Writing and Communication Consultations

1. After you make your appointment, you will receive information about how to fill out your appointment intake form. This quick form asks for what project you're working on, what step of the process you are in, if you'd like us to inform a professor you met with us, and includes a way to share your work with us through Google Docs or an uploaded document. It's very important to fill this form out ahead of time so that we can start by helping you as soon as the appointment begins.

2. You will meet your consultant either online or in-person. If you're meeting in person, you will check in at 2157 Hixson Lied Student Success Center, across from Maple/Willow/Larch on the Orange 23 Bus Line. If you are meeting your consultant online, you will meet either on Webex, GoogleDocs, or a combination of the two. 

3. You have 45 minutes for the appointment. Your consultant will ask what you would like to focus on for your time. You will spend the meeting time reading through your current document, brainstorming, and editing together. Whether in Hixson Lied Student Success or online, the meetings are interactive.

4. At the end of the meeting, you will receive a post-session email reminding you of all of the topics that you discussed. You'll also have the chance to fill out a post-session survey which gives feedback to help us know what is working well in your consultation.

If you have any other questions about appointments, please email us at success@iastate.edu.

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. Please check with your syllabus before utilizing Grammarly, especially in its AI features, as this may not be allowed in your course.

Grammarly is a subscription-based website that Iowa State students have access to, which can check grammar, tone, and view if the content of your paper is AI generated (similar to TurnItIn). Students need to be aware that Grammarly, as well as Microsoft Word and Google Docs, have some AI integrated. Some professors do not allow Grammarly to be used for assignments because of the major changes in tone, phrasing, and content suggested. Ensure that your professor allows Grammarly before utilizing it, and when using Microsoft Word, GoogleDoc, or other AI-integrated tools, make sure to mindfully check suggestions and ensure that the work and voice remains your own.

Writing and Communication Consultations do not alter student voice. You keep the pencil in your hand and remain the creator of your work. If you have questions about grammar, you and the consultant can work on those issues together as part of your appointment.

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.

Absolutely! We encourage group appointments. Please follow these instructions to make sure everyone, from your groupmates to your consultant, is on the same page.

1.First, choose one group member to make the appointment at a time that works for you. After deciding on a date and time, by click this link or log into the Navigate application on your phone or desktop.

2. Select "Writing and Communication Consultations" for the Service.

3. Select "Academic Success Center OR Virtual" for the Location, then choose from available days/times and schedule your appointment.

4. Email success@iastate.edu with the appointment time, as well as your other group members names, so that we can add them to the appointment on Navigate. This will allow them to see information about the appointment more easily, as well as help us track our appointments more accurately.

5. Bring a draft of your document or be ready to brainstorm as a group.

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.

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.

Make an appointment through the Nagivate app, and when you fill out your appointment intake survey before the appointment begins, you can share your professor's email address with us. We will share a post-session email with them with a brief description of what we talked about. 

An appointment with a communication consultant for assistance is always free and ethically allowed, no matter your class. We assist with any paper, presentation, poster, or whatever else you're working on. If your professor has allowed you to use AI, let your consultant know how AI informed your writing process. We do not support the use of AI against course policy guidelines. It is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that your work is truly your own and stands up to the ethical guidelines of your course policies. Make sure to check with your syllabus before using AI to complete an assignment.