Writing and Communication Consultations

You can make up to three appointments per week, either to meet in-person in Hixson Lied Student Success or online. Our appointments are 45 minutes in length. 

If you're working on a large project, you can create recurring appointments to assist with communication projects and papers.

To ensure your work remains yours, we don't proofread or edit your papers for you. Instead, we work with you to understand how to identify changes to improve the clarity, organization, and tone of your writing style. Consider using Iowa State's free subscription offer for Grammarly for more assistance, especially with proofreading and grammar.

We work with graduate students and undergraduate students on any written, oral, visual, or electronic communication project. We can assist with any step of the writing process, from brainstorming to outlining to revising. 

A few things to keep in mind:

• We cannot formulate your thesis or major arguments for you
• We do review cover letters, resumes, and application materials, but we also encourage students to visit the Career Services office associated with their college for the best support on those materials.
• We sometimes work with graduate and professional students, but we strongly suggest that graduate students tap into programming and support offered by the Graduate College's Center for Communication Excellence.

All appointments are held with our trained peer communication consultants. Communication consultants are excellent communicators specifically trained to assist with written, oral, visual, and electronic projects. We hire communication consultants from a broad range of majors and communication expertise, but we can't guarantee they will have knowledge of your course or course content. All consultants have the ability to assist with your project because of their extensive training. You can find out more information about our communication consultants here.

We post any open positions for communication consultants near the middle of each semester. Find out if we're hiring.

We work frequently with students who write or speak English as a second language (ESL) on specific projects, speeches, and papers, but unfortunately we can not offer scheduled conversation practice. We would refer you to more resources provided by the ISSO.

We recommend checking Navigate to see if any appointments are available. Sometimes there may be cancellations close to appointment times, so feel free to check back frequently throughout the day or drop by the 2261 Hixson Lied Student Success desk to make an appointment. It is best to schedule an appointment a few days ahead to ensure we can assist you before an assignment is due.

Generative AI, like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT, can assist with idea generation and organization, and can be especially helpful in the creation of documents with a clear template, like cover letters and proposals. However, just like with any technology or tool, students need to be aware of the course policies related to AI in order to ensure they do not overstep ethical boundaries in its use. You also need to watch out for incorrect information and take ownership for your learning process and learning products.