Constant Conversations
Audrey Glover, ’19
College of Arts and Sciences, Writing Studio Consultant
I took every single paper I wrote freshman year to the writing studio. I loved having the space to talk about and improve my own work and have someone engage deeply with my ideas. It wasn’t until a consultant once encouraged me to apply that I ever thought about working there myself. I still remember how excited I was when I received an email from John Bradley saying I got the job.
One thing that’s stayed with me throughout my experience working at the writing studio is actually an article that one of our directors, Gary Jaegar, had us read before we even started training.
The article talks about how when we learn how to write in school, we’re actually striving to make our voices heard. All of the writing mistakes that we make as beginner writers (the most recognizable example being when we throw “academic words” into papers even when we aren’t quite sure what they mean) are reflections of us working out how to fashion our ideas into something powerful and compelling. Writing conventions and academic argument become our introduction to the ongoing conversations that happen around us and around every idea that we encounter inside and outside of college.
In an exercise during one of our staff meetings, one of the writing studio’s graduate consultants, Beth Estes, had us write down a list of things to serve as our own “writing studio manifesto” and remind us of the things that we think are most important to our jobs. My list included giving the client control of the session, empowering the writer to think critically about their own writing and preserving the writer’s voice and ideas. I know that, more than any other writing tool or skill, agency is what I want to impart to people who have sessions with me at the writing studio. Even now, as self-conscious as I am about how people will read this piece of writing knowing that I’m a writing consultant, I’m grateful for the privilege that my ability to write gives me and hope to help as many people as I can gain that same power.
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