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ISMMS Writing Support Service: Home

Writing Resources

Looking for books on writing or want some additional resources before or after meeting with a writing consultant?

Check out our Writing Resources Guide for books, tools, and tutorials on and about writing.

Group Sessions

If your department is interested in a group training session on writing, please use the class request form.

Meet Our Writing Consultants

Dr. Michaela Panter's headshot

Dr. Michaela Panter has 15 years of experience as a biomedical editor and writing consultant. In her prior consulting at writing centers at Columbia and Yale and now at ISMMS, she has worked with students and trainees on maximizing the clarity of research articles, grant applications, and other scientific writing. Dr. Panter earned her Ph.D. in immunobiology and an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale.

Dr. Marianne Medlin is a consultant with over 20 years of experience in academic and professional writing. With a humanities Ph.D. from Liverpool Hope University and a background in journalism, Dr. Medlin consults in disciplines ranging from arts and media to the health sciences. She currently works with graduate students and faculty on a wide range of scientific writing projects at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Is there a cost for this service?

The service is free. Appointments are available at no charge, but please note the cancellation policy that if you need to cancel please do so no later than 24 hours prior to your scheduled time. The Library pays for the consultant's time if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice. Thank you. 

ISMMS Writing Support Service

Carefully review the information on this page. Once you have done so, select the button below to schedule your appointment.

 

Need help booking an appointment? Contact us for help.

1:1 Support

The ISMMS Writing Support Service provides students, housestaff, and postdocs with 1:1 consultations from an experienced science writer and editor in a collaborative, non-judgmental, and confidential setting. The service is designed to help you improve your writing skills, specifically to:

  • Help improve the flow, structure, and style of their writing
  • Point out weak/unsupported arguments and offer suggestions for how they can be improved
  • Identify confusing/unclear sections of submissions and offer suggestions for how they can be improved
  • Ensure that writing style is appropriate for the writer's audience

The Writing Support Consultants are available to help with the following types of documents at any stage of the writing process:

  • Course assignments
  • Personal statements and other application-related documents
  • Manuscripts intended for journal publication
  • Grant/funding applications
  • Dissertations and theses

Eligibility and Policies

Eligibility

Writing support services are available exclusively to current, matriculated Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai students, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and fellows as well as Phillips School of Nursing students.

Appointment Scheduling, Duration and Cancellation Policy

Scheduling
  • Appointments must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of the desired appointment time. The booking system does not allow appointments to be made less than 48 hours in advance or more than 1 appointment per week. For extenuating circumstances, contact us for assistance. 
  • ISMMS students, residents/fellows, and postdocs as well as PSON students are eligible to schedule and appointment with the Writing Support Consultant.
  • The Writing Consultants are not available to review documents independently/outside of appointment times.
  • Writers are allowed a maximum of four appointments per semester.
Duration
  • Consultations last 45 minutes.
  • Consultants are unable to accommodate writers arriving more than 15 minutes after the designated appointment start time. Please show up on time to ensure an effective session.
Cancellation
  • If you cannot attend a scheduled appointment, it is your responsibility to cancel it. Please cancel as soon as you know--at least 24 hours notice is required to avoid the Library being charged for the consultant's time. 

Preparing for a Successful Appointment

To get the most out of your appointment, please be sure to:

  • Send the document to the consultant in advance or have it ready for screen sharing.
  • Think critically about what you hope to accomplish during the appointment and generate a list of specific things you need help with, for example:
    • Organization: How to organize the sections of your paper
    • Clarity: How to make your writing flow better and easier for the reader to understand
    • Citations: Understanding when a citation is needed and where to insert it

It is important to understand that the Writing Support Service is not:

  • A proofreading or copyediting service
  • A grammar-checking service
  • A ghostwriting service

Support from the Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth

Research and progress may not follow a linear trend; sometimes there are setbacks, and they happen to all of us. Although some of these setbacks might be inevitable, recovering from them can be challenging. If you are looking for individual one-on-one behavioral health support to help you bounce back from setbacks, the Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth (CSRPG) is here to support you. Their mission is to support the resilience and psychological well-being of the Mount Sinai community. The center offers confidential behavioral health care and resilience-training workshops to Mount Sinai staff, faculty, trainees, and medical and graduate students, as well as adult dependents and partners of Mount Sinai employees who are covered by the same insurance. You can contact them by phone or email 212-659-5564 or MS-CSRPG@mountsinai.org.