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Consultation Policies

The Graduate School Writing Center offers consultations by appointment only. Our writing fellows, all highly accomplished graduate students, are a limited resource shared by the university’s entire graduate student population of about 11,000. Because consultations are limited and in high demand, we ask that you please only schedule appointments that you will be able to keep. To ensure that the fellows are able to meet the demand for consultations, we implement the following policies.

General Policies

  • Only currently enrolled University of Maryland, College Park, graduate students may seek consultations with the writing fellows.
  • The Graduate School Writing Center is not an editing service. Fellows work collaboratively with students, brainstorming ideas and discussing structure, disciplinary expectations, argument, source use, stylistic choices, and technical issues in writing as appropriate; fellows do not proofread and edit manuscripts.
  • Only documents of which the student is an author may be discussed in consultation.
  • You must upload your paper at least 24 hours before your scheduled consultation to give the fellow ample time to review your work.
  • You may make up to EIGHT (8) appointments per semester.
  • To allow time for you to revise your work after a consultation, please request a consultation well before your writing is due.
  • You may cancel an appointment up to 24 hours in advance through our scheduling software (click on your appointment to cancel it). If there is an emergency and you need to cancel less than 24 hours in advance, please email gradwritingfellows@umd.edu.
  • If you are a “no-show” to TWO consultations (i.e., you miss the consultation without advanced notice or cancel with less than 24-hour notice), you will automatically be locked out of the scheduling system.
  • While we do not anticipate any such behavior, violence or inappropriate language will not be tolerated.
  • We welcome your feedback! After your consultation, you will be emailed a link to our consultation evaluation form. Please take a few minutes to respond to the evaluation.

Read-ahead Consultations

  • All general policies apply to read-ahead consultations.
  • For consultations on documents to be effectively collaborative, fellows can read and comment on up to EIGHT double-spaced (FOUR single-spaced) pages of a document.
  • To allow fellows time to read and review your document in advance of your consultation…
  • Read-ahead consultations must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.
  • The document that you want to discuss at the consultation must be submitted at least 24 hours before your appointment.

Brainstorming Consultations

  • All general policies apply to brainstorming consultations.
  • While there is no requirement to submit a document for brainstorming consultations, you should come prepared with ideas, questions, or topics that you would like to discuss with your writing fellow. If you are planning on discussing a document, the document should be less than 3 double-spaced pages. You may also attach documents that reflect your planning or work in progress before the consultation.
  • Brainstorming consultation should be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance; same day appointments for brainstorming may be available (call 301-405-9871 to request a same-day consultation)
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