Office of Student Support Services
Work through a writing question, understand feedback, and develop your next draft. Find support for the planning, writing, and revision involved in your academic work.
Find APA guidance from Purdue OWLAllow two to three business days for a draft review, with additional time possible during peak periods. Submit early enough to read the feedback and make your own revisions before the assignment deadline.
The Writing Center helps enrolled NMU students improve their academic writing through draft feedback, consultations, and explanations of writing conventions. You may bring an outline, an unfinished draft, a revised passage, or a question about feedback you have received. The review gives you guidance to apply as you develop your own work.
Eligible work includes course essays, discussion drafts, literature reviews, research papers, and student-written sections of proposals or dissertations. For a longer document, identify the section or page range you want reviewed and explain its place in the larger project. Students writing in an additional language may request explanations of academic language, sentence clarity, and writing conventions.
Work on the order of sections, the purpose of a paragraph, or the connection between a claim and its evidence. A reviewer can identify where the discussion becomes difficult to follow and explain how a clearer structure would help the reader.
Ask about unclear wording, transitions, sentence structure, or language that overstates what the evidence supports. Feedback addresses patterns you can learn to recognize and revise throughout your draft.
Get help integrating evidence, distinguishing your interpretation from a source’s findings, and checking a paraphrase or quotation. For APA citations and formatting, identify the citation, reference entry, heading, or formatting question you want to discuss.
Email your request to info@newmeridianuniversity.org with the subject Writing Review. Use your university email when available.
Include your full name, student ID if assigned, program, course title or code, instructor or supervisor, assignment title, and due date with its time zone. Say whether this is an initial draft or a revision. Name the section or page range to review and prioritize the questions you want answered.
A focused question helps the reviewer understand your concern. For example, ask whether the paragraph explains how its evidence supports the claim, or whether a literature review section groups the studies around a shared idea.
Include your draft, complete assignment instructions, the rubric when provided, and relevant instructor comments. An editable Word document is preferred so comments can be attached to particular passages. If you use another format or need an accessible feedback format, explain that in the request.
For a citation or paraphrasing question, identify the passage in your draft and provide the source details, relevant page number, and brief excerpt needed to understand the issue. For group work, identify your contribution and confirm that you are authorized to share the submitted material.
The standard review period is two to three business days; peak periods may require additional time. Missing instructions or an unreadable file may affect the return date. Provide any requested correction promptly and ask when to expect feedback. A near deadline does not guarantee an expedited review.
If you sent the wrong version, reply to the original email, identify the attachment to replace, attach the corrected file, and ask whether it can be used before review proceeds. Use the same thread to cancel a request or ask about its status. A review request does not extend a course deadline; extension requests go to your instructor.
Email subject Writing Review
A consultation can help before a full draft is ready or when you need to understand a reviewer’s comment. Email info@newmeridianuniversity.org with the subject Writing Consultation. Include the assignment instructions, your outline or available draft, and a specific question.
Read the assignment instructions and any existing feedback. Select the questions that matter most, and identify the passages that illustrate the problem. Tell the office in advance if you need an accessible communication or feedback format.
Expect a discussion of your questions and explanations you can use in revision. The reviewer may examine a passage, ask what you intend to communicate, and help you consider how to develop it. Take notes, ask about anything unclear, and write or revise the section yourself afterward.
Draft feedback consists of annotated comments and suggestions returned through the student portal. The email response to your request explains how to retrieve it. Sign in through My Meridian and follow those retrieval instructions. If you cannot find or open the file, reply to the review email with the assignment title and the access problem.
Read the feedback before beginning your revisions. Address the organization and development of ideas, then work on individual sentences and formatting. Review the comments alongside the assignment instructions and rubric, and look for the same writing patterns in sections the reviewer did not examine. Check citations and references against the sources you actually used.
For an unclear comment, reply in the original email thread and identify the page, paragraph, or comment. Explain what you understand and what remains unclear. To request another review, attach the revised draft, summarize your changes, state your remaining questions, and include the current due date. A follow-up draft requires review time.
Online Writing Resources
The Purdue OWL APA 7 guide provides explanations you can consult while writing and revising. Choose the topic that matches your question, compare the guidance with your own passage, and bring any unresolved issue to a Writing Center consultation.
Follow your assignment instructions and NMU’s applicable dissertation requirements when preparing work for submission. If an example appears to conflict with a requirement, give your instructor or supervisor the exact instruction and ask for clarification.
Check how to attribute a source within a sentence, cite a paraphrased idea, and identify the location of quoted material.
Review the organization and formatting of your reference list, including author names, capitalization, italics, and hanging indents.
Check page layout, spacing, fonts, page numbers, and title-page guidance. Use the student or professional paper guidance appropriate to your assignment.
Check how heading levels show the relationship between sections and how lists fit within an academic paper.
New Meridian University is not affiliated with Purdue University. Purdue OWL links are provided as external educational resources.
You retain responsibility for your ideas, analysis, wording, citations, and final submission. The Writing Center does not compose sections, rewrite assignments, supply arguments or source synthesis, or provide line-by-line editing. A review focuses on your questions, the identified section, and the writing issues that most affect the draft.
The center does not conduct statistical analysis. Feedback does not verify every factual claim, certify that a paper is free of plagiarism, or guarantee a grade, publication, or committee approval. Research design, disciplinary accuracy, proposal approval, and dissertation acceptance remain with the instructor or research committee.
For an examination or another assessment that restricts outside help, obtain the instructor’s written permission before requesting review and include it with your submission. Follow NMU’s academic integrity requirements and applicable AI rules. Do not submit another person’s writing as your own or use a review to disguise AI-generated primary prose. If feedback appears to conflict with an instructor’s directions, share the exact instruction with the reviewer and seek clarification.
Remove participant names, contact details, student records, and other identifying information from research excerpts or professional examples. Use participant codes and share only what is necessary for the writing question. Do not email raw recordings, complete research datasets, passwords, or medical records with your request. If the passage cannot be shared safely, describe the writing problem and ask how to obtain help without disclosing the protected material.
If the standard review period has passed without feedback or a revised return date, reply to the original email with your submission date, assignment title, and deadline. Explain whether you are missing feedback, cannot access a file, need a comment explained, or have a question about the scope of review. For an unresolved time-sensitive matter, call the Office of Student Support Services at 801-306-0660 and identify the deadline.
For help locating a writing resource, email with the subject Writing Resources and name the topic or item you need. For example, identify the type of reference you are trying to format or the heading question you are trying to resolve.
Send requests to info@newmeridianuniversity.org. Include your name, program, course or project, specific question, and any approaching deadline.
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