As you may have noticed, here at the CEW our favorite word is dialogue. We love a good exchange of ideas and perspectives, and especially giving you, the writer, space to voice your questions, explore your ideas, and work out any dilemmas you are having in the writing process.
That being said, our second favorite word might be inclusivity. We know that not everyone, in every situation, at every time, is able to make a synchronous appointment work.
For that reason, we are piloting a written feedback service. With your help, we’ll make it as dialogical and responsive as possible!
These appointments do not require a face-to-face or online meeting, but allow you to request specific feedback and receive it through written comments.
Please note that written feedback submissions are attended to during business hours Monday - Friday. If you submit over the weekend or in the evening, it will be received in the morning of the next business day. From then, you should allow 24 - 48 hours for return, although it may be earlier depending upon staff availability.
Written feedback appointments may be a good option for you if:
Fill out this form.
When we first receive your request, we will send you a confirmation email letting you know how quickly we can get your feedback to you. (Usually between 24 - 48 hours, depending upon demand.) You will receive your feedback via email. Make sure you submit your document via Word or a Google doc link so that our consultants can place comments on it.
Written feedback requests are received and attended to during business hours Monday - Friday. If you submit during the evening or over the weekend, we will not receive your document until the morning of the next business day.
First of all, we must specify that this is not an editing or revision service. That is, the consultant will not change your writing. Instead, they will give you feedback on your writing. You will be prompted to describe the kind of feedback you want on the appointment form. You may find yourself wanting different kinds of feedback depending upon your goals, your prior experience, and where you are in the writing process.
For example, say you have written a first draft of an argument paper and have a few more days until it is due. You want it to be the best it can be before you submit it. So you might ask:
Please give me some feedback on my argument so that I can revise and make it better. I’m unsure if my thesis statement is carried through throughout the paper, and I want to make sure it makes sense and flows for the reader. I felt things were getting a little disorganized as I was writing.
This is a great feedback request because it is likely that your professor’s most important grading criteria for the paper is the clarity and strength of your argument and you still have time to revise before submitting!
But what if you have only a short window of time before submitting your essay and you feel satisfied about the strength and clarity of your argument? You’re still motivated to improve your essay, but you know you don’t want feedback about substantive revision. No problem, you can ask something like:
I feel satisfied with my overall argument and organization, but I just want to get some fresh eyes on this paper to make sure I haven’t missed any errors, style issues, or other red flags before I submit! Also, please let me know if there are any parts that you don’t understand.
Another scenario is that you might be in the middle of a writing process and you have a specific question to ask. For example:
I’ve only written the introduction so far, but before I go on, I wanted some feedback on my thesis statement. Am I on the right track?
Or
I’ve never written in APA format before, can you take a look at this, and see if I am doing it correctly? I am a little unsure where I even need to cite!
If you give us a general prompt like: please give me feedback on this essay, we will provide a holistic response: 2-3 things that are working well in the paper, 1 -2 areas to work on that will make the greatest positive impact in revision,. And, if applicable, we may point out a couple of grammatical or technical patterns of which you can be mindful when you get to your editing stage.
Keep in mind that you can always schedule a follow-up synchronous appointment with the same consultant or a different one if you want to discuss the feedback or share your writing again after revising.