Online (Zoom) Appointments: Monday through Friday
In-Person Appointments: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
Asynchronous Paper Review: Seven-to-ten business-day turnaround (PhD students only)
***NOTE: If you make an appointment with me and do not receive a confirmation email, please check your spam/junk folder. The confirmation email should come from writingcoachuscannenbergschoolforcommunicationandjournalism@uscedu.onmicrosoft.com***
In-Person and Online Appointments
All graduate students of the Annenberg School for Communication (CMGT/CMGT Online, DMM, DSM, PhD, Global, MPD) can book an appointment to meet with me to work on their writing.
Use the link below to book an appointment: First, select whether you’d like to meet online or in-person, then select a date and time, and finally fill out the questions about you and your visit. If possible, please use your USC email address. Sometimes MS Bookings doesn’t send confirmation emails to outside addresses or the emails are put in spam folders by the recipient’s email server. You’ll need to login with your USC ID to make an appointment.
If you’re thinking about meeting with me but aren’t really sure what you want to do, here are a few things to consider: First, I’m happy to look at whatever you’ve got—don’t think that you have to have a completed draft of something before dropping by. In fact, if you need a partner to brainstorm ideas with, I’m happy to meet even before you’ve done any writing at all. Also, I’m here to work with you on all aspects of your writing. That means we can work on things like structure, argument, coherence, and flow, in addition to addressing repeated mechanical or grammatical issues. No matter what it is, we can figure something out—I’m very happy having sessions that look a lot of different ways.
- In addition to bringing your work to our session, consider bringing any information that your professor has given you about the assignment (instructions, syllabi, feedback on previous drafts, etc.)
- We can meet to work on non-written communication, as well. If you need a practice audience for a presentation, I’m happy to watch and listen.
- If you know that you work better with deadlines, consider asking if we can schedule a few appointments for later in the semester. We can come up with some intermediate deadlines or steps to help you get moving on your larger projects.
- For now, I want to limit appointments to one-per-student-per-week. If you’ve got a special project, though, and would like to meet with me more than that, please email me directly and we might be able to figure something out.
- I understand that things come up and that many of you are juggling multiple responsibilities in addition to your graduate coursework. If you are unable to attend an appointment that you scheduled, please cancel through the booking page or let me know. Repeated missed appointments will result in a temporary hold on your ability to schedule new ones.
Paper Review (PhD Only)
If you would like to send me a paper and receive brief written feedback, you can do that as well. However, the schedule isn’t consistent, and I will be accepting far fewer paper reviews than I will be holding in-person or online appointments.
- I will not proofread or edit your work. I will point out persistent issues, and offer general feedback about style, argument, structure, coherence, and formatting.
- I can answer general questions and help to clarify instructor feedback, but you should always ask your professors, directly, if you aren’t sure what their feedback means.
- I will try to return papers/comments within ten business days. Depending on the number of papers that I have received, it could take longer than that.
- I won’t always read or comment on the entire paper. Instead, I will focus on giving you feedback that can be applied throughout your work.
***NOTE: If the link says that you don’t have permission to view or fill out the form, make sure that you are logged into your myUSC account on the browser you are using and try again.***
USC Dornsife Writing Center
In addition to being able to meet with me, you can also make weekly appointments at the USC Dornsife Writing Center (USC’s college-wide writing center). While I only work with grad students at Annenberg, the consultants who work at The Writing Center help students from all over the university, both undergrads and graduate students. Here are a few notes to help you make the most of your appointments with them:
- Because they work with so many students, they may not be immediately familiar with the kind of assignment you are working on or what your professors are expecting (tbh, neither am I). It can be really good practice to get in the habit of explaining the purpose/expectations of the assignment you are working on along when you start your session.
- They have lots of different consultants (and I think they are all grad students). It’s totally fine to shop around a bit and find a consultant that you like to work with.
- If you are making appointments with both me and them, it could be helpful to try and do different things in both sets of appointments. Maybe appointments with me could be focused on argumentative/structural/organizational issues and you can work with them on grammar and clarity, or the other way around.
- If I am really busy (for instance, at the end of a semester when everyone is trying to get help on the same assignment), you might find it easier to make an appointment with them–they’ll be busy too, but they have more people.