Degree of Help Offered
We work on just about any kind of writing, including employment and grad school applications and personal and public writing not assigned for a class. Writers may meet with a consultant to discuss an oral presentation, multimedia project, email, blog, work of fiction, civic writing, and most other kinds of writing. We work on all aspects of a writing process from brainstorming through drafting, revising, and final drafts.
We focus on introducing practices and habits to writers and helping them implement strategies in order to give them additional tools when writing and rereading their work. These strategies often address grammatical, mechanical, and stylistic concerns, but they do so with a focus on long-term, widely-applicable practices, not on short-term, specific "fixes."
Please note that consultants only work with writers in live sessions. Consultants cannot pre-read drafts or provide comments or suggestions via email. Instead, we work with writers in live, conversation-based sessions.
In fact, we avoid one-time fixes and instead approach consultations as learning situations; we work with students to help them learn to do more intentional work in their writing. That work might include editing and proofreading, but it also includes a range of the many other actions that fall under the umbrella of “writing”: understanding assignment prompts, reading, planning and outlining, developing and refining research questions, using evidence, integrating texts, analyzing and synthesizing, drafting, revising, building an argument, learning to use a citation style, making decisions about code-meshing and language use, and much more.
Number of Consultations Offered
DU undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff may schedule one appointment per day, three appointments per week, and 30 total appointments per quarter. Additional drop-in appointments may be available if, at the start of an hour, a consultant is free.
We invite alumni to schedule one appointment per week in weeks 1-8 of any quarter; in weeks 9-10, alumni should contact us at wrc@du.edu to see if we have appointments available.
Drop-in Consultations
Individuals may stop by the Writing Center in Anderson 280 or join our Zoom room at the start of any hour without an appointment to see if a drop-in consultation is available. If no appointments are available at that time, we are happy to schedule the individual for the next available spot.
Missed Appointments
We hold all appointments until :15 past the hour. After that time, if a writer has not come in for a scheduled appointment without letting us know, we may release that appointment to a waiting writer.
Expectations for Online Consultations
Writers and consultants must refrain from smoking, vaping, drinking alcohol, driving, or operating motor vehicles during their consultations.