UCLA Graduate Writing Center

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 the proper resources.
• Use the resources of the center--books, handouts, and other consultants--to supplement their consulting sessions.
• 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.
• Proofreading and editing papers for mechanical and grammatical errors without explanation or discussion with the consultee.
• Assisting a consultee with writing for 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 either outside of the lab, outside of lab ours, or outside of the consultant's scheduled work hours.
• Discussing a paper with a consultee by way of email and/or phone.

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