Ask OASIS Paper Reviews
Get personalized tips to build your writing skills.
STYLE CODE
Steps for getting started
- Register in the myPASS scheduling system
- Choose the relevant paper review schedule
- Choose a date and make an appointment
- Wait for an automated email with the writing expert’s feedback comments attached
Please review the Register and Schedule section for more information.
Schedule a Paper Review in myPASS
What to Expect in a Paper Review
To provide a helpful and manageable quantity of feedback, we typically focus on just a few topics or patterns in an individual paper review. Topics might include
- Clarity
- Organization
- Effective Use of Evidence
- Cohesion and Flow
- Scholarly Voice and Grammar
- APA Style
Paper Reviews are
- For students working on coursework including discussion posts, course papers, master’s capstones, and the doctoral premise and prospectus
- Individualized feedback from a writing professional
- Focused on skill building and instruction based on patterns in a student’s draft
- Written feedback: There is no phone call or online meeting time
- An optional, supplementary service available to Walden students at no additional cost
Paper Reviews are NOT
- For proofreading or editing (try Grammarly and these Proofreading Strategies)
- For specific writing or APA questions; for those, you can Ask OASIS
- For students working on doctoral capstone drafts beyond the prospectus
- Connected to a university approval process
Register and Schedule in myPASS
The Basics
Students can make up to 1 appointment per week.
Students must attach a document (paper) to be reviewed.
- For appointments reserved in advance, a document can be attached at the time of reserving the appointment or any time before 5 a.m. Central time on the day of the appointment
- For same-day appointments, a document should be attached at the time of making the appointment
- If no document is attached by the deadline, the appointment will be canceled
Students should revise between appointments and drafts. Doing so affords the opportunity to practice and develop writing skills throughout the writing process and across assignments.
myPASS Schedules
- Undergraduate Schedule: for bachelor’s or undergraduate coursework
- Master’s Schedule: for master’s or graduate certificate coursework
- Doctoral Schedule: for doctoral coursework or drafts of the premise and prospectus as well as post-doctoral certificate coursework
The paper review service has a 2-day turnaround; you will receive an e-mail the day of your appointment or the day after when your review is ready.
Documents We Review
Paper reviews are for students working on Walden coursework and the doctoral premise or prospectus.
We review the following Walden assignments:
- Discussion post
- Course paper
- Master's thesis or capstone
- EdS capstone
- Tempo assessment
- Doctoral premise
- Doctoral prospectus
We do not review:
- Writing that is part of the doctoral proposal or capstone, for example, dissertation, doctoral study, project study, or doctoral project (See What resources are available to help me write my capstone? for writing resources available to doctoral capstone students)
- PDFs or PowerPoints
- CVs, resumes, or cover letters (visit the Career Planning and Development website for help with these documents)
- Doctoral writing assessment essays
- Documents not associated with a Walden course
Documents must be saved as a Microsoft Word file (.doc, .docx, .rtf). If you need help saving your document in a supported file type, contact Walden's technical support team.
Register in myPASS
Tip: myPASS is not associated with your myWalden account, so you will need to register before accessing it.
- Navigate to myPASS. Once there, click on “Register for an account.”
- Fill out the registration form.
- Click “Create Account.”
Make a Paper Review Appointment and Attach Your Documents
- Log in to myPASS and choose the relevant Paper Reviews schedule.
- From the schedule calendar view, choose a slot for a specific day by clicking on the white box.
Color key:
White boxes = available appointments
Bright blue boxes = slots already reserved by another student
Dark blue boxes = unavailable slots
Yellow boxes = your appointments
- In the Create New Appointment pop-up, identify your course, assignment, and preferences for the review. You may also attach your draft and/or the assignment prompt at this time in the File Attachments section. Then, click Create Appointment.
Join a Waitlist
If there are no appointments available for your preferred day, you can join a waitlist to be notified of any openings for that day.
To join a waitlist, click on the “Waiting List: [Date]” link under the day’s grid of appointments and complete the form.
When you receive a waitlist notification, it means that an opening has been made available. However, it does not mean that the slot has been automatically reserved for you. To secure the slot, sign into myPASS and reserve the appointment. If there is no longer an opening on that day, another student has already reserved that opening.
View Your Scheduled Paper Reviews
Log in to myPASS and use one of these options to view your appointments:
- Click on the “My Appointments” menu at the top of the screen. Your reserved appointments for today and future days should be listed. You can then click on one to pull up the Appointment Form.
- Navigate to the relevant schedule. Find your appointment on the calendar. It should appear as a yellow box.
Attach a Document at a Later Date
Tip: You can attach the assignment instructions; we find that helpful.
- Log in to myPASS.
- Open the appointment to which you want to attach a draft by selecting it from the “My Appointments” dropdown at the top of the page.
- The appointment form will display on the screen. At the bottom of the appointment form, click the Yellow “Attach File” button.
- Choose a file to attach. myPASS supports Microsoft Word files (.doc, .docx, .rtf). Click “Attach File.”
Cancel an Appointment
Tip: Only cancel an appointment before the 5 a.m. attachment deadline on the day of the appointment, not later on the day of the appointment or after the paper has already been reviewed.
- Log in to myPASS.
- Open the appointment by selecting it from the “My Appointments” dropdown at the top of the page.
- At the bottom of the appointment form, click the Red “Cancel Appointment” button.
Additional Resources
See our other writing support resources