Professional Writer with Lit & Writing Instruction Experience

Tricia L.

Hi. I'm Tricia, and I'd love to help you reach your writing goals.

I am currently a professional writer for a government agency, where I write speeches, newsletters and other executive communications. Prior to working for the government, I served as a tutor (3 years as an undergraduate and one as a graduate student, along with occasional tutoring side-jobs over the years). As I continued through my MA program and Ph.D. coursework, I served as a teaching assistant in writing and literature courses, and ultimately as an adjunct in those same types of courses. Of particular note, I served as a Freshman Writing Program coordinator at the University of Maryland, where I was responsible for assisting new teachers in understanding the rhetoric-based curriculum and how best to deliver it to students.

As a university employee, the majority of my experience was tutoring and teaching undergraduate and graduate students. However, I have gig-based experience working with middle school and high school students as well as adults outside of academic settings. I'm known especially for my editing skills and the usefulness of my feedback. I'm a notorious stickler for well-organized writing, and I absolutely love the fun of playing with language to put together the best writing for the audience at hand.

Finally, along those same lines, I enjoy thinking about and teaching literature. I see it as puzzle to be worked through, and I enjoy the reality that there is no single interpretation of a text. Rather, the trick is to use the clues the author provides to make meaning. I love that this approach both teaches us more about ourselves and the world, and makes us authors too!