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.