I hold a PhD in English literature from Johns Hopkins University. Aside from my area of specialization (19th & 20th c. American literature--and especially African-American literature and religion), my research and teaching practice also leans heavily into interpretation theory. For all immediate practical purposes, this basically just means that as a teacher and tutor I tend to put a lot of emphasis on helping people learn various strategies for reading texts (including your own writing) very...
I hold a PhD in English literature from Johns Hopkins University. Aside from my area of specialization (19th & 20th c. American literature--and especially African-American literature and religion), my research and teaching practice also leans heavily into interpretation theory. For all immediate practical purposes, this basically just means that as a teacher and tutor I tend to put a lot of emphasis on helping people learn various strategies for reading texts (including your own writing) very closely.
I have 6 years of formal experience teaching a mixture of literature and writing classes. Across both sorts of classes, my approach to helping students develop their close-reading and writing skills has always tended to involve arranging a series of 1:1 conferences with students in addition to in-class work (and I have found these individual conferences to be the best for helping students get a handle on becoming conscious of their writing habits, finding their voice, developing judgement, gaining confidence as interpreters and writers, etc).
I've spent about 6 additional years tutoring and helping with personal statements and other application materials throughout college and in the gap leading up to graduate school, and in 2024 I worked with the Johns Hopkins University Writing Center in tandem with teaching one of the introductory college writing courses described above. On the whole, this kind of direct writing support work has been the most rewarding for me, and has been the most directly impactful for those I work with.
In short, I would be exceedingly glad to be able to offer the same to you!
