Ask OASISPaper Reviews: Insider Tips for Writing Center Paper Review Appointments
Last update 6/21/2019
Visual: Notebook with a pencil on a wood table. As the speaker talks, the following is shown on the notebook:
- Undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students
- Feedback on your writing: scholarly voice, APA, grammar, and other elements of academic writing
- Help you develop your writing skills long-term
Audio: The Writing Center offers paper review appointments to undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral students. These paper review appointments are a chance for you to receive feedback on your writing; however, this feedback is different than your course faculty’s feedback. Writing instructors in the Writing Center, with years of experience teaching writing, give feedback that focuses on scholarly voice, APA, grammar, and other elements of academic writing. Writing instructors don’t grade or assess your writing, nor do they edit your writing; instead, they help you develop your writing skills long-term, giving you suggestions and feedback about both areas for improvement and strengths in your writing.
Visual: The screen changes to a picture of a hand writing on a notebook with a pen. As the speaker talks, the following is overlaid on the picture: Paper review appointments are for everyone, no matter your writing skill level.
Audio: Wondering if a paper review appointment is appropriate for you? Paper review appointments are for everyone, no matter your writing skill level. As writers, we all get very close to our writing, and having an outside reader’s perspective is useful for all Walden writers, no matter your experience.
Visual: The screen changes to a picture of a woman sitting on a step typing at a laptop. As the speaker talks, the following is overlaid on the picture:
Note:
- Read policies on our website
- Doctoral students can submit coursework or preproposal drafts
Audio: There are a few paper review policies we ask you to follow; I won’t go into their details, but be sure to read the policies on our website. Additionally, note that doctoral students can submit any of their coursework or preproposal documents—a premise or prospectus—for paper review appointments; however, once you start writing your doctoral capstone—a dissertation or project study—you’ll work with the editors on the Form and Style website for assistance.
Visual: The screen changes to a calendar with a date circled and the following text: Paper Review Appointment Schedule.
Audio: Now that you know what a paper review appointment is—and you’re eager to make an appointment—let’s look at the Writing Center’s paper review appointment schedule, which we call myPASS.
Visual: The screen changes to the Writing Center’s home page. The speaker shows clicking the “Paper Reviews” button on the left-side of the home page. The speaker then clicks the “Go to myPASS” button.
Audio: You can access the myPASS schedule through our website or…
Visual: The screen changes to show a sample myWalden portal, with the Help menu and SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT highlighted. The screen then changes to show the option to choose the Writing Center’s schedule.
Audio: …through your myWalden portal. Either approach works just fine.
Visual: The screen changes to show the log-in page for the myPASS schedule. There are policies and announcements on the right and the option to register for an account or log into the schedule on the left. As the speaker talks, “First visit? Register for an account” is circled.
Audio: myPASS is not associated with your Walden email or portal log-in, so you’ll need to create an account.
Audio: Before you make your first paper review appointment, here are a few insider tips. These are tips we’ve heard from other students or that we give to students to make paper review appointments as useful as possible.
Visual: The following tip is added to the screen: 1 Make appointments ahead of time
Audio: First, make appointments ahead of time. You can reserve an appointment up to two weeks in advance, which is helpful in (a) making sure our schedule won’t become full so that you can’t make an appointment and (b) giving you an extra deadline that can help motivate you to work on your writing.
Visual: Tip 1 is replaced with Tip 2 on the screen: Submit past papers
Audio: Second, submit past papers. While it’s always helpful to get feedback on something you are currently writing so you can implement the feedback right away, our writing instructors are happy to give feedback that you can use in future papers. This is very helpful when your schedule is full and you’re not able to submit a new paper before its deadline. Feedback on past papers can then inform the way you write future papers.
Visual: Tip 2 is replaced with Tip 3 on the screen: Schedule appointments with the same or different writing instructors
Audio: Third, schedule appointments with the same or different writing instructors, depending on your preference. Would you like to create a relationship with one person who gets to know your writing style and strengths and opportunities for improvement? Try making appointments with the same writing instructor. Would you like various perspectives on your writing to help you see it from multiple angles? Try making appointments with various writing instructors.
Visual: Tip 3 is replaced with Tip 4 on the screen: E-mail your writing instructors any questions you have
Audio: Fourth, e-mail your writing instructors any questions you have about their feedback. Your writing instructor will give you feedback by adding track changes and comments to your Word document; this means you won’t have any live communication with them. It’s essential for you to ask questions if you aren’t sure what your writing instructor meant or if you’d like more information about how to implement a particular suggestion. That’s what your writing instructor is there for, so be sure to reach out!
Visual: The screen changes to a notebook with a pencil on a wood table. As the speaker talks, the following is shown on the notebook:
- Read our paper review appointment policies
- See our how-to videos for instructions
- Let us know if you have any questions
We look forward to working with you in a paper review appointment soon!
Audio: And that’s it! Be sure to read our paper review appointment policies and see our how-to videos for instructions if you aren’t sure how to make an appointment. Don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions, and we look forward to working with you in a paper review appointment soon!
Visual: The screen changes to end with the words “Walden University Writing Center” and “Questions? E-mail writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu.”