Setting realistic but concrete goals—SMART goals—for our work allows each one of us to shape, manifest, measure, and reflect on our professional development and to do so in ways that are commensurate with our experience as peer writing tutors. A SMART goal is one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
SMART goal infographic
Each quarter, your goal will have 3 required elements:
Setting SMART goals and documenting and reflecting on them makes the Writing Center as a whole better and more effective, given that, in study after study of goal setting within organizations, “the mean performance level of groups that set goals is almost one standard deviation higher than that of groups that do not set goals” (O’Leary-Kelly, Martocchio, & Frink, 1994, p. 1295).
We want you to set a goal that is meaningful to you and relevant to your work in the Writing Center. You can consider crafting a goal about your tutoring—possibly even connecting it to our quarterly theme—or about Writing Center Operations or Teams. You can also design a goal focused on your own writing or professional pursuits as long as it also connects to your work in some way.
The goal you set each quarter should give you work to do during unscheduled time in your shifts and may require you to proactively block off time to focus on accomplishing your goal.
A goal may relate to any aspect of your work at the writing center, including but not limited to tutoring strategies, writing knowledge, or any role you fulfill. Consider how you wish to grow in your work as a tutor as well as how the work you do can support you in your academic and/or professional pursuits. You may collaborate with another tutor on your goal if you wish.
You are also invited to reflect on the quarterly themes and develop a goal centered on how you want to engage in the theme related to your work in the Writing Center. For instance, the Autumn Quarter 2025 theme is agency; consider crafting a goal that allows you to enact your agency as a tutor, e.g. drafting a script for appointments with writers using the Writing Center for the first time so that you can communicate with them effectively and confidently fulfill you role as a tutor guiding the writer in the appointment.
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25-26 Quarterly Themes