubtedly a reflection of the excellent program you have developed.”   R. Gratale

Peer Consultants are available to join your students for peer-review classes and assist them individually and in small groups.  This service is part of the Consultant-Pairing Program but is also available to non-participants.  A Peer Consultant will contact you in advance of the session to discuss the assignment and the peer review process you use. Please email Priscilla Tovey in the Center for Reading and Writing to request a Peer Consultant: ptovey@ramapo.edu.  Requests should be sent at least three weeks prior to the session date.

The Center offers a variety of 30-45 minute workshops throughout the semester that take place during common hours, both remotely and in-person. Workshop topics include using style guides:  MLA, APA, and Chicago; common sentence errors, critical-reading strategies, writing thesis papers, and evaluating resources, study skills, note-taking, and academic-success strategies. Some professors encourage students to attend by giving them course credit.  Your ideas/suggestions on how we can further develop and enhance the workshop program are always welcome.  The Student Workshop Schedule is on this page.

The Portland State University Online Writing Center provides a comprehensive guided tour to writing papers. Below are steps of the writing process:

• Step 1: Understanding an Assignment
• Step 2: Finding a Topic
• Step 3: Developing Your Argument
• Step 4: Research
• Step 5: Organizational Planning
• Step 6: Writing a First Draft
• Step 7: Expanding and Improving Ideas
• Step 8: Improving and Refining Organization
• Step 9: Checking Your Use of Research
• Step 10: Checking Final Details

Explore steps 1 through 10 when you go to http://writingcenter.pdx.edu/resources/guide/index.php

The Online Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides thorough, easy-to-understand directions in helping writers develop an argument and thesis statement.  Under “Writing the Paper,” click on “Argument” when you go to http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/

Colorado State University’s online writing resources provide an example of a student’s argumentative essay entitled “Landscaping that Makes Sense for the West.” The “virtual tour” of the student’s essay begins with an analysis of the student’s claim, reasoning, evidence, and counter-argument. The tour ends with an assessment of the student’s effectiveness in making the argument and urges the reader to arrive at a claim based on the student’s argument. The essay can be used as a demonstration of argumentative writing which in turn provides a greater understanding of thesis paper writing. Go to http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/toulmin/pop2f.cfm.

Prewriting tasks are an immediate and effective way to relax, engage, and re-inform the writer about what the writer already knows in order to pursue the writing assignment. Pre-writing strategies serve the following purposes:

• Function as ice-breakers and help the writer overcome writer’s block.
• Immediately engage the writer and further motivate the writer to pursue the assignment.
• Enable the writer to explore and discover perspectives or convictions that may be used in pursuing the assignment.

The University of Kansas Online Writing Center describes the following prewriting strategies and activities:

• Listing
• Clustering
• Freewriting
• Looping
• Journalists’ Questions

Go to http://www.writing.ku.edu/prewriting-strategies.

After prewriting, the writer can develop an organizational plan and tentative outline. See the University of North Carolina’s video on various outlining strategies: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/outlines-demo/

Colorado State University has an online writing guide, “Planning, Drafting, and Organizing,” which can be used to assist a writer in starting a draft. The guide suggests the following strategies that writers can use to develop a draft:

• Defining terms and concepts
• Analyzing statements, ideas, and concepts
• Amplifying, clarifying, and explaining ideas
• Citing authority
• Citing common assumptions
• Qualifying assertions
• Providing contexts or associations for ideas and examples
• Using analogy
• Appealing to emotion

Go to http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/develop/.

The Portland State University Online Writing Center provides strategies on writing introductions . Go to http://writingcenter.pdx.edu/resources/guide/step07.php#detail1.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill provides strategies on writing conclusions. Go to https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/.

The following skills are necessary in writing a thesis paper:

• Emphasizing and explaining how a direct or indirect quote supports the main idea of a paragraph
• Citing and documenting correctly
• Detecting and avoiding plagiarism

The University of Kansas Online Writing Center provides basic directions on incorporating references and citing quotes. Go to http://www.writing.ku.edu/incorporating-references.

Revision and the intricacies of re-reading and re-thinking are challenging skills even for knowledgeable and experienced writers.

An overview of revision strategies can be found at the Harvard College Online Writing Center.  Go to http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Revising.html.  Harvard College also offers strategies for organizing an essay. See https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/tips-organizing-your-essay

These overviews can be simplified into manageable initial strategies for revision. For example, the student can revise by reading the draft and completing the following directions:

• Re-state topic sentences to support the thesis
• Re-state the thesis in alignment with topic sentences
• Examine the relevance of supporting examples
• Emphasize and explain how direct or indirect quotes support the main ideas of the body paragraphs
• Add, delete, or clarify ideas and sentences in the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
• Substitute weak words with more precise words. The Online Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides a guide on word-choice. Go to http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/word_choice.html
• Eliminate wordiness and ensure conciseness. Troy University’s Online Writing Center provides a guide on eliminating wordiness. Go to http://trojan.troy.edu/writingcenter/assets/documents/handouts/Conciseness.pdf. The Online Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides another online guide on eliminating wordiness. Go to http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-concisely/

The Portland State University Online Writing Center provides comprehensive revision strategies. The writer can click on the following steps of the writing process and learn more about revision strategies:

• Step 7: Expanding and Improving Ideas
• Step 8: Improving and Refining Organization
• Step 9: Checking Your Use of Research
• Step 10: Checking Final Details

Click on steps 7 through 10 when you go to http://writingcenter.pdx.edu/resources/guide/index.php.

To develop probing questioning techniques to assist an experienced writer with higher-level revision, the writer can consult Toledo’s journal article on developing probing questioning techniques. To find Toledo’s article, “‘Does Your Dog Bite?’ Creating Good Questions for Online Discussions,” go to http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE85.pdf.

The Center for Reading and Writing at SUNY Adirondack offers an online Proofreading Handbook that provides proofreading tips in assisting writers with low-level editing problems. These problems include fragments, run-ons, shifts in tense, shifts in point-of-view, plurals and possessives, subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage, punctuation, capitalization, and homonyms.  Click on each of the two Proofreading Handbooks when you go to libguides.sunyacc.edu/content.php?pid=47858&sid=1008451

A comprehensive online overview of higher-level proofreading and editing strategies can be found at the Harvard College Writing Center website.  Click on “Editing the Essay, Part 1” OR “Editing the Essay, Part 2” when you go to http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k33202&pageid=icb.page143936

To find MLA, APA, and Chicago online guidelines for documentation, the writer can google “Diana Hacker’s Research and Documentation Online.”

The Turabian or Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide on the Chicago Manual of Style Online can be accessed at chicagomanualofstyle.org

The Center for Reading and Writing at SUNY Adirondack offers two easy-to-use online style manuals: Using MLA to Document Your Sources and Using APA to Document Your Sources. These online handbooksprovide tips in assisting writers with documentation. Go to libguides.sunyacc.edu/content.php?pid=47858&sid=1008451

Troy University’s Writing Center provides online Turabian or Chicago Style Guides. Go to http://trojan.troy.edu/writingcenter/assets/documents/handouts/ChicagoHandout.pdf.

LINKS TO INTERNET REFERENCES, SUCH AS DICTIONARIES, STYLE MANUALS, GRAMMAR HANDBOOKS, AND EDITING RESOURCES

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab provides links to valuable writing references.
Go to owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/738/01/ Under “Internet References,” Click on any resource, such as “Dictionaries and Manuals.”

The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides an online comprehensive guide to answering essay exams. Go to http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/essay-exams.html.

DePaul University’s Online Center for Writing-based Learning provides an overview of research-based writing, such as directions for writing an annotated bibliography.   Cick on “Annotated Bibliography” or other types of research-based writing when you go to http://condor.depaul.edu/writing/writers/types.html,

The Online Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides a guide to writing abstracts. Go to http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/abstracts/.

The University of Kansas Online Writing Center has links to resources in evaluating websites. Go to “Evaluating Web-Sites.”

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab provides subject specific resources for writing in the disciplines:

• Technical Writing
• Literature
• Social Sciences
• Engineering
• Creative Writing
• Medical Writing
• Journalism
• Nursing

Explore links to writing in various disciplines when you go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/4/

The Online Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides guides and resources for writing in the disciplines.

• Anthropology
• Art History
• Communication Studies
• Drama
• History
• Literature (Fiction)
• Philosophy
• Political Science
• Religious Studies
• Sciences
• Sociology

Under “Writing for Specific Fields,” click on a discipline when you go to http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/,

“Abstracts,” The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/abstracts.html

“Argument.”  The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/argument.html

“Editing the Essay, Part 1” The Writing Center.  Harvard College Writing Program, 2011.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/edit1.html.

“Editing the Essay, Part 2.” The Writing Center.  Harvard College Writing Program, 2011.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/edit2.html.

“Essay Exams.” The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/essay-exams/

“Internet References.”  Purdue Online Writing Lab.  Purdue University, 2011.  Web. 20 Jan 2011. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/738/01/

“Prewriting Strategies.”  KU Writing Center.  University of Kansas, 2011.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://www.writing.ku.edu/prewriting-strategies.

“Subject Specific Resources.” Purdue Online Writing Lab.  Purdue University, 2011.  Web. 20 Jan 2011. owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/4/.

The University of Chicago.  The Chicago Manual of Style Online, 2010..  Web. 20 Jan 2011.  www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.

“Thesis Statements.” The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html.

“Ten Tips for ESL Tutorials.”  The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/transitions-esl/.

Toledo, Cheri.  “‘Does Your Dog Bite?’  Creating Good Questions for Online Discussions.”  International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 18.2 (2006) n.pag. Web 20 Jan 2011. http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/.

“Toulmin Demonstration.”  Writing@CSU.  Colorado State University, 2011.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/toulmin/pop2f.cfm

“Word Choice.” The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/word-choice/.

“Writing Concisely.”  The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-concisely/

“Writing for Specific Fields,” The Writing Center.  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.  Web. 19 Jan 2011. http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/

“Writing Guide:  Development.”  Writing@CSU.  Colorado State University, 2011.  Web. 19 Jan 2011.  http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/processes/develop/

Below you will find useful resources to use as you look for ways to support your students while they learn to critically engage with texts.

“Helping Students Read Difficult Texts”
In chapter 8 of John Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, Bean provides reasons for students’ difficulty with text, offers strategies to help students read actively, and makes suggestions for assignments that require students to interact with text.
http://www.case.edu/writing/pedsem/Bean_ReadingDifficultTexts.pdf
Helping Students Read Difficult Text  PDF

Critical Reading and Thinking
Check out these ideas, handouts and worksheets from SUNY Empire State College to help students read thoughtfully and critically. You will find strategies to help students before, during, and after reading. Topics include: taking notes, close reading, summary, interpretation and evaluation,  as well as ideas for reading literature.
http://www.esc.edu/academicreadingexercises

Teaching Critical Reading at the College Level
The University of Wyoming has some quick ideas for guided practice in critical reading at the college level.

Critical/Analytical Reading
Combined critical/analytical reading ideas and the questions you might ask your students about text. Outline includes critical dialogue, intratextual, authorial, historical, allusive, generic, philosophical and subjective context.

Critical Reading of an Essay’s Argument
This link from Carson-Newman College discusses the basics of critical reading, contrasts the act of reading to extract information with reading critically, and outlines a five-step process for critical reading. Wheeler’s process includes pre-reading, interpretive reading, critical reading, synoptic reading and post-reading.
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/reading_basic.html

Reading Circle Activities
Take a look at these hands-on ideas for active reading circles. You may be able to modify the activities for your class.
Reading Circle Activities PDF
Reading Circle Ideas

Engaged Listening and Reading to Write
Instructional handouts from Texas A&M University on how to help students “read to write” and listen actively. The bottom instructional link offers quick support for  “Teaching Critical Thinking”.
http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/teaching-writing/instruction/
http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/teaching-writing/instruction/teaching-critical-thinking/

Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty
Elizabeth Barkley’s book “is a comprehensive resource that offers college teachers a dynamic model for engaging students and includes over one hundred tips, strategies, and techniques that have been proven to help teachers from a wide variety of disciplines and institutions motivate and connect with their students.” This text was used for an RC faculty development “Teaching Circle” by Lysandra Perez-Strumbolo.  Copies are available in the Faculty Resource Center.
http://books.google.com/books?id=muAStyrwyZgC&lpg=PA1&ots=3tKEIIHvwM&dq=Barkley%20Student%20engagement%20techniques&lr&pg=PA26#v=onepage&q&f=false

Reader-Response Criticism
The Owl at Purdue presents reader response criticism theory and its role in determining the meaning of text.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/06/

Enhanced Learning
Learning to Learn, Marcia Heimen, Ph.D.  “Learning to Learn ®(LTL) is a system of learning and reasoning strategies with a long history of research and development. The LTL system is based on research conducted at the University of Michigan on the thinking skills of successful learners.
http://www.learningtolearn.com/college/collegewhat.html

Choices of Successful Students (Responsibility, Motivation, Self-Management, Emotional Intelligence and more…)
Oncourse, Skip Downing: “Synthesizing the best wisdom from innovators in psychology, education, business, sports, and personal effectiveness, the On Course Success Principles represent eight of the essential “things” that good learners believe and do. Founded on these timeless principles, the On Course text and the On Course Workshops give students and instructors alike a collection of practical success tools.”
http://oncourseworkshop.com/student-success-strategies/

The inexperienced and developmental writer manifest diverse learning abilities and needs.  Also, the student learns a wide range of skills in order to write, use information literacy, and read.  Computer-writing pedagogy is engaging and interactive and allows the instructor more effective classroom management for one-on-one instruction.

COMPUTER-WRITING PEDAGOGY FOR THE INEXPERIENCED AND DEVELOPMENTAL WRITER