Speaking and Writing Center Workshop Request Form
Please fill out the following form. Descriptions of the workshops appear below.
All workshops are designed to fill most or all of a 50-minute course period (though many can adapt activities to fill 75 minutes). Please fill out one form per class section.
We make every attempt to hold workshops in HCC 407. However, if that is not possible, we will schedule the workshop in your classroom.
Please contact Kelsey Proctor, Academic Support Centers Manager, at 540-654-2459 or kprocto2@umw.edu with any scheduling concerns.
When requesting workshops, please feel free to send copies of the assignment and/or rubric to Dr. Leah Schweitzer, Speaking and Writing Center Director, at lschweit@umw.edu. These materials will be shared with consultants so that they are more prepared for your students.
Workshops have been designed in advance to meet the needs of most classes on campus; while we make every effort to tailor our examples to your class, we are not able to customize a workshop to each individual class. If you have special requests, please contact the Director to discuss what we are able to do.
Introduction to Peer Academic Services: This workshop is primarily for FSEMs, though any other class is free to request it. All FSEMs should schedule this workshop early in the semester as it will introduce the services of the Speaking and Writing Center, Peer Tutors, Peer Academic Counselors, and Digital Knowledge Center. In addition to learning about these centers, students will engage in discussion about how they might utilize multiple centers for a single project as well a take a tour of the 4th floor spaces where these centers are housed. This workshop is always scheduled in HCC 407. It is 50 minutes.
Introduction to the Speaking and Writing Center: This workshop will introduce your students to all the services the Speaking and Writing Center can provide as well as take students on a tour of our space in HCC 429. This workshop is always scheduled in HCC 407. It is 20-25 minutes.
Creating an Effective Thesis Statement: This workshop focuses in on the difference between the purpose of a paper, the topic of a paper, and a thesis statement. During this workshop, consultants will talk students through their paper assignment to help determine the purpose for writing as well as help them brainstorm potential topics. They will then explain the next steps to take as they move on to forming a thesis statement. Students will also get practice in forming strong thesis statements through activities. This workshop is designed to take 50 minutes, though can be expanded to 75 minutes to give students more time to work on developing their thesis statements.
Brainstorming, Thesis Development, and Outlining: This workshop explores the early stages of the writing process, taking students through activities designed to help them make early progress on their assignment as well as understand how brainstorming can lead to a thesis statement and the thesis statement can determine what kind of organizational structure (outline) will best suit their purpose. This workshop is designed to be one full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
From Idea to Proposal (Sciences): This workshop introduces students to the types of thesis statements as well as developing a hpothesis as well as the framework for writing a proposal. It also discusses language and discourse appropriate to writing in the sciences the parts of a proposal and contains activiites to help students get started on their project. This workshop is designed to be one full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Avoiding Plagiarism: This workshop focuses on showing students how to incorporate, contextualize, and engage in conversation with sources. While there is some attention to citing—mostly discussing what the purpose of citation is—this workshop does not teach to any particular citation method nor does it explicitly go over how to create a correct citation. The focus is much more on the correct and responsible use of sources. This workshop is 50 minutes. It can be extended to 75 minutes to give students time to work on their projects implementing what they have just learned.
Presentation Basics: This workshop covers the basics of a presentation’s structure, delivery, constructing presentation slides, and communication apprehension, It includes activies which ask students to articulate what makes an effective presentation, evaluate the effectiveness (or not) of sample slides, and takes the temperature of their speaking apprehension. This workshop is best suited for 75 minutes since it contains a lot of content, but can be done in 50 minutes (with reduced activity time) if needed.
Incorporating Visuals/Presentation Slides: This workshop focuses on visual rhetoric and how to consider which visuals best serve your purpose, theme, tone, etc. It will also touch on how to cite/give credit to visuals either in papers and/or on slides. If you indicate in the comments which is more appropriate, we can tailor this to focus more on incorporating visual representations of data (i.e. charts, graphs) into papers as well as how to properly reference them or we can focus on the creation of slides for a presentation. This workshop is designed to take 50 minutes but can be expanded to 75 if you would like students to work on their visuals in class.
From Paper to Presentation: This workshop helps students to take their essay and turn it into a presentation, taking into consideration how organization and transitions might change, how to visually represent material that was previously in text form, and how to adapt the paper to fit within the time constraints of the presentation. We will also briefly provide some public speaking tips. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes). 75 minute classes will have more time to participate in designed activities.
Peer Revision Workshop: Speaking: This workshop will briefly provide students with guidelines for what it means to revise and how to apply that to thinking about changes they made need to make to their presentations (text and visuals) as well as speaking tips they will want to consider. The majority of this workshop will focus on students providing feedback to one another in small groups. We will provide questions for them to consider (based on your assignment if provided ahead of time) as they provide feedback to one another aimed at helping them revise their content and perfect their presentation style. Students should come to this workshop with any supplemental materials (i.e. slides) and be prepared to practice their presentations. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Peer Revision Workshop: Writing: This workshop briefly goes over the difference between revision and editing, with a focus on what it means to revise and make global changes to a piece of writing. The majority of the workshop will focus on a guided peer revision, with students breaking into small working groups. We will provide questions for them to consider (based on your assignment if provided ahead of time) to help them provide useful feedback to one another. Students should come to this workshop with drafts of their work, preferably in hard copy. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Understanding and Utilizing Feedback: This workshop provides students with a systematic way to work through feedback they have received, identify trends in that feedback, separate global concerns from local concerns, and formulate a plan for revision. Instructors may be asked to participate by explaining what particular terms or phrases mean to them and clarifying what their expectations are for how feedback they provide should be into use. Students should come to class with a draft of their paper and the feedback they received on it. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Speaking though Anxiety: This workshop considers the reasons we experience speaking apprehension and gives students tools to combat their anxiety. We will discuss speaking apprehension about public speaking (presentations) as well as apprehension about participating in class discussion (small and large group). Students will engage in activities to practice these anxiety-combatting techniques. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Writing through Anxiety: This workshop considers the reasons why we experience writing apprehension or “writer’s block” and gives students tools to combat this including breaking assignments down into chunks, time management tips, and writing exercises that they will practice during the workshop. This workshop is 50 minutes.
Group Presentations: This workshop addresses how to do group presentations focusing both on strategies for working in groups as well as tips for presenting as a group (including what to do when you’re not speaking) and how to handle Q&A sessions after the presentation. This workshop will also include activities to help students problem-solve potential difficulties associated with working in a group. Please let us know where your students are in the group presentation process (have they been assigned to groups? Have they begun planning? Should they have drafts of their presentation in progress?) and we can tailor the activities to where they are in their process. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Creating an Accessible Presentation: This presentation focuses on accessibility including how to make presentations accessible to an audience including those who are visually and/or hearing impaired. We will also discuss how to make a presentation inclusive of all those in the audience regardless of ability and how to equally value all listeners. Students will be introduced to tools that can help them evaluate how accessible their presentation materials are and will be given time to either apply these tools to their work in progress or begin working on their materials with these tools in mind. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Elevator Pitches: This presentation focuses specifically on the art of the elevator pitch—a speech that you can give in 2-5 minutes to explain an idea, promote yourself, or otherwise convince someone they want to hear more. Students will participate in activities designed to help them consider what should (and should not) be a part of an elevator pitch as well as practice in actually delivering an elevator pitch. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
Writing for Digital Environments: This presentation focuses on writing for online environments such as blogs or discussion boards, social media, and multi-modal assignments. It also discusses how to make online and multi-modal composition accessible for all audiences (with the largest focus on alt text). It includes activities which will help to reinforce what is being discussed. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes).
How to Write a Book Review: This presentation focuses on how to construct an academic book review, focusing on the essential parts of a book review, how to provide evidence in an appropriate way for this genre, and articulating the moves reviewers generally make in a book review. As part of the workshop, students will be given examples of parts of book reviews and asked to identify and discuss the key elements as way of making explicit what components of a book review look and “sound” like. This workshop is designed to take 50 minutes.
Conference Presentation Basics (Sciences): This presentation focuses on giving a conference-style presentation with emphasis on “telling your story” (making the data matter); creating slides, with special attention to how to best convey data; and handling the Q&A. This workshop is designed to take a full class session (50 or 75 minutes). In a 75 minute class, we can add in some advice on presentation style (i.e body language, pacing, eye contact, etc.) upon request.
Group Discussions: This workshop focuses on helping students to prepare to lead small and large group discussions as well as how to participate effectively in group discussion. The workshop contains activities which allow students to analyze what does and doesn’t work in group discussion as well as practice leading and participating in discussion activities. This workshop is designed to take 50 minutes.