Why faculty support should look more like a writing centre

Higher education recognises that peer writing support matters: student writing centres not only manifest institutional commitments to equity, they improve confidence, increase student persistence and strengthen belonging. Yet institutional investment in collaborative writing support too often stops at the student level. Why do we invest structurally in peer writing support for students, but do so unevenly, informally and tepidly for faculty?

The answer is rooted in the enduring myth of the self-sufficient scholar. Faculty are expected to navigate a “hidden curriculum” of increasingly high-stakes writing labour – book proposals, tenure files and evaluation letters, and programme assessments – largely on their own. When writing support is limited, stigmatised or unevenly distributed, the professional consequences fall disproportionately on individuals, particularly those with heavier teaching loads, fewer institutional resources or marginalised identities. 

Our disciplinary value systems can also make asking for help feel risky. In fields where the monograph remains the gold standard, scholars are incentivised to build identities around singular intellectual authority and innate writing ability, pressures that can foster protectiveness, territorialism and isolation. I internalised this solitary-writer ideal early in my career before realising that many prolific academics quietly relied on editors, coaches and collaborative networks. Writing centres, however, already offer a counter-model, one grounded in dialogic support rather than evaluative “end readers”. From my time coordinating a peer tutor programme, I observed how these supports can become essential academic and social lifelines; students return not only for feedback, but for accountability, confidence and connection. Faculty deserve similarly intentional structures. 

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Some campuses already offer useful models. Several writing centres – notably Yale University’s Scholars as Learners Program and Villanova University’s Faculty Writing Program – run faculty programmes that combine retreats, workshops and individualised coaching. Others host application-based groups, embed professional writing coaches or curate vetted lists of external editors. These are important steps in acknowledging the need for both individual and communal peer support, with demonstrated benefits for both productivity and community-building. Formalising these options also reduces stigma and increases participation.

But existing efforts remain uneven across and within institutions. Writing groups are only as effective as their members are dedicated and compatible, and it’s not always easy to be vulnerable, open and honest among colleagues who assess one another. Because institutional power and evaluation structures shape these dynamics, these groups may feel inaccessible, particularly for minoritised scholars, multilingual writers and those who are neurodivergent or have disabilities. Non-tenure-track faculty often lack access to formal and informal mentoring networks that support scholarly work, including for job letters and teaching statements. 

Redesigning support also requires challenging the conflation of productivity with individual willpower. As Mimi Khúc argues, the directive to “write every day” can be both ableist and unrealistic for faculty balancing teaching, caregiving and service. Instead, she asks: “What enables me to write? What do I need in order to write? What would make writing feel joyful, full of possibility, full of wonder and creation?” The answers, of course, vary across scholars; some need structured group accountability; others need focused individual attention or personalised coaching to manage executive-functioning barriers. Institutions that take these questions seriously and offer varied forms of consistent support, shift attention from productivity as a virtue to the conditions that make writing possible.

These gaps in support can be addressed. Institutions can expand the ecology of writing support by taking three concrete steps:

1. Curate and expand access to writing support

Institutions should proactively curate and share writing support resources, including writing centre staff, external consultants and structured writing groups or retreats. While group formats can be professional and personally rewarding, faculty can also benefit from individualised, need-specific guidance.

2. Fund the full writing process

Institutions should expand allowable uses of research funds to include developmental editing, coaching or copy-editing – and communicate this clearly. Faculty may hesitate to pursue such support without explicit confirmation that they are covered. Those with greater discretionary resources can hire a professional editor on their own, creating a potential inequity that institutional research funds could mitigate. 

3. Create shared writing spaces

A truly inclusive writing centre would be one that is open to all campus members. What if these spaces were shared by faculty and staff as well as students? This would be a powerful way of modelling writing as a fundamentally social practice and as a shared, visible and vital part of academic life. 

Writing centres demonstrate that dialogic, iterative feedback produces more resilient writers and community investment. When faculty have access to similar ecosystems, writing becomes a less lonely rite of passage. 

Higher education’s austerity efforts rarely move beyond cutting, tightening and retracting. Yet, there are opportunities for strategic expansion, and it starts with what we decide to prioritise. If we are worried about reducing turnover and burnout, retaining diverse scholars, and navigating ethical complexities of AI, broadening the infrastructure for faculty writing models is an excellent antidote to the isolationist tendencies that feed on these crises. 

Anne Brubaker is an associate teaching professor of writing at Wellesley College.

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