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Consultations

Individual consultations are for anyone who is preparing a text or presentation in English and would like to test their work on a mock audience during the production process. We offer feedback to help you edit the text in a meaningful way into the final form. You can come to the consultation with a finished text, but also with a blank paper - we help at all stages of the writing process, including initial planning of the text's intent, or if you are facing writer's block. We help with writing research articles according to English-language conventions, but also in writing dissertations, master's theses, research proposals or grant applications. We do NOT do proofreading, as this concerns the final tuning of the already finished text and can easily be done for you by AI tools or a native speaker. Our primary focus is on higher-order concerns such as the logic, structure and expression of ideas that are expected in research texts but are frequently omitted or expressed vaguely. We offer insight from an outsider to help authors develop awareness of potential readers and tailor the text to them.

What happens in a session

The consultation takes the form of a conversation about your text. You will explain what you wanted to say in the text and together we will check whether your text conveys your key ideas. We will analyze how you've structured your thoughts against the conventions in your discipline within the specific genre. We pay attention to how you explain your research aim, how you express the contribution and significance of the study, etc. While we primarily focus on ideas, logic, text organization and flow, we might address grammar and style in cases where wording or errors make the text difficult to understand. It would be pointless to polish parts of the text that you will rewrite or that will disappear altogether with your next round of revisions.

Steps in the consultation

  • You will set the context of the text and the specific requirements for the text (e.g. requirements of the journal, criteria for assessing the grant application, etc.)
  • You will explain to us in a conversation what you thought to convey in the text
  • We will analyse the text together - we will check that the text contains the important information that we have heard you talk about and that this information is in the appropriate place (e.g. sometimes authors find that information that should be in the introduction of a scientific article is not included until the discussion)
  • We ask for clarifications/we point to unanswered questions etc.
  • You will get recommendations on useful resources that will help you carry out the revisions

Session length: 30 – 90 minutes

  • We provide face-to-face consultations in Ládví or online consultations over Zoom
  • The total number of consultations per semester per client will depend on the time availability of the instructors, the demand for consultations and the individual requirements of the client
  • We limit sessions to a maximum of 90 min. Longer sessions tend to be less productive because the work is quite intense and both, you and your consultant can feel overwhelmed.
  • Please, do not expect that we will get through your entire paper in one session.  If you come with a full research article, we typically manage to discuss the abstract and introduction, leaving the rest of the paper to the subsequent session(s).

What to bring

  • A copy of your text or a flash drive with your presentation slides
  • Any other relevant information (e.g. the name of your target journal, guidelines to authors, etc.)

Price

1 hour = 600 CZK

If the session requires the instructor to invest time to prepare for the session (e.g. read the text beforehand), this time will also be billed to the client.

Employees of the CAS: discounted package of 4 hours for 1 800 CZK

External clients: discounted package of 4 hours for 2 200 CZK

Individual prices for non-standard requests

e.g. dissertation, epxress service etc.

Request a consultation through our registration database here

Once you register, we will e-mail you to schedule the date and time.