The John M. Swales Graduate Writing Clinic

The English Language Institute’s John M. Swales Graduate Writing Clinic is a free service open to all graduate students, visiting scholars, staff, and faculty members from all U-M colleges and schools, regardless of discipline or level of English proficiency.

The Graduate Writing Clinic offers one-on-one appointments with writing consultants to work with you on your current writing projects and long-term writing goals. Clinic appointments are available year ‘round, in the fall, winter, spring, and summer terms. The Graduate Writing Clinic is offered in fall, winter, spring, and summer terms.

The Graduate Writing Clinic is not an editing service. Clinic consultants will look at or discuss any of your writing at any stage of the writing process including brainstorming, drafting, and revising. They love talking with you about your language-level questions and helping you find patterns in your writing, but they do not offer proofreading or copy editing of whole pieces of writing. Instead, they try to focus on principles of writing that you can apply beyond your current project. Their goal is to help you build your writing skills and make you a more confident and independent writer.

Appointment Information for Spring 2024

Dates: May 7 - June 24

Time: 45-minute appointments

Location: Only Online appointments available for Spring and Summer 2024.

Accessibility: The John M. Swales Graduate Writing Clinic seeks to be accessible to all students. It honors accommodations documented with U-M’s Services for Students with Disabilities. For more information about accessibility and accommodations, see https://ssd.umich.edu/

Schedule an Appointment for the Graduate Writing Clinic

FAQs: Answer to Frequent Questions about the Graduate Writing Clinic

What kind of writing can I bring to the Writing Clinic?

A: You can bring any writing that is relevant to your life as a scholar at UM! This can include

class assignments
graduate school
application materials
job market materials
fellowship applications
grant proposals
conference proposals
presentation drafts
articles, and more

We have helped students with all types of funding applications, including Rackham Predoc Fellowships,, Rackham Travel Grants, CEW funding, FLAS Fellowships, and many other internal UM funding programs.

We can also help with external funding applications such as Fulbright Grants, Esther Katz Rosen Fund Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation Anthropology Grants, and the Gates Millennium Scholars program.

What happens during a Writing Clinic session?

Your 45-minute appointment will start with you telling your consultant about the context of your writing, your thoughts on what is and isn’t working in the writing so far, and your goals for the conference. Your consultant may then take 5-10 minutes to read through all or part of your writing (depending on its length and needs) before engaging you in a discussion of both strengths and opportunities for improvement. You should take your own notes on what resonates with you.

Often, you can expect to do some actual writing during your session. As this is YOUR writing session, you should feel free to speak up during the conference about what kind of feedback you are finding most helpful and what you want to focus on with your remaining conference time. In the last few minutes of the session, you and the consultant will summarize key insights from the discussion and make sure you feel equipped to move forward on your writing.

How many Writing Clinic appointments can I attend each semester?

Current U-M graduate students can reserve up to six appointments per semester (maximum of one per week); visiting scholars, postdocs, and others may sign up for one appointment per term. Additional time may be available for walk-in appointments, schedules permitting.

It’s usually easy to make an appointment early in the semester, but later on most appointments are booked quickly. Plan ahead!

Who are the Graduate Writing Clinic consultants?

Writing Clinic Guidelines [IMPORTANT: READ CAREFULLY]

About the ELI Writing Clinic

The ELI Writing Clinic is designed to provide U-M graduate students with short-term coaching on specific aspects of their academic writing. For this reason, participation in the clinic cannot replace ELI courses. No academic credit is awarded for Writing Clinic participation.

Note: ELI Writing Clinic is not an editing service. The purpose of Clinic sessions is not to provide copy-editing, but to work on organization, flow of ideas, and other macro writing issues, and to help you identify and learn to self-correct your own texts. No credit is awarded for the Writing Clinic.

Please read the guidelines carefully before you sign up for your first appointment.

Guidelines

Writing Clinic appointments are scheduled for 45 minutes.
Graduate students may sign up for one Writing Clinic appointment per week for up to a maximum of six (6) total sessions per semester.
*Non-students (Visiting scholars, researchers, faculty, postdocs) may sign up for one (1) session per semester.
*New appointment slots will be available one week in advance.
If you need to cancel an appointment, you must do so at least 20 hours before the appointment time.
If you try to cancel later or do not show up for an appointment, this counts as a no-show.
If you have two no-shows in a given semester, you will not be allowed to sign up for any more appointments in that semester.
If no appointments are available, you can add your name to a waitlist. If there is a cancellation, you will receive an email that the appointment is available. If you don't attend, this will count as a no-show.
You must complete a short online evaluation form at the end of each session.
All writing clinic sessions take place online, via WCOnline. Go to the same page you signed up at for the appointment. You will see instructions there.

*Why so few times in a semester? Many, many students are in line for clinic appointments, so we want to make sure that as many as possible can benefit from this service.

The Writing Clinic is NOT a substitute for an ELI course. If you are a graduate student and feel you need more help than you can obtain in 6 clinic sessions, you should consider a course such as ELI 521, 522, 620, or 621.

ELI also offers academic English courses for visiting scholars, faculty, staff, researchers, and post-docs.

Requirements for Documents Brought to the Clinic:

All documents must be your own work (co-written documents are okay, but not someone else's documents).
All documents must be printed at least double-spaced. Having your document printed in a single column is preferable to multiple columns.
Either double-sided or single-sided printing is okay. Bringing print-outs of your figures and tables is often useful.
Bring only what you think is feasible to work through in the allotted time period (i.e., don't print out your entire thesis or dissertation to bring to the clinic).

Tips for success:

Keep a record of feedback from your Writing Clinic instructors.
Before each session, think about what you would like to focus on so that you can make the most of your time.
Ask for help on particular sections of your paper or on particular questions you have about writing or language.
Give your Clinic instructors feedback: Let them know what you find most helpful/useful.

How do I schedule a Writing Clinic appointment?

CREATING AN ACCOUNT

The scheduling system for the Writing Clinic is called WCOnline. Follow these procedures the first time you use this system:

Go to https://eli.mywconline.com.
Click on the "Register for a New Account" link in the upper left and follow the directions.
Return to https://eli.myweonline.com to login to your WCOnline account.

NAVIGATING THE SYSTEM

When you enter the system, The top-center of WCOnline homepage will display the current week and the selected Clinic.
NOTE: You will also see schedules for the Graduate Speaking Clinic and GSI Speaking Clinic. Make sure you are on the right schedule!
You can navigate between the weekly schedules for the Graduate Writing Clinic, the Graduate Speaking Clinic, and the GSI Speaking Clinic by selecting the desired Clinic from the dropdown menu located directly below the current week and selected Clinic labels.
NOTE: You can only schedule for appointments one week in advance, so you will only see available slots for one week in the future.
You can navigate between the previous, current, and upcoming weekly schedules by clicking on the “PREVIOUS WEEK”, “CURRENT WEEK” and “NEXT WEEK” buttons located directly below the current week and selected Clinic labels.
Session slots are each 45-minutes long.
White session slots represent available slots which are open for reservation. When you hover over a session slot, a popup box which prompts you to reserve the slot for the particular date and time will appear.
Green session slots represent reserved slots that are closed from reservation.
Online sessions include an “ONLINE” label after the Consultant’s name. Online sessions are hosted in the Consultant’s Zoom room via the Zoom link provided in an Appointment Confirmation Email which will be sent to your WCOnline account Email address once the session has been scheduled.
In-person sessions will include an “IN PERSON” label after the Consultant’s name. In person sessions are hosted at the ELI on the 9th Floor of Weiser Hall. You can confirm the session room via the confirmation email you receive after scheduling the session.

SCHEDULING A SESSION

Click on the LEFT square in a white, open session slot to generate a “Create New Appointment” popup window.
Confirm that the “Appointment Date” and “Staff or Resource” (Consultant) listed in the top-center of the page are correct.
To attach any files that you would like to share with the Consultant in advance of the session, click on the “Browse” buttons under the “File #” labels. (Note: You may also (1) bring hard copies of your written work to in-person appointments or (2) share Google Documents or other Documents with the Consultant via email in advance of the session.)
To finalize the appointment reservation, click on the “CREATE APPOINTMENT” button.
To cancel the appointment reservation, click on the “CLOSE WINDOW” button.
Important: Please confirm the session date time, Zoom link, and Room number via the confirmation email you receive after scheduling the session.

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