Bring to the Cooper Center a copy of the assignment and a draft of your paper. A trained consultant will review your paper and offer suggestions for how you might effectively revise it.

Remember that writing and revising are intertwined processes. The best writers are often the most serious about revision. All writers, regardless of their experience and ability, benefit from engaged readers’ responses.

While our consultants vary in style, there are certain things that they will and will not do in a conference.

Consultants will:

• Read your paper or ask you to read it aloud
• Listen to you carefully
• Show you effective and less effective parts of your paper
• Ask questions to help you identify a claim or develop your points
• Mark passages that seem wordy or unclear
• Demonstrate ways of revising particular sentences
• Point out and explain errors
• Ask you to locate similar errors
• Identify patterns of errors in your writing
• Help you develop strategies to revise your own work

Consultants won’t:

• Write your paper for you
• Revise your paper for you
• Ridicule your writing
• Guarantee a grade
• “Fix” your paper without you

Remember that writing and revising are intertwined processes.

The best writers are often the most serious about revision.

All writers, regardless of their experience and ability, benefit from engaged readers’ responses.