One-on-One Writing Consultations

The Graduate Writing Across the Curriculum program (GWAC) is located in Walker Hall. In-person consultations will be in Walker Hall (usually the Abbasi Room, which is Room 1136, near the South Entrance) and writing retreats and workshops will be held in some of the Walker Hall conference rooms. Check in via email with the GWF you are seeing if you are not of the location. NOTE: Due to an administrative change regulating employment, some of the Graduate Writing Fellows cannot offer consultations in Winter and/or Spring 2024. If a consultation appt. is not available when you need it, please also consider the Writing Center and the Writing Partner program, which can offer additional support.

What is a writing consultation?

At UC Davis, our Graduate Writing Fellows offer one-on-one writing consultations with enrolled UC Davis graduate students and postdocs. Consultations offer you the opportunity to:

• Engage in a conversation about your writing, at any stage of the writing process.
• Seek guidance on a variety of genres (e.g., graduate seminar papers, portions of a thesis or dissertation, journal articles, grant proposals, abstracts, conference proposals, conference talks, teaching philosophies, etc.). 
• Receive feedback on the clarity of your thoughts, the organization of your ideas, the ways you target your audience(s), or your approach to a particular writing task.
• Identify sentence-level patterns of error in writing and learn about resources to improve grammar and idiomatic English. 
• Work on your writing process in a low-stakes, low-stress environment, with a peer.

NOTE: It is not necessary to bring in a piece of writing to the consultation. We are happy to consult with you about anything related to the writing process, e.g. getting started, being overwhelmed, etc. 

How do I schedule a writing consultation?

All eligible students can sign up for a consultation using this link.

All consultations are 40-minute appointments. Only one consultation can be scheduled at a time; a second consultation cannot be booked until the first one is completed. Eligible scholars can schedule up to six half hour consultations every quarter. We do not offer consultations during finals week or on university holidays (e.g. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, Spring Break, etc.). 

Please note that consultations are only for currently-enrolled graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. UC Davis Graduate students pursuing one of the following degree objectives: PhD, EdD, MA, MBA, MBSA, MS, MFA, MPH, MPAc, MHS, or Post Docs are eligible for consultations. 

Writing Fellows have experience supporting graduate students in any area of study, but you are welcome to seek out a fellow whose academic background is similar to your own. By default, the consultation sign-up calendar displays all available appointments across all fellows. If there is a particular fellow you would like to work with, you can select that Writing Fellow's name in the drop-down menu at the top of the calendar. 

Where are writing consultations held?

For the 2023-2024 academic year consultations will be held in-person virtually over Zoom OR in Walker Hall 1121. If you have signed up for a virtual appointment, the writing consultant will send you an email 24 hours before the meeting requesting a copy of the writing you'd like to work on (via email or shared Google Doc) and a Zoom link.

The best way to find Walker Hall 1121, the writing consultation room, is to enter via the south door of Walker Hall. (The door next to the large red staircase--see the image below.) Please wait in the lobby for your consultant to come meet you. You will be required to show your Daily Symptom Survey results before beginning your session.

Our consultants enter their consultation availability on the scheduling calendar. We only hold consultations when the university is in session. During Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters, there are eight fellows offering four 40-minute consultations per week. During Summer Sessions 1 and 2, two fellows offer three hours of consultations per week. Availability for any given quarter typically does not show up on the scheduling calendar until just before the beginning of that new quarter or summer session. If it is a break or finals week, please be patient until our availability is updated.