Our consultants are trained to work with writers in any field of study, responding to the requirements of their writing tasks and expectations of their audience. Students can receive assistance with:

• Brainstorming
• Revision strategies
• Focus
• Development
• Audience awareness
• Academic databases
• Organization
• Citation/attribution
• Patterns of sentence-level error

Consultants offer so much more than another set of eyes -- they solicit the student’s active participation in addressing the larger goals of the writing; we allow writers to maintain ownership of their own words and ideas. This is the primary reason we do not edit or co-opt your students’ words.  

With any writing-centered task, it is important that you receive feedback during your process. We work with writers preparing for publication, working on theses/dissertations, and applying for jobs. The Writing Center is for the CSU and Fort Collins communities, and so we welcome anyone working on a writing project. 

In addition to supporting your writing project, we can:

• Discuss your writing assignments with you
• Identify common themes we see in your students' appointments
• Set up group consultations for students working on similar projects

We frequently invite guests to speak with our consultants. If you'd like to work with the Writing Center to ensure that we and your students better understand your assignments or expectations, feel free to email us (writing.colostate.edu).

Our mission is educational. Consultants strive to facilitate learning during each session through: 

• Productive conversation, 
• Active participation, 
• And ensuring that writers maintain responsibility and ownership of their work. 

We are not evaluative or corrective. Since our goal is to help writers improve their writing and revision strategies, we offer suggestions, rather than prescribe solutions. 

• For more information on our philosophy and training regarding grammar and language, please see our mission statement.

Voluntary participation in Writing Center services is always preferred, and so we ask that students not be required to come in. There are many stages of writing during which students might be encouraged to come in: 

• Starting: Understanding assignments, brainstorming, discussing and developing ideas 
• Drafting: Finding a focus, choosing a purpose, targeting an audience, developing a thesis or an argument 
• Revising: Improving organization, expanding ideas, improving clarity and cohesion 
• Researching: Finding a topic and choosing search terms, conducting searches (on the Internet and the library catalogue), evaluating sources, integrating material into an essay, documentation styles and citations 
• Polishing: We will not proofread or edit a paper, but we will help writers learn how to find and correct errors in punctuation, usage, and grammar. 

Upon student request, we send notification emails to inform you that they have come to see us. 

The Writing Center Seminar is a one-credit course designed for students to take concurrently with CO150. This course provides one-on-one attention and workshop opportunities for students who may need extra support. For questions regarding the seminar, please contact Leslie Davis at Leslie.Davis@colostate.edu 

• At this time, we have a selection of workshops that are scheduled throughout the year. Please see our Workshops page.
• If you would like to request an additional workshop, please contact the director, Mike Palmquist at mike.palmquist@colostate.edu.