Course-based Writing Support

Customized In-class Writing Workshops

CTL writing specialists can develop and offer in-class writing workshops tailored to your course, assignment and disciplinary needs. We work with you to identify what would be most helpful for your students and to use samples from your discipline and even your course. Past workshops have included reading academic articles, approaching a new genre, developing an effective thesis, acknowledging counterarguments, and using and citing sources effectively. 

Course-based Writing Retreats

Writing Retreats get students started early on an assignment and increase their confidence around writing. A writing instructor will review the assignment, break it down into steps for students and structure the remaining time so students actually work on the assignment. Open retreats are one hour long and offered once or twice a week throughout each academic term. 

For courses with 80 students or more, CTL Writing Support can offer customized 90-minute writing retreats where we review your assignment and offer writing instructor perspective and advice. Students can ask questions in the chat and after a retreat with lots of questions, we create and share an FAQ that the instructor can post. It is ideal if the course instructor or TA can attend the retreat but not essential.

We suggest offering a bonus mark of 1% for students who attend 3 retreats and submit a short written reflection after each retreat on their learning. Instructors generally offer a few percentage points on the course assignment to motivate students to attend. Students tell us over and over that they came because of the bonus, and found it extremely useful.

Contact writing.utsc@utoronto.ca.

Writing Support Consultation Form

We offer Writing Support consultations. Please use this form to indicate the supports that would benefit your students and help us prepare for a consultation with you.