The Philosophy dept. at UBC has just announced that they have tutors available in an “essay clinic” (basically just times that tutors are available to talk with you about your essays…or else you can make separate appointments with one of them). And one of the tutors is a Teaching Assistant for our course, Phyllis Pearson!

Please see below for the information, which I just received over email:

Philosophy Essay Clinic

The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce a new service for undergraduate students: the Philosophy Essay Clinic. The purpose of the Essay Clinic is to help undergraduate students with their philosophical writing. The Essay Clinic is available to any student enrolled in a philosophy course at the University of British Columbia.

What services does the Essay Clinic provide?

Tutors in the Essay Clinic will provide:

general advice on structuring an argument; and
critical commentary on draft papers by student.

The tutors will NOT provide:

Text or specific ideas for student papers;
Tutorials or help with course content for individual philosophy courses;
More than occasional assistance with basic writing skills (please use the UBC Writing Centrefor this purpose).

Who works in the Essay Clinic, and where is it?

The Essay Clinic will be staffed by two tutors: Dr. Tom Bittner and PhD student Phyllis Pearson. The Essay Clinic will generally be held in BUCHANAN E274.

When is it open?

The Philosophy Essay Clinic will be open for 8 weeks during peak writing months: Jan 29 to Mar 30

How do I use the Essay Clinic?

There are two options.

Drop-in clinic.No appointment is necessary. The two drop-in blocks are as follows.

DROP-IN BLOCK 1: Monday, 1:00 – 2:30 PM, BUCHANAN E274

DROP-IN BLOCK 2: Tuesday, 1:30 – 3:00 PM, BUCHANAN E274

Make an appointment.If you cannot make it to the drop-in clinic, please contact one of the tutors by email. Each is available for 1.5 hours per week for appointments in addition to the drop-in clinic.
Appointments are a maximum of 20 minutes, unless there is extra time available for further discussion.

For an appointment: please contact Dr. Tom Bittner at tbittner@mail.ubc.ca or Phyllis Pearson at phyllis.pearson8@gmail.com.