The Writing & Media Lab Consultants can help students with a variety of projects, from writing assignments, such as essays, research papers, and application essays, to multimedia projects, such as presentations, videos, and podcasts.
WML Services
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Writing Consultations: from brainstorming to final read-through -
Multimedia Consultations: from storyboard to creation
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In-Class Workshops: to support classroom learning goals
Writing Consultations
We will help you with almost any kind of writing! You can bring: writing assignments from any of your Furman classes; application essays for study away; statements of purpose for graduate school; cover letters for job applications; or creative writing and poetry!
Most often, we help with academic papers, but if you want someone to read something else you’ve written then we will be happy to read it and talk to you about it.
Our staff are all current Furman students, usually sophomores, juniors, or seniors, from a variety of different academic majors. So you’ll be getting help from a peer who has taken a First Year Writing seminar (among other classes!) and know what it’s like to be a student at Furman and what it’s like to learn and struggle with writing.
Please bring everything you need to talk about your writing. At a minimum, this means:
- Your assignment sheet and/or syllabus with instructions about your paper
- For in-person consultations, please print two copies of your paper
- For online consultations, please email a copy of your paper to [email protected]
It might helpful if you have:
- Any notes, outlines, or other materials that you’ve used to write your paper
- A writer’s handbook, if your professor assigned one for your class (common in First Year Writing Seminars)
- For brainstorming sessions, anything you might want to talk about while brainstorming
- For help with citations, detailed notes or your original source(s) if you have specific questions
An appointment is the best way to guarantee that a consultant will be available when you visit us, but we also accept walk-ins when we have the time.
Whether by accident or design (we’re pretty sure it’s an accident), a lot of papers across different classes end up due at the same time. It’s best to make an appointment to avoid the rush!
If you walk-in, we’ll do our best to help you if we don’t have other appointments. If we’re not available, then we can help you make an appointment for later.
Most consultations last 45 minutes, but that depends on how long your paper is and where you are in the process of writing it.
Please don’t make back-to-back appointments for the same paper.
Students and Consultants get burned out after working for 45 minutes straight on the same paper. Even if we haven’t finished reading the whole paper, we can help you spot patterns in your writing so you know what to work on independently later. And you can always come back later for more help.
Instead, please take at least an hour-long break between appointments, either to reflect on what you’ve done so far or to relax and take a break.
Nope!
Just got your assignment? Let us help you brainstorm some ideas and plan how you want to tackle it.
Paper half-written because you got stuck? We can help you figure out where you want to take your ideas next.
Haven’t found the time to finish it yet? Make an appointment and you’ll get 45 minutes to devote to your writing (with a friendly Consultant available to help, too!).
The earlier we are involved in the writing process, the more we can help you. If your paper is due in an hour, we’ll do our best to give it a quick read-through, but we can’t do much more than that.
When you’re writing for your college courses, you are part of a larger scholarly conversation. That conversation is the heart of academics! Your professors know this and they talk to each other about what they’re working on, formally and informally, all the time. Talking through your ideas is one way to work out the bugs and make sure you can justify your arguments and express them clearly.
Oh, wow, that is a big question right now! ChatGPT and similar tools are already changing things out in the working world. However, they are still tools and that means they can be used in different ways for different purposes, both ethical and unethical.
At this time, if you want help using ChatGPT (or others), then the Writing & Media Lab is not the place to get it. We have to respect what professors ask of you and require in their classes. If you are thinking about using ChatGPT for an assignment, your first stop should be to talk to your professor. They will definitely be the best person to guide you.
If your professor has not told you that you can use ChatGPT or similar AI tools, then we recommend that you do not use it without permission or knowledge of your professor first.
Consultants are trained to ask questions and help you make informed decisions about your writing. We don’t suggest content, write the paper, or do the work for you.
We will do our best to help you paraphrase sources, include direct quotes, and properly use citations and references.
If you have any questions or concerns about what is allowed for your class, the best person to ask about it is your professor.
Nope! We don’t offer any kind of “drop off” services; if you want help with a paper or project, plan to work with your Consultant for at least 45 minutes.
WML and Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems that can create, or generate, “various forms of traditionally human expression, in the form of digital content including language, images, video, and music” (MLA-CCCC Task Force on Writing and AI Working Paper 5).
You may be familiar with a few different generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. Both are large language models (LLMs). This means that they have been trained on vast amounts of text to “learn” how language is constructed.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini have been trained by analyzing large amounts of writing and text. The computer systems that make up ChatGPT and Google Gemini have “learned” from the training data what letters, words, and phrases are statistically likely to follow one after another in human writing.
Check out this explainer from the Guardian. It’s a couple of years old, but it explains the basics in easy-to-understand language!
That depends! What does your professor say about AI?
Check your assignment sheet or syllabus for your professors’ AI statements. It’s possible that every professor will have a different approach, so you can’t assume that if one professor allows it that others will!
Most often, professors are more interested in your ideas and your original work unless they explicitly tell you that you can use AI.
Furthermore, you learn more through working your way through a process than by getting an AI tool to help you. Let’s take writing for an example. The best way to get better at writing is to practice writing and to get feedback on your writing.
That depends! What does your professor say about AI?
Check your assignment sheet or syllabus for your professors’ AI statements. It’s possible that every professor will have a different approach, so you can’t assume that if one professor allows it that others will!
If your professor allows you to use AI, then the WML Consultants can help you. Depending on your professor’s guidelines, we might use generative AI as part of the consulting process or help you learn how to use it as part of your assignment. But it all depends on your professor!
Ask your professor! If you can’t find an AI statement in your syllabus, or if you professor hasn’t provided one, then it’s super important to ask your professor BEFORE you use AI in any way for your coursework!
Be explicit and detailed when asking – tell your professor how you want to use AI and why. Listen to their point of view and reasons. Remember, your professors are here to help you learn and their course policies are meant to support your learning.
There are a couple of great resources available!
- Elon University and the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) have put together a free Student Guide to AI
- The Modern Language Association (MLA) has a Student Guide to AI Literacy
Multimedia Consultations
We can help you with more than just writing! Some possible multimedia projects could include:
- videos – planning, filming, storyboarding, and editing
- podcasts – brainstorming, outlining, scripting, recording, and editing
- presentations – planning, organizing, editing, and practicing
- visual design – creating, editing, and critiquing flyers or other visual design projects
Please make sure you have everything you need to discuss your project. At a minimum, this includes:
- Your assignment sheet and/or class syllabus with instructions about your project
- For in-person consultations, please have any files or media you need to use available, either in the cloud or on a physical storage device
- For online consultations, please email a copy of or link to your project to [email protected]
You might consider also bringing:
- Any notes, outlines, or other materials that you’ve used to work on your project
- Any other supplemental materials that your professor gave you about the project
- For brainstorming sessions, anything you might want to reference while brainstorming
Just like with writing, an appointment guarantees that a Consultant will be available to help you. We periodically get quite busy between writing consultations and multimedia consultations, so it’s best to make an appointment to avoid the rush! Appointments last up to 45 minutes.
We have Apple desktop (not laptop) computers available for students to use to work on projects. You can reserve them online through our appointment scheduler in 1- or 2-hour blocks of time.
You can use the Writing & Media Lab computers to gain access to:
- Audacity (an open source audio editing program)
- iMovie (for video editing)
- Adobe PhotoShop (for photo and image editing)
- Adobe Illustrator (for graphic design)
- Adobe InDesign (for document layout)
- Adobe Premiere Pro (for video editing)
- Adobe Audition (for audio editing)
If you need a specific program that isn’t listed here, then let us know and we’ll see if we can help you get access by working with our colleagues in Information Technology Services and the Library.
Our goal is to help you think through your ideas, talk about your writing or multimedia compositions, and make informed decisions about how to complete the assignment. We want you to become a more effective writer and composer of multimedia texts.
We will ask a lot of questions and share our knowledge and expertise about multimedia projects in order to help you move your ideas forward.
We’ve worked to spread our computer stations out so that small groups can work comfortably on a project. All of our computers have large screens, so it’s definitely better for group work than sharing someone’s tiny laptop screen.
Songs, images, and videos that you might want to use in your project are almost always going to be copyrighted, meaning that you can’t use them without permission from the copyright holder. However, there are some great places you can get materials you’ll be allowed to use:
- Some of the Library databases are licensed to allow you to use the materials for academic purposes. Check the specific database for details on how you’re allowed to use downloaded materials.
- Creative Commons has a search tool so you can find media that the creators have made available for public use (check the Creative Commons license for any limitations on use).
- Free Music Archive has music that is often licensed using Creative Commons (again, check the license for limitations).
If you have questions about copyright, please check out the Furman Library’s Copyright resources.
Please note that the Writing & Media Lab follows Furman’s Information & Technology Services policies on copyright and file sharing. Our computers may not be used for P2P file-sharing or unlawful reproduction of any kind (including making digital copies of copyrighted DVDs or VHS tapes).
We have multimedia equipment that students can borrow. Check out the full list!
In-Class Workshops
Whether your project is brand-new or one you’ve assigned before but are hoping to tweak, the Assistant Director is available to:
- Discuss the learning goals for projects
- Help match learning goals with assignment activities and available technology on campus
- Determine a feasible timeline for student projects
- Conduct in-class workshops on planning, storyboarding, editing, and providing feedback on in-progress work
The Assistant Director and the student Consultants can help facilitate workshops designed around your multimedia projects. Topics can include (but are not limited to!):
- Project planning
- Analyzing examples from the genre the students will be producing
- Storyboarding or outlining
- Editing and software use
- Facilitating peer feedback sessions or group critiques
While we have a few tried and true workshop models we’ve used before, we are also able to design or tweak our existing models to support your assignment and learning goals.
Would you like to “test drive” your assignment sheet or syllabus on students who have no stake in your class? Our student Consultants can read through and offer you a student perspective on how the assignment is written to help identify potential sticking points or improve clarity.