SPH Writing Support Services

Mission 

To improve and enhance the public health communication skills, both oral and written, of all students to engage with diverse audiences through various media.

Vision 

To promote effective communication across public health disciplines.

Writing Support Services is housed in the SPH Library & Graduate Communication Center.

By adopting a learning commons model, UTHealth School of Public Health is adapting to the ever-changing field of higher education and addressing the skills gap in the field of population health by producing a trained workforce.

The SPH Library & Graduate Communication Center integrates Writing Support Services and Library Services to provide a full-service learning, research, and project space. To accomplish this goal, it combines the functions of a library, a writing center, and a student lounge in a single community space. This space strives to empower students to direct their own learning by offering them a place where they can meet, talk, study, and use shared equipment and resources.

Writing Support Services provides FREE writing instruction for all students at all levels of proficiency at all stages of the writing process.

Two training specialists and a scientific editor are available for writing consultations. During each writing consultation, we work with students to meet their goals and their instructor’s expectations for a particular writing assignment.

Writing Support Services assists students in many areas of writing to help them take responsibility for their own writing, which involves providing students with writing advice, instruction, and support.

NOTE: Writing Support Services is not a drop-off proofreading and editing service. Instead, we work one-on-one with students on their writing assignments to develop their own voices and confidence as independent thinkers and writers. Thus, we do not revise or correct papers for students, but we teach them these editing skills so that they can revise and correct their own papers. 

With their advisors' permission, we will refer students who are seeking editorial assistance (e.g., substantive editing, copy-editing, and proofreading of grant proposals, journal articles, and other manuscripts) to freelance editors/writers who are not affiliated with UTHealth School of Public Health and who establish their own protocols and pay rates. The school neither endorses nor recommends a particular freelance editor/writer.

Writing Support Services offers public health communication skills training, with a focus on writing. Instruction is provided in the areas of ESL, Academic Writing, and Scientific Writing. All resources and services are tailored to meet students’ needs and faculty members’ expectations.

We can help with the following areas of writing:

• Getting started (e.g., brainstorming, outlining, understanding the assignment)
• Content development (e.g., thesis statement and supporting paragraphs)
• Grammar/sentence structure 
• Punctuation
• Organization (e.g., developing topic sentences, organizing paragraphs)
• Documentation/citing evidence (e.g., AMA or APA style)
• Other (e.g., class requirement, proofreading strategies, research assistance)

We deliver writing instruction in the following formats (subject to change based on student preference):

• Individual/group face-to-face tutoring sessions
• Online feedback on writing assignments
• Workshops/mini-courses focused on grammar, citing sources, etc.
• Worksheets/handouts on Academic Writing and ESL topics 
• Writing groups facilitated by a training specialist to improve written communication
• Conversation groups facilitated by a training specialist to improve oral communication