We've been pleased to receive consistently enthusiastic feedback on our coaching work, no matter the field, person's status, or institution type. See what current and former clients have to say:
“My paper went from a blank page to submission-ready.”
“My research writing has become directed with more momentum thanks to Composition Coaching. Since we’ve worked together over the past few semesters my project has reached a logical stopping point, and my paper went from a blank page to submission ready.”
-Austin, PhD student, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh“My research writing has become directed with more momentum thanks to Composition Coaching. Since we’ve worked together over the past few semesters my project has reached a logical stopping point, and my paper went from a blank page to submission ready. The organization of my writing has improved tremendously. I feel more confident that a broader audience will better understand my research writing because you have improved how I analyze, caption, and discuss my figures and thoughts.
A huge amount of weight gets lifted off my shoulders every time Will has helped me make a plan or analyze my latest results. I feel that Will has gone to extraordinary lengths to understand my research and the setting I am operating in and has accommodated each of my needs with immense compassion and care. I likely could not afford this service for myself and therefore would not have even considered it as an option.
My response to anxiety has always had an element of paralysis to it, but that became amplified with the lack of structure in graduate school and lack of familiarity with my new field of study’s expectations. Composition Coaching helped me turn that anxiety into a productive energy by creating a structure and plan of attack for my writing and research that motivated me to improve my day-to-day working habits.”
-Austin, PhD student, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh“Incredibly grateful and privileged to have found this support.”
“When I approached Will over a year ago, it was after I had completed my data collection and begun to put all the pieces of my dissertation together. Despite having advisors, all sorts of academic connections, and a full written proposal at the time, I still felt extremely overwhelmed as I approached this final stage of writing. As I reflect on this past year of dissertation work, I feel incredibly grateful and privileged to have found this support.
-Nour, PhD candidate, Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University“When I approached Will over a year ago, it was after I had completed my data collection and begun to put all the pieces of my dissertation together. Despite having advisors, all sorts of academic connections, and a full written proposal at the time, I still felt extremely overwhelmed as I approached this final stage of writing. As I reflect on this past year of dissertation work, I feel incredibly grateful and privileged to have found this support.
Firstly, a huge part of Will’s coaching style is providing emotional support. Will offers emotional support through traditional ways by asking questions about the writing process, being a good listener, and acknowledging the ups and downs of the writing process. But more importantly, Will also provides emotional support by showing personal investment in his client’s success. Will strives with every meeting to advocate for you, your goals, and the work. The advocacy part of this coaching service has been crucial because this phase of my academic career has involved a lot of self-doubt, and I often felt isolated. Will supported me during our weekly meetings by acknowledging the difficulties of the process, celebrating the wins, getting rid of the unnecessary negative self-talk, and filtering through my ideas. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have been able to make meaningful progress in the past year on my own. Will’s investment in his client’s success and his way of advocating for them in every meeting makes this coaching service exceptional and different from other types of academic support.
Secondly, Will’s coaching service has also been incredibly helpful in providing content guidance in different ways. Firstly, Will provides support by talking through the content, which is the most important part of our sessions. I don’t always have clarity in my thinking during our sessions, yet I am always impressed by Will’s ability to listen and filter through the noise and help guide my thinking. Secondly, Will is able to guide the writing process either through explicit and/or implicit feedback. Receiving feedback can sometimes be emotionally jarring; however, Will is always patient and considerate towards his clients by checking in and asking permission, especially when giving direct feedback. Will is also able to model writing behavior through our drafting, which has helped me recognize the blind spots in my writing and professional voice. Watching him guide and model the writing process not only benefited the project we are working on, but I am able to notice different ways I can improve my writing and professional voice outside of our sessions. Will is very patient, positive, compassionate, an excellent communicator, and very consistent in his feedback, all essential traits that provided me with the stability and support I needed for my writing progress.
Finally, my project this past year involved several different areas of work, such as the writing process (i.e., drafting, writing, and revising), data management, including organization, clean up, and analysis, and administrative tasks like meeting prep and writing emails. Will managed to provide concrete support every step of the way, regardless of the area of work or task we were working on. It is always impressive watching Will lead each session with ideas, solutions, and support. Finally, given all the different ways Will is able to provide support, I appreciated that I was able to cater each session based on what I needed that day to help me with my writing progress, whether it was drafting, talking, organizing, etc.”
-Nour, PhD candidate, Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University“The output is probably 2-3 times the quality of what I would have been able to produce sitting alone.”
Some other details that come to mind, are the moments when Will helped “reframe” some of the challenges I was facing. I came into a few sessions feeling behind on everything, like I was disappointing people, and like I just didn’t have the skillset or energy required to do it all. Will helped me take a step back and see the bigger picture. We are all struggling with things. The situation was difficult because I was put into a difficult situation, and writing these packets is legit hard. I wasn’t a failure as human being for struggling with writing, this part of the human condition to believe we are not good enough.”
-Ben, adjunct in Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business
“Will was right there with me in the depths of the challenge.”
Maybe as a summary, working with a therapist I can talk through the emotional pieces once a month but by then it was hard to pin down how to move through the challenge. Will was right there with me in the depths of the challenge, listened well and encouraged, and then shined a light on how to adapt what I was doing in the moment to get better results. ”
-Anonymous
“It made the whole process faster.”
-Anonymous
“I have a much better grasp on how to have strong, clear, and concise wording.”
-Patrick, Research Assistant, Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
“We finished everything we planned so far.”
-Zach, Postdoc, Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
“I didn’t feel stressed.”
-Sadra, PhD Candidate, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
“An invaluable opportunity for me.”
If we were to analogize the clarity of my manuscript to the level of detail observable in the images of the Pillars of Creation captured by the Hubble telescope:
it has now grown closer to the imagery obtained by the James Webb space telescope:
I want to express my sincere gratitude for the invaluable guidance and support you provided.”
-Mehdi, PhD Candidate, Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh
“The mentorship that I have been looking for.”
-Anonymous
“You don’t understand how much weight you took off of me.”
-Mukhayyirkhuja (Mukha), Visiting Researcher, Biomedical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
“The best thing that’s happened to me all of graduate school.”
-Anonymous
“Extremely helpful.”
-Aaron, Assistant Professor, Education, Saint Vincent College
“Exceeded my expectations.”
-Mahpara, PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh
“Great progress.”
-Joanna, PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
“A huge help to my group.”
-Katherine, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh
“A really helpful experience.”
-Kristina, Assistant Professor, Philosophy
“Kept me focusing.”
-Nick, PhD Candidate, Health Geography, Kent State University
“Incredibly helpful.”
-Jennifer, Assistant Professor, Rhetoric
“A really nice change.”
-Christy, PhD student, Cultural Studies, McGill University
“Was, in a way, healing.”
-Rebecca, Assistant Professor, Communication, Lenoir-Rhyne University