Writing Program & Center For Speaking, Writing, and the Image

four speaking partners sitting at a table together, talking

Everyone's communication benefits from a second pair of eyes or ears, since it's difficult for us to evaluate our own work critically. The Writing Program provides faculty and students resources to teach, learn, and improve their writing, oral communication, and work with visual rhetoric.

Students come to the Center for Speaking, Writing, and the Image (CSWIM) to talk with other humans at any stage of their written, oral, and visual projects and processes. There's no need to work or think alone in college and collaboration is at the heart of the work that all academics do!  

CSWIM Writing, Speaking, and Image Partners welcome all kinds of communicative projects, including creative, professional, and personal, in all stages of development, from brainstorming to the final draft. Trained to think deeply about written, oral, and visual rhetoric and communication, these student peers meet one-on-one with students to facilitate conversations about everything from:

  • ID1 papers to senior theses
  • lab reports to creative writing
  • giving presentations to developing strategies for reading
  • engaging more deeply and confidently in class discussion
  • and designing or interpreting visual rhetoric in the image-saturated context of the 21st century

Our aim is to center students’ voices and goals as they navigate varying rhetorical expectations across genres and empower their projects to communicate effectively with diverse audiences.

The CSWIM also offers specialized writing and speaking support for multilingual students navigating English as an additional language. Contact us at cswim@dos5.net for more information or to be matched with a Regular Writing or Speaking Partner for weekly or bimonthly appointments. We offer both in-person and virtual appointments, and we have regular drop-in hours in Smith Campus Center 148.

The CSWIM's Instagram account is the best place to stay up to date on news about workshops and special events, such as the Fall ID1 Workshop Series, and we are located in Smith Campus Center, Suite 148, across from the Living Room and next to Edmund's Ballroom on the ground floor. During the semester, we are open all week, in person and online. Contact us at CSWIM@dos5.net