Graduate Writing Center Consulting Philosophy*

Consultants are encouraged to:

• Promote collaborative learning, in which both the consultee and the consultant work together to maximize understanding.
• Assist with any writing related to the consultee's academic and professional goals, except those forms of writing excluded by the assistance policy.
• Listen more than talk and keep the consultee actively involved in the session.
• Offer honest and practical encouragement and constructive criticism.
• Admit when they cannot answer a question and direct the consultee to appropriate resources.
• Direct consultees to supplemental handouts and resources when appropriate.
• Disclose and/or recuse themselves from conflict-of-interest situations arising from intellectual property, funding competition, or other issues.

Consultants are prohibited from:

• Doing the work for a consultee or imposing ideas on a consultee.
• Correcting mechanical or grammatical errors without explanation or discussion with the consultee.
• Assisting a consultee with examinations or other excluded types of writing (see assistance policy).
• Predicting a consultee's grade, either for a paper or for a class.
• Working with a consultee outside of the consultant's scheduled work hours.
• Assisting a consultee who is not in the appointment schedule.

*The Graduate Writing Center Consulting Philosophy is based closely on the philosophy of the former UCLA Covel Tutorials, but with some modifications to address graduate-level writing issues.