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Policies & Practices

• 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."

• Number of Consultations Offered

  DU undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff may make up to two scheduled appointments per week on two different days. 

  Writers may try to make up to two unscheduled appointments by asking for a drop-in appointment at the start of any hour. If a consultant is free, we will make appointments available on this drop-in basis.  

  Writers may have a total of one scheduled appointment and one drop-in appointment on any given day.  

  Writers may have a total of two scheduled appointments and two drop-in appointments in any given week. Weeks start on Monday and end on Sunday. 

  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

  Writers who have not exceeded their consultation limits are welcome to drop in without an appointment from :00 until :15 after each hour. If we have a consultant free, we are happy to make you an appointment for that hour.

• 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.

• How to Prepare for a Consultation

  To best prepare for your face-to-face or online consultation, we suggest you re-read your current draft and assignment or instructions while considering what you most want to address with your consultant.  

  Consider your writing goals: what would you like to accomplish? What specific challenges are you experiencing? What questions do you have? If you have a longer paper, which section are you most interested in discussing? 

  Consider your writing history: what kinds of comments have you received from professors, readers, colleagues, peer reviewers, or others on previous writing? What challenges do you face in writing? What strengths do you have a writer?  

  Consider your writing process: where are you in the process of this particular piece of writing: first draft? almost finished? When revising, what kinds of feedback and conversation do you find productive? What are your writing habits? 

  Please bring any relevant materials: hard copy drafts, assignment prompts, notes, texts / source material, laptop, and your ideas and questions.

• What to Expect
  • When you come in for an appointment, the person at the front desk will greet you and may ask if you have a printed copy of your paper (some consultants prefer working that way). They will ask you to have a seat at the front of the room, and when the hour begins, your consultant will come meet you and take you to a table. 
  • Your consultant is likely to begin by asking some questions about your writing goals, your writing history, and your writing process. They will probably ask about the assignment or project you're working on, and they will ask you to help set an agenda for the session. You'll have about 45 minutes to work together.   
  • In general, you and your consultant may read sections of your paper together out loud or silently. You may also try out new strategies, develop an outline or generate ideas, consult resources, and so on.  
  • After your consultation is over, your consultant will ask you to offer us some feedback in a quick exit questionnaire. The results of this questionnaire help us to revise and refine our practices.  
  • We hope that you'll leave with new approaches to writing and new perspectives on your work.
• To Make an Appointment
  • To make an appointment, go to du.mywconline.com 
  • If this is your first visit, click on "Register for an account"; otherwise, log in, choosing the current term's schedule. 
  • Once you've logged in, you'll see a schedule grid for the next seven days. Click on any white square to make an appointment with a consultant.