Consultations

Individual Consultations

Please make an appointment to schedule a consultation with Writing Consultant Ms. Brenda Kent. For best results, send your draft, the assignment prompt, the grading rubric, and any other documentation regarding the assignment to her via email at least 24 hours in advance of your appointment. Reminder: The purpose of the writing program and instructional writing consultations is to help you strengthen your writing skills not to edit your work. Thus, while we may point out errors and other writing weaknesses that require your attention, our job is not to correct your papers but to help you work through the writing challenges you are facing (organization, development, style, design, punctuation, grammar, etc.).

How should you set up a consultation?

• In-person office appointments. Complete the form to make an appointment. Making an appointment will ensure that she sets aside enough time to help you.

• Drop-in appointments. When Ms. Kent is in her office (2019 Allen), you may ask if she has time to meet with you. If so, explain what you would like help with, leave the paper with her, and agree on a time to meet later to discuss it. She can also help with the pre-writing stage by discussing the assignment and how to get started.

• Virtual Appointments. You may request a virtual appointment if you cannot meet with us in our physical offices. Virtual appointments will be conducted in Zoom. The consultant will send you the Zoom link. 

• Google Calendar Appointment Form. Complete the requested information on this form to book an appointment. For best results, send your draft, the assignment prompt, the grading rubric, and any other documentation regarding the assignment to her via email at least 24 hours in advance of your appointment.

How should you prepare for a consultation?

• Identify what stage in the writing process are you in. Make an appointment that corresponds to the amount of time you will need to complete each stage. For example, a student needing help with "invention" should make an appointment much earlier in the writing process than a student who is close to finishing and needs help editing his/her work.

• Identify your goal for the consultation. What, specifically, would you like the consultant to help you with? An ambiguous and, thus, unattainable goal might sound like this: "Will you look over my paper and tell me if it's okay?" or "Will you tell me what I need to fix?"  A more effective goal would specify what type of help you think you need. For example, are you beginning the writing process and need help narrowing a topic? If so, bring several ideas with you and be able to explain why you think these could work for the assignment. Do you need help organizing your ideas? If so, bring your paper and an outline so we can look at the structure together. Do you need to understand how to cite your sources? If so, be prepared to identify what style guide the instructor (or context) requests. 

• Bring materials with you. What is the assignment prompt or project description? Do you have a rubric? samples of similar projects? Do you have comments from previous assignments that identify strengths and weaknesses of your writing? 

• Send your paper to the consultant in advance (preferably 24 hours prior to your appointment). If you are expecting feedback on your work during the consultation, we must have time to read through your paper before you arrive for your appointment. Of course, if the purpose of the consultation is to help you get started with an assignment, you need not send us anything ahead of time.