Academic Writing Support (AWS)

Overview

The goal of the Academic Writing Support (AWS) is to assist our Single Subject Credential Program students with their writing for their courses and enable them to improve their academic and professional writing skills. 

All Single Subject Credential Program applicants are provided an on-demand writing sample during the admissions process when meeting with their Subject Area Advisor. Each applicant is given two opportunities to pass the writing task. Based on the outcome of this process, applicants may be conditionally admitted and required to undergo academic writing support throughout the program.

After the completion of a successful semester of course work, students may petition to be exempted from the academic writing support requirement. This petition should be made to the program coordinator and will require the support of all current instructors to be exempted of the requirement.

Complete our Petition for Exemption of Writing Support [pdf]

Requirements to Fulfill Academic Writing Support

  1. Attend at least two free SJSU Writing Center workshops each semester you are enrolled in the single subject credential program. These are free workshops for SJSU students and each has a specific topic.
  2. Attend a biweekly meeting with the writing tutor. In order to meet this requirement, you will be required to work with the writing tutor in the Lurie College Study and Collaboration Room on designated writing assignments in your credential classes. This will entail making regular appointments with the tutor well in advance of a given assignment’s due date and going to that first appointment with a best-effort draft of the assignment. You will also want to bring any rubric, assignment sheet or other descriptions of the assignment to these meetings. 

We suggest an initial meeting with each of your instructors to plan for what course work will be useful to bring to the writing tutor. You will need to submit a log to the Single Subject Credential Program Coordinator before the end of each semester. Failure to complete the above during each semester enrolled in the credential program, unless a successful petition to be waived from the writing support is received, may result in administrative disqualification from the program.

Complete our Academic Writing Tutor Log [pdf]