Writing Center Promotion as a Component of WAC Outreach!

Michaella Hammond

Hi, all!

For the next two weeks, I will be sharing some awesome information every Tuesday and Thursday on the following topics:

• Inventive writing center promos & how we can amplify our outreach to students and faculty
• Forthcoming Calls For Proposals (CFPs) from the International Writing Centers Association Collaborative, the Southeastern Writing Centers Association, the 11th Annual International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, & more
• An exciting research participation opportunity for writing center tutors (past and present) from Lindsay Sabatino and Jessica Showalter at Indiana University of Pennsylvania
• Your creativity and help are needed in naming Kaplan University’s *new* literary journal

In today’s post, I’m going to focus on creative writing center promotions at James Madison University, Kaplan University, and Michigan State University.

I will admit, as the Resource Specialist for Kaplan University’s WAC program, I was super inspired by James Madison University’s Super Tutors Video – it combines all the things I love: writing center promotion, superheroes, and humor!

James Madison University's Super Tutors Video Still

So, after seeing JMU’s creative promotion skills in play and also returning from ScreencastCamp this August, I felt inspired to try my hand at a short promo I created in Jing and Camtasia Studio 7.1 (think Super-Bowl-commercial short). This is what I came up with: Kaplan University Writing Center student outreach promo

Kaplan University Writing Center student outreach promo

For Kaplan University faculty and staff, please share this video by clicking on the video link and then selecting Share underneath the video to retrieve the hyperlink or embed code for your classes. Please note: You can change the size of the embedded video by simply changing the height and width amounts as well.

How to Share Screencast.com Videos from the Kaplan University Writing Center

Lastly, I was checking out John Lauckner’s blog (MA candidate in Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing at Michigan State University) since I’m interested in starting a Beer Rhetorics meet-up in Saint Louis, Missouri, and I stumbled upon some really slick, simple writing center ad ideas: John Lauckner’s blog

Writing center ad by John Lauckner, Michigan State University

I mention these diverse examples of writing center outreach  because I think the more we engage our respective learning communities in the types of writing support available, the more likely we will see students and faculty take advantage of our services. A win-win situation for all involved, right?

So, please: spread the word! (And do so in style … )

Cheers,
Michaella Hammond