City Seminary of New York Writing Center

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Scheduling a Consultation

Consultations will be held in-person and by email. Please note this year in-person consultations will be held by appointment only. To schedule an appointment, please see below:

In-Person Consultations
Email Consultations
What to Expect at a Consultation
What to Bring to a Consultation
Cancellation Procedures

In-person consultations are available by appointment only. Time slots are on alternating Mondays. To schedule an in-person appointment, check the calendar for available dates and times, then email carrie@cityseminaryny.org with your requested day and time. You will either receive an email confirmation, or, if the slot has already been filled, a request to choose an alternate slot.

Email Consultations

Email consultations are available on alternating weeks. No appointments are necessary. There will be four slots per week for email consultation. Submit your draft by email to the following address: carrie@cityseminaryny.org.

Email documents must be submitted by Thursday evening in order to be returned by the end of the weekend. Please attach your document to an email and paste it into the body of the email. Please include the following information at the beginning of the email:

1. Describe the writing you have included. (Is it a draft? Part of a draft? An outline?)

2. Course title and brief description of assignment.

3. What kind of feedback you would like from the consultant, including any specific questions that you have. For example: Please evaluate the strength of my thesis and my evidence. Can you give me general comments and critiques? What is the most important thing I have to work on to make my paper more successful? (Remember that the consultant will not proofread or copy-edit your work.)

Please note that emails that do NOT Include this information will be returned unread.

The consultant will spend 45 minutes total on your draft, including reading and response time; please keep this time limit in mind when you submit work and request feedback. You may choose to submit a short section of work for more intensive feedback, or a longer piece for more general response.

The consultant will write a short response to your paper, and may also provide in-text comments. If the consultant has made any changes to your document, she will explain them. Your document will then be returned to you via email.

What to Expect at a Consultation

Each appointment will be 30-45 minutes. Typically, you and the consultant will discuss your project; you may have a direction in mind for the session, or you and the consultant may set it together, depending on your goals, the purpose of your assignment, your strengths and weaknesses as a writer, etc. Depending on the length of your paper, the writing consultant may or may not read the entire paper. The consultant may also ask you to write during the session, or direct you back to a source text or another reference to help the writing process.

Keep in mind that the consultant will not proofread or copy-edit your paper. The consultant can, however, help you recognize patterns of error in your writing, and assist you with proofreading and revising strategies.

At the end of the session, you should have a good idea of what to do to advance to the next stage in the writing process; if you brought a draft, you should have a better idea how to revise and strengthen your work.

What to Bring to a Consultation

Bring any writing work you have done so far, including notes and drafts. If you would like, you may bring a laptop containing your document; in that case, please also bring a hard copy of your document for the consultant to read.

Cancellation Procedures

Please cancel at least 24 hours ahead of time by emailing carrie@cityseminaryny.org. Late cancellations or no-shows will result in loss of Writing Center privileges.