How do I make an appointment?

 1) Twenty-minute appointments may be scheduled with a consultant. In addition, each consultant will be available for individual appointments up to one hour per week beyond the posted times. You may schedule a twenty-minute appointment by e-mailing one of the consultants at least 2 days in advance: woltejen@gvsu.edu or wardse@gvsu.edu. You will receive confirmation by e-mail. Please show up on time for your appointment.

 2) You may stop by for a walk-in appointment during posted times. If you choose to do a walk-in appointment, please keep in mind that you may have to wait while the consultant is working with another student, and that you might not get in at all. Consultants are available only until the end of their scheduled time, as they may have other appointments and classes to teach.

AVAILABILITY FOR FALL 2009

Prof. Jennifer Wolter
Office: MAK D-2-304
Phone: 616 331 2988
E-mail: woltejen@gvsu.edu
Availability: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 to 10:50 a.m. and by appointment (up to one hour per week)

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Prof. Severine Ward
Office: MAK D-2-122
Phone: 616 331 2477
E-mail: wardse@gvsu.edu
Availability: By appointment only (up to one hour per week)

If you have any questions about the French Writing Center, please e-mail Prof. Jennifer Wolter (woltejen@gvsu.edu).

How do I prepare for my appointment?

Please come prepared with ideas of what you would like to work on with the consultant, including:

• An idea of your own goals for the consultation, along with specific questions.
• A concrete sense of the assignment. Bring a copy of the document outlining it. Also, bring any other documents with your instructor’s rubrics for evaluation, if any.
• A copy of your paper and drafts with your instructor’s comments, if any. If you are writing about a text, bring it as well.
• The will, energy, and time to improve your writing.

The following checklist will help you work on your writing assignment and get ready for an appointment with a consultant from the French Writing Center. Note that if you are not writing a traditional essay, but maybe something more creative such as a short story, for example, the following aspects may not all apply in the same way.

1.  Read the instructions for the assignment very closely. Do you understand them? If you do not, make sure that you ask your instructor for clarification. If you do not, you may not be writing the correct assignment.

2.  Do you know what the instructor’s expectations are for this assignment? Do you know how it will be graded?

3.  What are your specific concerns with the assignment?

4.  Start brainstorming, taking notes/words down, making an outline, etc.

5.  You need to follow the guidelines for the assignment, including everything asked for in the instructions. Some aspects may be the following:

6.  Is the essay typed?

7.  Does it have the adequate number of words, more or less?

8.  Did you use/type all the French accents and special characters?

9.  Did you use a good title, if any?

10.  What is the (general) theme?

11.  Do you state your thesis clearly? Note that the theme is different from the thesis. For example, a theme could be “sports” but your main thesis could be that “college sports bring a lot of revenue to universities.”

12.  Do you use a good introduction where the theme and thesis are introduced?

13.  Does the introduction introduce the ideas to be discussed?

14.  Do you follow a logical development of ideas and offer enough support (quotations, numbers, etc)?

15.  Do you reference all your quotes appropriately, MLA or APA style, and inlcude them in the final bibliography?

16.  Is the vocabulary level sophisticated enough?

17.  Is there too much use of English? If you need to use an English word for which there is no French equivalent, please explain it in French for your reader.

18.  Do you use good transitions and connectors?

19.  Are the verbal tenses chronologically consistent?

20.  Do you have a logical conclusion that summarizes the ideas well?

21.  Is there a professional bibliography at the end (either MLA or APA) if needed?

22.  Remember that the French Writing Center is there to help you at any stage of the writing process, but the consultant will not correct your grammar or spelling errors for you.