Catching up with the consultants

Consultant Spotlight: Rayven Morrow
Rayven Morrow, a doctoral student in education policy, organization, and leadership, has been with the Writers Workshop since Fall 2020 and served as an assistant director in the 2022-2023 academic year. Her experiences teaching writing mechanics as a high school summer English teacher drove her to apply. Since she began, Rayven’s work with writers has allowed her to explore a variety of subjects including “Gambian fishmeal factories [and] therapeutic dance theories of the 20th century.” She added, “I mean, at this point, I feel like I’ve helped so many people complete their dissertations that I deserve an extra PhD or two when I graduate with my own… I’ve been able to truly leave college knowing just a tiny bit about everything.” Given how many writers Rayven has guided, that seems reasonable!
To current and future consultants, Rayven advises: “Maintain professionalism while offering support and guidance; build a connection, but remember you are a part of their support team, not their academic coach. They are responsible for their own success, and you are just there to support their efforts.” For writers, she encourages “active engagement in honing [your] writing skills; we are a teaching center, so be prepared to learn. We guide you as consultants, but you’ve got to do the work to become a great writer. We are just one element of that journey to becoming a great writer.”
Unsurprisingly, being at the Writers Workshop has only bolstered Rayven’s faith in effective communication across all disciplines and in academic and professional worlds. The Writers Workshop has “reignited my passion for writing beyond academia, leading me to journal and blog regularly. Writing has become a fundamental part of my personhood, thanks to my time at the WW.”
After graduating, Rayven looks forward to finding a job that values her whole skill set – as a writer, educator, and researcher – in no small part thanks to her experiences at the Writers Workshop, which emphasized the intensity and importance of research-based writing. Wherever Rayven goes next, they will be lucky to have her.
Former Consultant Spotlight: Eva Cornman
My first semester of freshman year, my advisor pointed me toward the Writers Workshop after I’d anxiously vented to her about an imposing college paper. I took her advice and met online with a consultant who managed not only to help me refine my writing, but also calm and encourage me. I came back for guidance as I worked through the next essay, remembering how much of an impact the consultant who helped me had on my organization skills, wording, and overall confidence. That consultant was Eva Cornman, whom I had the privilege to interview about her experiences and her postgraduate journey.
Eva Cornman joined the Writers Workshop in the Spring 2021, after taking the WRIT 300: Issues in Tutoring Writing course her junior year, and she was a consultant until she graduated in May 2022. As a molecular and cellular biology major and creative writing minor, Eva had a broad background of expertise. More importantly, she had a passion for writing and enjoyed sharing that passion with others: “I find it exhilarating to have someone who kind of hates writing, or has just been really struggling with something, and [to be able] to give them feedback on it and help them feel better.”
Her favorite part of the Writers Workshop was working with returning writers – those who make another appointment with the same consultant – and building rapport with those writers. She remembers particularly one writer whose recurring written feedback appointments involved chapters of a novel; that writer has since shared their finalized manuscript. Despite having never met this writer face to face, Eva had virtual rapport with the writer whose story had been such an exciting part of her Writers Workshop journey.
Consultants grow throughout their time with the Writers Workshop, and often that means recognizing room for improvement in our earlier approach. If Eva could talk to herself in Spring 2020, when she started, she would remind herself to relax. “I think I set really high expectations for myself, and I didn’t want to let [the Workshop or the writer] down. But I think it probably would have been to my benefit to just relax and not put so much pressure on it… and have fun with it.”
In her current studies at the Science Writing Graduate Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Eva explores different ways to communicate scientific discoveries and phenomena to a broad audience, including making a podcast, which she described as “the dream” full-time job. Workshopping writing frequently takes place in this program, where Eva has a chance to put into practice the skills she honed at the Writers Workshop, including giving explanations for her suggestions, building rapport and encouraging the writer to ask questions, and supporting writers’ improvement generally.
Looking ahead, Eva will be graduating from MIT in October. She plans to pursue science communications work after graduation, helping wider audiences “understand something they totally can” and making scientific literature, discoveries, and debates more accessible to the general public. We at the Writers Workshop look forward to cheering her on.
By Elizabeth Scherschel, Classics major, History and Anthropology minors, junior