Wofford’s Writing Center provides free peer tutoring on all aspects of writing, including generating ideas, determining audience and purpose, organizing ideas, providing evidence to support arguments, documenting sources and editing for grammar, punctuation and spelling. The role of Writing Center tutors is not to proofread or “fix” papers before they’re turned in but to respond thoughtfully to papers at any stage of the writing process and to help students improve their writing through discussion and instruction.
The Wofford Writers Series has been an important resource for the literary community since 1981. It has brought to campus several writers each year, ranging from the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney to the bestselling novelist Ron Rash, all of whom read from their work and meet informally with students, faculty and guests. These writers provide an insider's understanding of the literary process and help students assess their own aspirations and abilities as creative writers and critics of literature.
Every other year the college awards the Benjamin Wofford Prize to a book-length work by a student. Usually these are novellas written in the Novella Workshop, but the prize has gone to a collection of poetry and to books of non-fiction prose. The prize includes publication of the book.
The department oversees student publications — the Old Gold and Black student newspaper, the Bohemian yearbook and the Journal, a literary magazine published in the yearbook. The department also administers the Helmus Creative Writing Contest.