Consultations - Berea College

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Consultations

Writing Resources serves all students at all levels in all disciplines at any point in the writing process. This means that we see it all; L&I assignments, Biology lab reports, personal statement drafts, poetry, Political Science papers, English papers, and so much more. Our consultants are trained to listen, ask questions, and intervene in both higher order (thesis, organization, flow, brainstorming, etc.) and lower order (grammatical constructions, sentence structure, etc.) concerns. That said, we are always seeing something new, so don’t be surprised if your consultant needs to ask questions or look something up to make sure you get the right information. Our approach to learning is centered on helping you grow as a writer long-term. While we may ask questions and make suggestions to help you build on and express your own ideas, we won’t tell you what to write in your paper or say during your presentation. We will point out patterns in your writing that may need revision based on the context of your assignment, and we will ask for assignment sheets to help you make sure you are responding to that context.

How to Prepare for a Consultation

We offer three types of appointment: 1) In-Person; 2) Video Chat; and 3) Paper Upload (for written feedback), and you will select your type when you fill out the original appointment form at https://berea.mywconline.com . Our peer consultants have training and mentoring to help you with your writing, but you can also help them do a good job by preparing for your consultation. To get the most out of your consultation, please prepare by reviewing the following instructions.

To get the most out of an in-person or video chat consultation:

Bring either your laptop or a printed copy of your text
Bring a digital or physical copy of your assignment sheet.
Bring any information from your professor (written feedback they gave on a previous assignment, etc.)
Think about your top three goals. What do you want to get done in the 50 minutes you and the consultant have together? Make sure you discuss those goals with your consultant.

Consultants may sometimes ask students to read (or offer to read themselves) part or all of the work aloud to get a feel for the student’s writing style and help make sentence-level revisions easier to identify. Consultants also often emphasize “higher order concerns” in your writing, meaning that even if you ask for sentence-by-sentence revision, they may point out a missing thesis statement or organizational shifts that may be needed to fulfill the assignment’s requirements. The consultant may sometimes encourage you to return for a follow up appointment if there is not enough time to address your concerns in a single session.

We have found that our most effective consultations take place face to face where consultant and client can ask questions, respond to feedback immediately, give clarification, etc. However, we understand the need to offer multiple options for you to get feedback. Please know that, if you need guidance on outlining or brainstorming, a paper upload consultation will not be as effective as an in-person or video consult. Paper upload consultations can be effective for finished drafts that need line-by-line revision or a formatting/citation check.

Even though you won’t be physically present during the paper upload consultation, you can help the consultant give you the best feedback possible by:

Uploading a draft text that they can review and comment on
Remembering to upload the assignment sheet (if relevant)
Providing detailed notes in the appointment form so they know exactly what kind of feedback you are hoping to receive and your main concerns.

At the end of each consultation, the consultant will write a session log to document the issues addressed and the progress made by the student. If you requested it, a copy of the session log can be sent directly to your professor to document your visit; please give the professor’s email to the consultant.

Some Things to Remember

Have feedback or questions for us? We would be glad to hear from you. You will always receive an automated survey after each appointment, and we do review these each semester to see how things are going and where we can improve. If you have immediate feedback and need to talk to someone, please email Lauren Hall, Writing Resources Director at lauren_hall@berea.edu , and she will be glad to set up a time to meet.