Michelle Wilk
Working on her MA in Rhetoric/Composition
Associate Director of the Writing Center

[The following was transcribed from a video interview with intern Ashley Alfirevic]

What do you like most about your work at the Writing Center?

I like the fact that I get to work with all the consultants because they are very, very intelligent people and they all have different ways of approaching and talking to people about writing. It’s really interesting to see all the different ways they go about doing that.

I just like working in writing centers in general because you get to talk to a bunch of people about their writing. You hear and you get to read about a lot of different things, and it’s really fun – it’s really fun to read a piece of a PhD dissertation in Biology and you have no idea what’s going on but they’re really, really into it and they’re excited to talk to you about it about, and you are like “yeah, this is really neat,” but you have half an idea what they are talking about.

Do you have a favorite Writing Center experience?

I’m the one who checks the Writing Center email a lot, and I remember very specifically there was one email that we got from a student who was incredibly thankful for our services. She was talking about how she submitted a paper for an undergraduate conference and she got accepted. So it was really, really neat to hear that from her.

What brought you to CSU?

It was actually on recommendation from an instructor an my undergraduate university because I wanted to get a Masters in Rhetoric and Composition and the first thing he said was “Colorado State.” So I applied, and here I am.

Describe Eddy Hall in one word.

Can it be two words? Elementary school-esque – because of the colors, the color scheme.

Who is your favorite author?

My favorite author is probably Margaret Atwood. She’s fantastic. I read one of her books in high school and I immediately went out and got all of her other books, and they’re all excellent.

If you were to give advice to someone coming to the Writing Center, what would it be?

Writing is hard. Writing is absolutely very difficult, incredibly hard, for anybody and everybody, and anybody who tells you that writing is easy is lying to you.

What’s your biggest goal or priority right now?

My goal, my main priority is to successfully defend my thesis so I can go to East Carolina [University] in the fall for my PhD program.

Why is it important to study the Humanities?

Just off the top of my head, I know that a lot of major corporations when asked what they are looking for in job applicants say “written communication skills,” and I think it’s just incredibly important in general to study communication — how people communicate with each other, as well as what some of the ethical ramifications are for specific kinds of communication.