How A Program Specialist for Inclusion and Diversity Experiential Programming Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite word?

Tenacious

Favorite music to write to?

Nat King Cole

What’s a word you always misspell?

LinkedIn!

 

Imani Briscoe
Program Specialist for Inclusion and Diversity Experiential Programming

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SJU Writes: What kind of writing do you find difficult?

IB: Cover letters. It’s hard to recall all the things you’ve done in a particular role or something. I think everyone to some extent will sell themselves short. And when you have to write a cover letter, you have to write about why you deserve the job and the different experiences that make you the perfect candidate without sounding obnoxious and full of yourself.

SJU Writes: Do you think being a woman, you feel that even more?

IB: I feel like I’m so conscious of the fact that I might be dimming myself, so I try to not do it. Even in the words that I use in emails, if I say something like ‘I think,’ I’ll take the word ‘think’ out and just make it a statement if it fits in that situation. I’m trying to be more conscious of that, like ‘Why are you being timid? Just say what you’re going to say.’

SJU Writes: Who’s the best or most influential writing teacher you’ve ever had?

IB: My mother. She’s the best writer ever. She’s very eloquent, and I only hope to be that good. If I ever really need someone to give me an amazing phrase or something that I’m trying to say or express, she is the one person I call.

SJU Writes: Do you seek advice as you write?

IB: Not as I write. I’ll complete the whole thing and then I’ll either ask my mom or my best friend who was an English major here at St Joe’s.

SJU Writes: Do you enjoy writing?

IB: I do. And when I’m in the zone to write, I’m in the zone. Like you can’t tell me anything. I know that writing to some extent is meant for me, and it has some bigger part to play in the future in my life. But when I’m not in the mood to write, it feels like I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m just spinning my wheels. But when I’m in the mood, I’m really in the mood.

—Erin Fenzel ’22

How an Athletic Director Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite word?

Extraordinary

Favorite music to write to?

Amy Winehouse, Leon Bridges, Van Morrison 

What’s a word you always misspell?

Entrepreneur

 

Jill Bodensteiner
Director of Athletics 

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SJU Writes: What kind of writing do you do right now?

JB: Currently, my writing is much different than it was when I was a lawyer. When I was a lawyer, it was more advocacy, memos, court documents and persuasive letters. I would be writing a summary of the law and my recommendations to my clients. Now the purpose of my writing, depending on my medium, is to sell people on my vision, whether it’s recruiting prospective student athletes or staff, giving speeches or writing tweets. It’s all to get people energized about Saint Joseph’s Athletics. 

SJU Writes: What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

JB: There were some really good academic pieces and legal briefs that I’m really proud of that got good results. But I’m going to say, it was a speech I gave in 2012. I was the keynote speaker in New York City at a celebration of 40 years of women at Notre Dame. 

SJU Writes: What’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever written? 

JB: I clerked for a federal judge right out of law school from 1995 to 1996. She was the judge on a very difficult first amendment case where a high school teacher was fired for allowing her students to use bad language in a creative writing class. She got fired and sued the school district saying they violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech. It was a very public case. I saw both sides of it very clearly, and I had to write the first draft of the opinion. It was both really fun and really hard. 

SJU Writes: Do you seek advice as you write?

JB: Very little to be honest. I would have earlier in my career, but now I am a procrastinator, so it’s usually due in the next hour, and I don’t have time. I am confident in my own voice and message at this stage in my career. I really don’t have anyone review it unless there are political implications. 

 

—Gabriella Bamford ’22

How a Strength and Conditioning Director Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite music to write to?

Something I’ve heard a million times. 

Favorite punctuation mark?

Question mark

What’s a word you always misspell?

Piece

 

Brian Bingaman
Director of Strength and Conditioning 

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SJU Writes: What kinds of writing do you do right now?

BB: A lot of it is reports and note-taking, making sure everything is documented correctly. I updated our policies and procedures.

SJU Writes: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process?

BB: Putting all my ideas down in one place, actually making myself sit down and go through things step by step and implementing it.

SJU Writes: What is your least favorite aspect of the writing process?

BB: Going back through and spell-checking, fact-checking, and revisions. I tend to go really fast, so I’ll miss words. 

SJU Writes: What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?

BB: Master’s project, when I was in grad school. It was a youth strength and conditioning manual for coaches including a detailed literature review.

SJU Writes: When you are confronted with a writing task, how do you approach it?

BB: When push comes to shove, I am someone who has to spit my ideas onto paper, and then I will go through and start working them out. When I try to write something, I always end up revising it like 15 times.

SJU Writes: Tell me something about the ideal physical environment in which you like to write. 

BB: I am listening to something that I have heard a hundred times. But, I can’t have any other distractions. I’m a morning person, so if I’m writing it flows better in the morning. 

—Olivia Clark ’22

How A Student Disability Services Director Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite word?

Honey

Favorite music to write to?

Bob Dylan

What are you reading now?

“The Eldest Daughter Effect” (Schuitemaker and Enthoven)

 

Christine Mecke, EdD
Director of Student Disability Services

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SJU Writes: What’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever written in your life?

CM: When I’ve wanted to be very sincere in writing, like a sympathy note – you don’t want to go on and on, but you really want to choose your words carefully and that can be a hard thing to do.

SJU Writes: When you are confronted with a writing task, how do you approach it?

CM: I roll things around my head for a long time before I get something down in writing. I prefer to do a draft in one sitting. But, there will be multiple drafts and the first will be the most difficult.

SJU Writes: Do you seek advice as you write?

CM: I definitely share my writing with others. I’ll share with Kim Allen-Stuck, who is my supervisor and she is very good at giving feedback. I was fortunate to work with a cohort group and we would often partner up and share each other’s writing, and it was helpful because the person I was paired with wasn’t in my field at all, so she had a lot of questions.

SJU Writes: Tell me more about your revision process.

CM: Thank God there is a computer. I think cut and paste is the best thing in the world. Most of my writing is done on the computer, and so I can look at it again and read through.

—Olivia Cardarelli ’22

How an Economics Professor Writes

Quick Facts

Pen or pencil?

Apple pencil

Favorite punctuation mark?

Oxford comma

Favorite phrase?

Policy implication

 

Laura Crispin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

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SJU Writes: What role does writing play in your life?

LC: Formally, it’s very much through the classes that I teach and the research that I publish. I do teach at least two different writing intensive classes. Research Methods is the one that I teach most frequently, but I used to teach labor economics. Teaching students how to write for economic discipline is very different than any of the writing that they have ever done. Professionally, I am working on at least three different research projects right now and all of them are in the drafting process.

SJU Writes: Is there something you’re working on now that you’re really excited about?

LC: I am working on a project about art museums, where I am studying who is attending museums and how frequently, with a focus on K-12 students.  Another project I am working on is about high school sports. I am looking at whether or not sports can reduce the chance of being bullied, and I have a couple projects related to that.

SJU Writes: What advice do you have for students learning to write as an economist?

LC: Mostly, get to the point. Tell us something important and what you’re contributing to that greater literature. I also think students have a really hard time talking about empirical findings. A lot of students are really great at getting results and doing the analysis, but when it comes to actually writing about their analysis, there is a disconnect. It’s challenging, but the more students do it, the better they’ll get at it.

—Cara Smith ’21

How an English Professor Writes


Quick Facts

Pen, or pencil?

Pencil

Favorite word?

Freedom!

Favorite music to write to?

I use the Coffivity app.

 

Owen Gilman
Professor of English

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SJU Writes: How would you describe your writing process?

OG: My pattern as a writer is to compose here, in this office. I print everything I write. I read it. I make phrasing changes almost constantly. But, those are the only changes. I hardly ever move anything around. I’ll change the phrasing, make it clearer. Maybe take something out that is kinda stupid. No big chunks moving around. But my latest book, The Hell of War Comes Home, took quite a lot of shifting around.

SJU Writes: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process?

OG: I liked the feel of it, composing. Out of all the courses I ever had, the most valuable course I ever had was typing in high school, which was an elective. Boy, that made a world of difference! I actually inherited a typewriter that my favorite uncle brought back from France. I started writing on that all through college. And I liked it since my handwriting is horrible.  Seeing the clarity of a typed work and hearing keys striking, there was a rhythm. There was something that was very seductive, and I actually became enchanted with the writing process.

SJU Writes: What writing advice do you have for students?

OG: Write fresh, with energy. Use all of the freedom that you need. Don’t write simply how an English teacher tells you to write. Don’t follow every move they suggest. People don’t take to that kind of intense micromanagement from teachers well. Students find freedom in my classes here because it’s all on them. I’m not telling them every move, or exactly what turn to make. They have to figure that out for themselves. But most of them want that freedom because it gives them the chance to use their own voice and produce something that doesn’t sound like everybody else.

—Tom Trullinger ’21

How a Finance Professor Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite word?

Very

Favorite music to write to?

Classical

Favorite place to write?

My kitchen

 

Todd Erkis
Visiting Professor of Finance

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SJU Writes: How did you learn how to write in a business environment?

TE: It really was just practice. When I first started, I really didn’t write very well. You just have to keep at it. It’s like anything else in life–you have to just do it multiple times. I had some good mentors in business who helped me become a better and more effective communicator, and I think that helped a lot too.

SJU Writes: What is your revision process like?

TE: It’s just constant. I put down stream of consciousness as best as I can. The process is the revisions. Get the important stuff down; have a plan of what you want to say. I don’t care if it makes sense, and I don’t care if it’s full sentences. I want to get everything down, and then I will make passes through it until it turns out what I want it to be.

SJU Writes: What advice do you have for students writing in your discipline: insurance and finance?

TE: Please, start. I think most finance students think “I don’t really need to be a good writer. I just need to be good with numbers, and I’m good with business,” but the people who are going to really excel in finance are going to be the ones who can communicate well to their clients. You need to be able to write, write consciously, and write in a way that people understand.

—David Kadysh ’20

How a Campus Ministry Associate Writes

Quick Facts

Pen or pencil?

Pen

Favorite word?

Integration

Favorite punctuation mark?

Em dash

 

Katie Seibly
Campus Ministry Associate

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SJU Writes: What kind of writing are you doing now?

KS: Primarily generating content for reflection spaces with students. That can look like drafting meeting agendas and then developing supplementary materials for those meetings, writing prayer and reflection guides, pulling poetry or prayers to use for those, and developing that content to guide that space. I also use journaling as a tool for reflection–journaling in kind of an unstructured way, with some guided questions or just open time to think about what’s on your mind, what’s on your heart. It’s a space for release.  

SJU Writes: What is your writing process like?

KS: I would say, primarily, I start with a brainstorm, a rough brainstorm or notes. I’ll put things down as they come to me, brainstorm whatever I might need to include in that. Then when I sit down to draft it, I’ll try to block out time when I can do it all at once; but, if not, I’ll create the draft and then just develop the logical flow of streamlining all those different pieces. Then I’ll compile it in a way that makes the most sense or that I think would be the most digestible. I would say there’s this large information collection process that I do, and then I carve out the time in my schedule to streamline it.

SJU Writes: Is there something you would say is the hardest thing you ever had to write?

KS: My freshman year–I had a final project for a year-long course. For one of our final exams, the prompt was “What is the best way to live?” I think it was really challenging, because it asked me not only to look at the content from a distance, but  at my own life. I think that there was an invitation to engage with the material in a way that was still academic but nonetheless personal. I think it was a challenging writing process, because I felt like I could have spent years on it, and I had to do it in a limited time frame. I wanted it to be something of meaning that I could look at later and say I would still think that’s true.

—Emily Graham ’20

How a Political Science Professor Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite music to write to?

Beethoven cello music

Favorite place to write?

Dining room

What’s a word you always misspell?

Tyranny

 

Susan Liebell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Pre-Law Advisor

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SJU Writes: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process, if you have one?

SL: I love finding things. I work with a lot of really old books. I might be reading about some really obscure legal textbook from 1801, and all I need to do is go to this archive and it comes up as the book. You can see the book, and you can turn its pages. I find that to be super fun and really impressive.

SJU Writes: When you are confronted with a writing task how do you approach it?

SL: I like paper, and I like really good pens. I have a little Thomas Jefferson writing desk which looks like a wood laptop. I try to clear a space, and I try to draw. I draw diagrams, so I’ll make circles, and I’ll draw an arrow. I’ll try to conceptually map it first–but on paper–and then move from there.

SJU Writes: Do you seek advice as you write?

SL: Yes. I have a writing group on this campus. I find it really helpful for them to say, “I have no idea what this is. Please explain it to me.” I also give it to my oldest son who was an English major that graduated from Rutgers, and he has proven to be really good at saying things like “I think this is a terrible sentence.” He’s actually a pretty good editor. I try to share. It’s hard, because it’s raw and you don’t want to be embarrassed.

SJU Writes: What is your revision process like?

SL: It’s too extensive. I revise and revise and revise. If there’s a problem in my writing, it’s that. I wait for it to be perfect before I send it to a journal when I should send it a little earlier, so I end up wordsmithing each sentence.

—Carly Calhoun ’21

How a Theology Professor Writes

Quick Facts

Favorite word?

Apotropaic

Favorite music to write to?

Classical Chinese or jazz hip hop

Favorite place to write?

My office

 

Aaron Reich, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology

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SJU Writes: What is your favorite aspect of the writing process?

AR: My favorite part of the writing process is when I lose myself in the creative process. I just get so excited by whatever it is that I’m working on. To me, academic writing is not just typing and writing words down–it’s running into new ideas. That’s what I would say: the pursuit of curiosity.

SJU Writes: Can you describe your ideal writing environment?

AR: I prefer the morning because I find my mind is the freshest in the morning. When I was an undergraduate I would be burning the midnight oil, as they say, just trying to meet deadlines. As I’ve gotten older I’ve changed, so I definitely prefer the morning with some coffee. Some type of caffeine is very helpful to me. I like this office, I’ve got my statues from Taiwan and I’ve got all my books–basically all my books–I’ve got hardly any books at home.

SJU Writes: What is your advice to become a better writer?

AR: I found it really useful to carve out blocks of time for writing and almost treat them with a religious reverence, almost like you would a prayer. For writing I think it has to be that same type of reverence. You just say, “nope, the door is closed and I can’t make any exceptions.”

SJU Writes: What advice do you have for students learning to write in your discipline?

AR: In my discipline and any other discipline, good writing is important. I would say that if you can write well, it’s only a matter of implementing the material you learned into that writing.  I think that to be a good writer you have to write for at least 30 minutes a day.

—John Slusser ’21