Have You Ever Thought About Becoming a Writing Center Consultant?

You might want to! Writing Center consultants empower writers by helping them build confidence and unlock their writing potential. Consultants make a real impact on other students' academic journeys in a dynamic, supportive university environment.

Consulting at the Writing Center also provides great experience in teaching, training, coaching, and mentoring. Working with other writers helps consultants improve their own writing, communication, reading, collaboration, and teaching skills – all qualifications that every employer wants!

What Does a Consultant Do?

Writing Center consultants offer individualized writing support to students, faculty, and staff from across the university. We work in collaborative, writer-focused sessions (through in-person, virtual, and OWL Consultations) to provide writers with the proper guidance and strategies to help them improve and feel more confident about their writing.

  • Conduct 45-minute, one-to-one or group sessions with writers to discuss and improve their writing projects. This includes reading papers aloud, identifying areas for improvement, suggesting tools and strategies for revisions, and giving writers time to work on their writing.
  • Work collaboratively with writers, motivate them to help build their confidence, and offer constructive feedback to address gaps and enhance their writing skills.
  • Assist writers on any writing projects, including papers for their classes in any major/discipline, articles, resumes and CVs, personal statements, emails, poetry, and memoirs. Note: We do not work on papers written in languages other than English.
  • Help create and update writing resources, such as handouts and online materials, to support the Writing Center's offerings.

Consultants who work for multiple semesters can engage in a variety of professional development opportunities, including chances to lead informational presentations and customized workshops, design resources, create training materials for future consultants, and move into lead consultant supervisory positions.

What Training Does a Consultant Receive?

Consultants undergo extensive training during their first semester, with paid training hours included in their schedule, and will have access to ongoing professional development opportunities in future semesters.

  • Consultants will participate in 10-12 hours/week of in-person and asynchronous online training for the first 4 weeks of their first semester. During these weeks, they will not consult.
  • After week 4 of the first semester, consultants will participate in 4-5 hours of in-person and asynchronous online training per week for the remainder of the semester.
  • Consultants will hold in-person consultations during their first semester before receiving specialized training to transition to virtual and OWL (Online Writing Lab) consultations.
  • Consultants will have continued professional development opportunities in subsequent semesters to stay current with best practices in writing tutoring and instruction.

UNLV Microcredential

As an added incentive, consultants who complete this training will receive a non-credit-bearing UNLV Microcredential that can be added to a resume or CV. This microcredential is a reflection of the critical skills developed as a consultant as well as the time spent in training.

What Are Qualities of a Successful Consultant?

  • Enjoys writing, but more importantly, enjoys listening to, collaborating with, and giving feedback to others.
  • Wishes to develop skills identifying and addressing gaps in writers’ ideas, problems in organization, grammatical errors, formatting conventions, and elements of style, all of which can help improve the consultant’s own writing too!
  • Possesses a strong work ethic, including the ability to manage a tutoring workload alongside coursework, be on time, communicate needs to supervisors, and consistently show up with a professional and positive energy.
  • Communicates ideas and instructions clearly by adjusting to the individual needs of each student.
  • Creates a supportive and welcoming environment by demonstrating the desire to learn from and engage with others about their writing projects, skills, and challenges.

What Qualifications Should an Applicant Have?

  • Must be able to work 15-20 hours per week in their first semester to participate in training sessions while consulting. Less training occurs in subsequent semesters, so consultants may work fewer hours in the future, if they wish.
  • Must be available in the fall semester to attend training at the times set by the director.
  • Must be a student who is not graduating before May of the academic year in which they are applying.
  • Must have completed English 101 and 102 at UNLV or the equivalent of these courses, either through exam credit or coursework at other institutions.
  • Must not have a student conduct violation.
  • Must be in good academic standing.

Who Should Apply?

Students from all majors are encouraged to apply! Because we work with writers from across the university, we are especially interested in receiving applications from those who have experience with writing in STEM, social sciences, nursing, public health, hospitality, and business courses.

The UNLV Writing Center team is deeply committed to fostering an inclusive environment and seeks to build a team of consultants who reflect the rich diversity of our student body. We encourage students from all marginalized and underrepresented groups to apply, in particular, those who are multilingual, first generation, neurodivergent, or have disabilities. Such unique perspectives and experiences are integral to our mission of supporting and empowering all writers who also come from various backgrounds and have various identities and experiences. Join us in creating an inclusive space where every writer feels welcomed and empowered to thrive!

Students eligible for Work Study are encouraged to apply.

The Writing Center does not have GA positions to offer to graduate students. All employees must be eligible for hourly student employment.

When Does the Writing Center Accept Applications?

The job call for Writing Center consultants is posted on Handshake each year in early July. Keep an eye on our social media accounts for announcements that we are hiring.

 In the first round of the hiring process, applicants will be asked to submit their resume, unofficial transcript, a writing sample, and written responses to a short questionnaire.

Finally, the candidates selected to move forward in the hiring process will be asked to review and give feedback on a piece of writing and hold a professional interview with the Writing Center director, assistant director, and coordinator.