Sweetland Center for Writing Departmental Information

At the University of Michigan, writing plays a critical role in students' thinking and learning, beginning with the first year and continuing into advanced writing in the disciplines. Students' ability to write prose characterized by analytic complexity, clarity, appropriate organization and development of ideas, effective use of evidence, cogency, and rhetorical awareness is crucial to their success both during their undergraduate years and beyond.

The Sweetland Center for Writing exists to support the improvement of student writing. To accomplish this mission, Sweetland:

  • administers LSA's writing requirements;
  • helps students choose their first writing course;
  • approves courses to satisfy the First-Year Writing Requirement;
  • approves courses to satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Requirement;
  • approves courses from other institutions that satisfy the First-Year Writing Requirement for transfer students;
  • operates a Writing Workshop for both undergraduate and graduate students;
  • operates four Peer Tutoring Centers, the Online Writing Lab (OWL), and the Synchronous Online Writing Lab (SyncOWL);
  • trains undergraduates to become Peer Tutors in WRITING 300: Seminar in Peer Tutoring and WRITING 301: Directed Peer Tutoring;
  • teaches WRITING 100: Transition to College Writing, WRITING 200: New Media Writing, WRITING 220: Introduction to the Minor in Writing; WRITING 400: Advanced Rhetoric and Research, WRITING 410: Quantitative Analysis and Writing in the Disciplines, WRITING 630: Advanced Writing for Graduate Students, and WRITING 993: Teaching Writing in the Disciplines;
  • offers the Academic Minor in Writing;
  • sponsors first-year and upper-level writing prizes;
  • runs an invitational faculty/graduate student seminar on writing instruction;
  • consults with faculty and departments about First-Year and Upper-Level Writing Requirement courses;
  • offers individual consultations in any area of writing pedagogy of interest to the instructor;
  • offers workshops that deal with common and more specialized issues in writing;
  • offers a Dissertation Writing Institute for graduate students;
  • offers the Sweetland-Rackham Workshops on Writing for graduate students; and
  • conducts research on writing.

Writing Support for Students

The Sweetland Center for Writing aims to help writers become more confident, skilled, and knowledgeable about writing and the subjects they write about. Sweetland faculty and peer tutors supplement formal writing instruction in the Writing Workshop, Peer Tutoring Centers, the Online Writing Lab (OWL), and the Synchronous Online Writing Lab (SyncOWL).

Writing Workshop

Writing Workshop offers free half-hour one-on-one sessions with University writing instructors for students who want feedback on their writing. Make an appointment on our website, www.lsa.umich.edu/sweetland.

Peer Tutoring

The Sweetland Center for Writing also operates four Peer Tutoring Centers located in G219 Angell Hall, 1136 Shapiro Undergraduate Library, 1059 Alice Lloyd Hall, and 2322 Bursley Hall on North Campus where students can get writing help on a walk-in basis, or electronically via Sweetland's Online Writing Lab (OWL) or the Synchronous Online Writing Lab (SyncOWL) found at: sitemaker.umich.edu/sweetlandwritinghelp/home.


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