Writing Support for Students

We recommend students submit a request at least one week before the paper is due but no less than four business days before. You will need time to revise based on writing coach feedback, so it’s important that you make your appointment as soon as possible.

It’s OK to schedule an appointment before your draft is complete. We’re happy to work with you during the prewriting stage to help you organize your ideas. We request that you send drafts or outlines at least 48 hours before the meeting.

We have limited capacity for evening and weekend meetings, depending on our schedules. It’s very helpful to include some business hour availability when making your requests.

Please include the assignment instructions and rubric. If you have a draft ready, please provide that as well. If your draft is longer than seven pages, please indicate sections of most concern. It’s also important to give us specific windows of available time. If the faculty has provided feedback, please attach that feedback to your request.

We recommend having access to Blackboard and your original assignment sheet with accompanying rubric. You’ll also need access to Microsoft Word and note-taking materials. If you are revising a paper at a professor’s request, please make sure you understand the faculty feedback by discussing it with the faculty before the meeting. It is most productive if you attempt revision based on faculty feedback prior to meeting with a writing coach.

Prior to our meeting, please make sure you can use Zoom in advance and be heard. We’ve found that ambient sounds are picked up by microphones, even when you use headphones to block them out for yourself. Be sure you have a large enough screen that you can see what’s being shared during a virtual consultation. Some students find it helpful to have two devices active during a meeting, one for Zooming with the coach and seeing the coach’s screen and the other for making changes to their document.

During the meeting, we’ll be expecting you to take an active role. We will ask you to explain the assignment, where you are in the writing process, and what your goals are for the meeting. After we set our agenda, we’ll go through major areas of concern. Depending on length and complexity, we may not get through the entire document. We will make some changes to your written work together, but be prepared to complete most of your revision work after our meeting. We will also offer you additional resources if needed.

We schedule meetings for one hour.

Depending on the level of support you need or the length of the draft, we may not be able to cover an entire paper.

There’s no limit to the number of times you can work with a writing coach. Our only constraints are time and availability. If you would like to follow-up on the same paper, and there is time to meet again before the assignment is due, we can arrange that at the end of the meeting.

The writing coaches are not content or subject matter experts. Instead, we act as readers for logical flow; we know if content makes sense and is organized appropriately, but not if it’s correct.

While the writing coaches do not proofread or edit papers, we will point out what we see and model corrections. We do not make corrections or edits throughout the entirety of a paper.

We can answer specific questions by email, but if you would like us to check an entire document, please plan on meeting. We may be able to do follow-up consultation after an initial meeting via email, depending on availability and the nature of the request.

At this time, we do not have the capacity to offer support for professional writing, only coursework. For assistance with resumes, cover letters, or personal statements, please submit a request to the CAPS Career Coach. Additionally, you can check out the list of professional writing resources here, including freelance editors and proofreaders:
https://www.warner.rochester.edu/students/academics/writing/resources