A Guide to Submit Writing for Feedback

Submitting your writing to a Writing Specialist or Tutor

Sending in your essay just takes three steps!

  1. Read our policies and guides below to find out what we can (and cannot) help undergraduate students with
  2. Click the button below to access our interactive calendar and select a time that works for you to receive feedback. This saves time on a specialist or tutor's calendar to focus on leaving comments on your essay.
  3. Check your email to find the Google Form link to send us your piece of writing. You will not be meeting with a specialist or tutor, but they will use the hour you picked to leave comments.

Access Submit Writing for Feedback Calendar

Key Policies for Submitting Writing for Feedback

Please note that for this type of appointment you will not be having a live conversation with a Specialist or Tutor over Zoom; instead, you will be uploading your Google Doc for the Specialist or Tutor to write feedback on.

  • Appointments are limited to 1 per day and 10 per quarter for Specialists (STAFF) and unlimited for Tutors (PEER).
  • Students who do not submit the Submit Writing for Feedback Form or do not give edit permissions on their essay before the start of the appointment time may be considered a no-show and blocked from making appointments for 48 hours. If you have issues with the process, please contact Kevin Sitz at kwsitz@ucdavis.edu, and he may be able to clear your penalty or reschedule you.
  • Students can book appointments up to 72 hours in advance (not including holidays and weekends)
  • If you recently graduated and lost access to our calendar, please reach out to Kevin Sitz. You can book up to 3 appointments total on the Personal Statement and Submit Writing for Feedback calendars for one extra quarter (based on availability). For example, if you graduated spring 2024, you may see a specialist up until the end of summer 2024

You may book on this calendar for any kind of writing including coursework, personal statements for graduate school, scholarship essays, appeals letters, resumes, etc.

If none of our writing support options work for you or you have technology issues, please email Kevin Sitz at kwsitz@ucdavis.edu

Click on each topic below to learn more about how to book an appointment. Please familiarize yourself with our policies before your first appointment.

How does the Asynchronous Writing Feedback service work?

If you are unable to have an Appointment with a Writing Specialist or Tutor, you may submit writing for feedback. When you sign up via Oasis, you will receive an email directing you to complete the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form. You will fill out the required information on the form and submit your draft and any related materials (e.g., prompt). Then, the Specialist or Tutor you signed up for will take a look at your draft, give you feedback, and return it to you.

While we will do our best to support you, we recommend that (if possible) you consider an Appointment with a Writing Specialist for a live consultation so that we can discuss ideas in real time. If none of our writing support options work for you, please email Kevin Sitz at kwsitz@ucdavis.edu

Please make sure your Google Doc is set to “anyone with this link can edit” to ensure the Specialist or Tutor can give you feedback. If you do not do this, the Specialist  will cancel your appointment. If you experience difficulty, please email your Specialist to reschedule.

How do I submit my paper for feedback?

 STEP ONE. Go to tutoring.ucdavis.edu and click on “Writing.”

STEP TWO. Once you are on the Writing Page, click on “Submit Writing for Feedback”

STEP THREE. Read through our policies. On this instruction page is a link to book your appointment.

STEP FOUR. At the bottom of these instructions is a link to book your appointment. You must sign in with your UC Davis username and password (sometimes called CAS or Kerberos).

STEP FIVE. In the appointment booking website, select “Academic Assistance and Tutoring Centers” from either drop-down menu and “Submit Writing for Feedback.”

STEP SIX. On the next page, fill out your appointment details with your name, email, phone number, and what you need help with (e.g., UWP 22, Personal Statement, Scholarship). 

In the Special Situation box, click the appointment type that applies (Appeals Letter or OSSJA Referral, Job or Internship Cover Letter, Scholarship Essay, or UC Davis class paper or assignment). Then in the Reasons box, indicate the specific type of writing you are working on (e.g., UWP 1, Gilman scholarship, medical school secondaries). When you’re ready, click “Next.” 

STEP SEVEN. Once you can see the calendar, you can book your appointment. 

Across the top of the calendar, you can filter by appointment type. Submit Writing for Feedback Appointments are only available as "remote" appointments.

In the top center, you can click on the drop-down menu to select the name of the Tutor (marked with PEER on their name) or Specialist (marked with STAFF on their name) you want to give you feedback. You can also select “Any Available Advisor” to see everyone’s calendars at once.

Click on an appointment time that works for you. Please note that for this kind of appointment you WILL NOT be meeting with your Specialist or Tutor. This is the time the Specialist or Tutor has set aside to review your paper and prepare your feedback. Click “Confirm.”

STEP 8. Once you have confirmed your appointment, check your UCD email. Oasis will automatically send you an email with further instructions to complete the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form. Complete this form as soon as possible so your essay is ready for the Specialist or Tutor at the scheduled time.

Please note that it is important to indicate on the form the date of your appointment as that will make it easier for your Specialist or Tutor to locate the correct version of your essay to give feedback on.

 

What are the logistics for this service?

The Specialist or Tutor will spend up to 50 minutes reviewing your work and giving you feedback on your Google Doc. This feedback will be based on the approach we use in Appointments with a Writing Specialist or Tutor. We will not have an opportunity to discuss it together unless you make an Appointment with a Writing Specialist or Tutor. In our feedback, we will share what’s working well, pose questions, and give suggestions for areas of revision.

In order to receive the most helpful feedback, be sure to tell us on the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form what you would like us to comment on.

What kind of feedback can I expect?

A Specialist or Tutor CAN 

  • Highlight grammar error patterns
  • Talk through concepts
  • Show examples to help you better understand grammar
  • Give you suggestions and help you generate ideas to fully answer the prompt
  • Help you further develop your ideas and analysis
  • Share online writing resources with you for self-learning 
  • Help you with sentence-level concerns
  • Pose questions that a reader might have
  • Help generate questions you can ask your TA or professor
  • Help you effectively cite sources and avoid plagiarism 

A Specialist or Tutor CANNOT 

  • Tell you what words to use 
  • Write or rewrite your essay for you
  • Proofread your essay or fix your grammar for you

Essentially, we are here to GUIDE you through the learning process; we are not an editing service or homework machine. We want to make sure our feedback will help you better understand the concepts and become a better writer, not just write a better paper. 

How do I get written feedback on a Google Doc?

You have access to Google Docs as a UC Davis student. If you have been using another word processor, you can follow these steps to use Google Docs to create your document and share it with us.  You must set sharing permissions to “anyone with this link can edit” to enable us to leave feedback:

STEP 1: Go to drive.google.com and log in.

STEP 2: Go to “New” and “Google Docs.”

STEP 3: Paste your essay into the document. On your document, you should also include any assignment instructions and prior feedback you have received.

STEP 4: Share your essay.

Click on Share

STEP 5: Click on “Get Sharable link”

Under “Get Link” click “Change,” select UC Davis in the left drop-down, and select “Editor” in the right drop-down. 

STEP 6: Make sure the link permissions allow editing (see sample above). Copy the link and paste it into the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form.

Once the specialist has completed their feedback, you will receive an email. The specialist will also remove themselves from your document.

How can I get feedback in a different way?

If you would like to request your feedback in a different way (such as video or audio-recorded feedback) because you need accommodations or cannot access feedback on a Google Doc:

  • Follow the steps above to create and share a Google Doc on the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form.
  • On the Submit Writing for Feedback submission form, click “Yes” when asked if you would like to receive your feedback in another way. After you’ve submitted your form, contact the Director of the Writing Support Center, Kevin Sitz at kwsitz@ucdavis.edu to discuss your options.