I come to the Center for Writers with a background in teaching and an emphasis in teaching and composition. My B.S. is in Early Childhood Education from New Mexico State University and my M.A. is in English from North Dakota State University. For several years I worked as a disciplinary consultant for the College of Human Development and Education. As a disciplinary consultant I worked with graduate students and faculty on a variety of initiatives from NSF-GRFP grand proposals to developing writing rubrics for disquisitions. Now, as a generalist writing consultant I work with graduate students and faculty across the university in one-on-one, workshop, and classroom settings to support both writing and writing instruction.

I think that one of the best aspects of being a writing consultant is trying to demystify the writing processes-perhaps through explaining a point of grammar or diagnosing a problem with "flow." And, while writing, especially academic writing, is complex and can be frustrating and overwhelming, it is also incredibly important to us as students, faculty, and an institution.

Nick is a Ph.D. candidate in Emergency Management and Disaster Science. He has been a Graduate Writing Consultant with the Center for Writers since Fall 2022. He is a general consultant, working with individuals of different backgrounds and fields, such as agriculture, music, and computer science. His approach is to make new clients feel welcome to the Center and be able to share their work and experiences writing. Nick assists clients in everything from fine-tuning a mostly finished product, to teaching how to organize sections, as well as brainstorming. His goal is to help clients leave the Center feeling accomplished and having learned something new. 

If there is one thing anyone should learn about writing, it is, that it’s a process. Many writers back track or become discouraged when their first draft doesn’t end up meeting their expectations. Academic writing is a process. It takes the creative power of brainstorming, writing, reviewing, editing and re-writing that refines a manuscript and results in the finished product, accurately conveying what the writer originally sought to convey.

Shikha Phillips is a graduate writing consultant at the Centre for Writers catering specially to students from Agriculture and related fields. She has experience in academic and research writing with practical understanding of research paper outlines, citations and reference styles in the most sought-after journals in the agricultural and food science areas like Journal of American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and Computers & Electronics in Agriculture. 

Shikha enjoys writing and has a passion for helping her clients through the writing process so that they can see their research manuscripts as comprehensive works in progress, on their way to becoming articulate scientific literature. 

Shikha’s tip to writers would be to trust the process and to not be afraid to revisit and manipulate the structure of their writing to best meet their research and academic writing goals and requirements.