Consulting Philosophy - UCLA Graduate Writing Center

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 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 GWC 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.