Become a Writing Consultant
We are always recruiting! Students who want to become writing consultants should have strong interpersonal communication skills and practice reflecting on their own writing in progress. We will train you for everything else!
Qualities of a Successful Writing Consultant
Reflective
Successful writing consultants are reflective and articulate about their own writing processes. They are able to explain their writing processes to others in an accessible way. Prospective writing consultants must be able to think critically about their own writing in order to better understand the writing of others.
Personable
Writing consultants must be excellent listeners. They exhibit patience, persistence, and flexibility in order to meet the needs of Writing Commons users. Consultants who demonstrate teamwork, professionalism, and leadership succeed and advance in our highly collaborative work environment.
Willing to Prepare
Students who wish to become writing consultants train through coursework in the department of English at 91²Ö¿â, or successfully completed a comparable training course and work in another accredited college or university writing center.
Option 1: Become an Undergraduate Consultant Trainee!
Undergraduate students who want to become consultants must complete a practicum 3-credit-hour training course offered each spring semester. This upper-division English course is an ideal choice for students in English, education, special education, language teaching or any of the helping professions. The course may be taken for Honors or regular credit. It is excellent preparation for graduate study. Registration is by permit through the director/instructor. This course is an experiential, hands-on course, and will provide you with the skills to ease into writing center that semester. Continued employment in the Writing Commons after the training semester requires a final grade of B+ or better, as well as recommendations from the Writing Commons senior staff and the approval of the director. The course counts for several university graduation requirements.
Option 2: Join us as an Experienced Consultant: Positions for Previously-Trained Writing Center Consultants
Undergraduates who have completed training at and worked in a writing center at an accredited college or university can apply to become consultants at the Writing Commons. This pathway is ideal for trained transfer students who have worked in a writing center at another accredited college or university campus. Put the consulting strategies you have already learned to work at a new campus, in a new writing center!
Option 3: Join Use as a Graduate Student Writing Consultant
Becoming a Graduate Writing Consultant will provide you with an opportunity to hone your teaching skills and help your fellow gradaute students. Graduate Writing Consultants meet regularly with graduate students developing long-term projects such as theses, dissertations, articles, and presentations. They also facilitate feedback and accountability groups for graduate student writers. Graduate students can benefit heavily from a position with the Writing Commons! We offer flexible hours to better work with your busy graduate student schedule. Writing Center consulting experience or experience teaching writing-intensive courses is strongly preferred for this position.
Opportunities for Professional Development
Once you become a writing consultant, you not only help your fellow students, you help yourself to on-the-job professional development, leadership training and opportunities to publish and make presentations.
Pathways to Advancement
You won't find a job that offers more diverse ways to build your resume because there are more jobs to do in addition to consulting with writers to help the Writing Commons grow! Writing consultants develop themselves professionally throughout their semesters of employment through in-service training, continued coursework, presenting research at professional conferences, working on outreach projects, and developing resources. We offer opportinities to learn everything from public speaking to web design, to marketing, workshop development, mentoring, leadership, and management. Everyone who works here is a writing consultant first, but once you join us, you learning never stops.
Conference Participation Support
Writing consultants regularly make presentations at a number of professional conferences, including the Northeast Ohio Writing Centers Association, the East Central Writing Centers Association, the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing and the International Writing Centers Association Conference. Writing Commons Donor Funding is available to support consultant conference participation.
Awards and Honors
Writing consultants in good standing at the Writing Commons are eligible to be nominated for the John C. Tamplin Award for Writing Center Work each spring. Recipients receive an award stipend and are honored at the annual English Department Awards Ceremony.
Some people call it "the best job on campus," and you will see why when you join us!
If you love helping people and working in a collaborative environment, you need to check us out as an employment option. We will treat you with respect as a professional, pay you well, and give you opportunites to grow.
Contact Writing Commons Director Jeanne R. Smith (jrsmith3@kent.edu) for more information on becoming a writing consultant or graduate consultant.