What does it entail?

The Resource Center hires and trains faculty-nominated Writing Consultants from across the curriculum. Writing Consultants help student writers at any stage of the writing process.  They monitor how student writers understand the writing assignment, develop their ideas and support them with credible evidence appropriate for the academic discipline, organize them logically for the reader, and express them well.  Writing Consultants give feedback as general readers, and where the writing is unclear or disjointed, use various questioning techniques and their knowledge of writing conventions to help the student make the draft more accurately reflect his/her learning.   Working with Writing Consultants, students better understand the importance of starting earlier so they will have time to make necessary content revisions and stylistic and/or grammatical edits.  (Content tutors in writing-intensive courses can help students in the early stages of writing, where they might need feedback on their grasp of disciplinary knowledge.)  Writing Consultants document the sessions for both clients and faculty members in writing notes.

What are the benefits?

Working in the Writing Center, Writing Consultants’ own reading and writing skills often improve considerably from the experience, as do their communication skills, in dialog with the student writer, the course material, and the specific writing prompt.  Great gains also result from their extensive practice in drawing out people’s ideas and giving feedback to help student writers reflect on their learning and writing processes, to make adjustments, both short- and long-term. The job is challenging, varied, and usually fun. While appointments are free of charge for the client, Writing Consultants do get paid for their efforts.

What is required?

• Participate in about ten hours of face-to-face crash training spread over the first few weeks, in several evenings, in the first semester you consult  This is a one-credit course, TPJ 106.
• After crash training, attend frequent staff meetings on Wednesdays from 5:30-6:30.  For this one-credit course, TPJ 111, you will also serve as liaison with one professor's writing-intensive courses. You will gather information about the courses' writing assignments to share with other consultants to prepare them for possible future appointments with those students. 
• Offer six hours a week for appointments throughout the semester. Time spent with clients is paid.

How do I apply?

If you are interested in working with students in this way, fill out an application— Writing Consultant Application.

Email the application to srobertshaw@rollins.edu and attach a copy of the best writing you’ve done for a class at Rollins. You may also drop off the application at her office in room 209 on the main floor of Olin Library, in the Lakeview Lounge area.