Writing Consultations

WRITING CONSULTATIONS

Graduate students can schedule up to one hour of free, one-on-one, and confidential consultations with our Academic, Professional, and Technical Graduate Writing Development Director, Robby Nadler. Robby will work on any type of writing (including STEM writing, which he has a background in) in any stage of development. This includes academic documents (e.g., class papers and dissertations) and personal documents (e.g., grant applications and cover letters). In these meetings, Robby will provide tailored feedback to help students achieve the larger goals of the writing document related to issues of genre appropriateness, clarity, concision, and academic/industry standards. For those students who are not physically in the Santa Barbara area, virtual consultations can be arranged. Students who are specifically seeking help with job materials related to industry positions are encouraged to contact Lana Smith-Hale (lanasmithhale@ucsb.edu) for expert support.

Before scheduling an appointment, please familiarize yourself with the following policies regarding consultations:

Consultations are offered Weeks 1–10 of Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters and the first 10 weeks of Summer beginning with the start of Summer Session A. A consultation may last only up to one hour, regardless of the length of writing assignment.
Depending on the assignment, working through 3-6 pages is common for one hour.
Do not e-mail unsolicited drafts. Sent material will not be read without an appointment.
Two weeks is the average wait time for an appointment.
Once an appointment is scheduled, please send your work the day of/evening before or bring a physical copy. Due to time considerations, Robby cannot read material outside of appointment times.
Students may only schedule one appointment at a time. Once an appointment is completed, students may schedule another appointment for the earliest available week.
Appointments that are cancelled within twelve hours (or missed) count as an appointment for that week, and students cannot schedule another appointment until the following week at the earliest.
Excepting certified service animals, please do not bring pets of any kind to your appointment.
All face-to-face consultations are held in SRB 3229-A; all virtual consultations are conducted via Zoom.
Because this service seeks to look at larger writing concerns, grammar instruction/proofreading will not be provided.

To schedule an appointment, please e-mail Robby at robby.nadler@graddiv.ucsb.edu, letting him know when you are available to meet and what you would like help with. You will receive a response within two business days.

About Our Academic, Professional, and Technical Graduate Writing Development Director, Robby Nadler

robby-headshot Robby Nadler holds terminal degrees from the University of Montana (M.F.A.) and the University of Georgia (Ph.D.). At the latter, he directed the campus’ five writing centers and was responsible for developing the university’s dissertation/thesis boot camps, creating and teaching the university’s graduate writing courses, and transforming the campus writing centers in research units. His research fields focus on nontraditional sites of basic writing, including graduate writing, STEM composition, and writing centers. For his efforts, he was awarded the 2018 Council on Basic Writing’s Innovation Award, which is granted to one institution annually and represents the highest honor in the field of basic writing praxis. He is also author of the book jesse garon writes a love letter, a magical realism memoir about holocaust narratives and Elvis Presley that was inspired during his Fulbright grant in Israel. When not writing, Robby can be found in the gym or engaging his side pursuits as a classically trained pastry chef and baker. For writing-related questions, information, and suggestions, you can email him at robby.nadler@graddiv.ucsb.edu.