Risa Gorelick

Senior Writing Coach

Risa Gorelick earned her PhD in English/Rhetoric from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, her MA in English Composition/Rhetoric from Miami University of Ohio, and her BA with Honors in English from Goucher College. She has over 25 years of experience as a college-level writing instructor and writing program/writing center administrator, as well as mentoring graduate students and junior faculty with their research projects. Her background as an educator can be characterized as a combination of collaborative-based and community-based work. She has published 15+ articles/chapters in scholarly journals and given 90+ conference presentations/workshops. Her specialties include first-year writing, honors, basic writing, and advanced exposition courses, tutor training, English Education, and creative nonfiction. In her administrative work, Risa provides innovative leadership and management of academic programs to foster a strong commitment to student learning outcomes and academic excellence; she is currently an University Lecturer and the former Associate Coordinator of First-Year Writing at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Additionally, for 25 years, Risa has served as the Chair/Co-Chair of the annual Research Network Forum (RNF) of the Conference of College Composition and Communication (CCCC) where she has assisted hundreds of graduate students at various stages of their dissertations and theses as well as faculty with turning their works-in-progress into published works.

 

Languages: English

Why I Love Coaching

My favorite part of coaching is working with writers to bring the promise of their ideas into reality. In almost three decades of working with writers, I help them see their project through new eyes at whatever their stage is and guide them towards their goal of completing their project through organizing, clarifying, and revising as they integrate sources. I love it when writers reach that “ah ha!” moment where they see it start to come together and work to make sure their message is more than just clear to readers but that the prose sings from the screen or page to its intended audience and turns into a “ta da!” experience. Through coaching writers from any point in their writing process, I have had great success turning people who did not initially see themselves as competent writers into writers who complete award winning dissertations and become published authors.

Selected Publications

Gorelick, Risa P. “The Missing Piece: Where Is the Labor-Related Research at the Research Network Forum?Labored: The State(ment) and Future Work in Composition. Eds. Randall McClure, Dayna V. Goldstein, and Michael A. Pemberton. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2017: 115-125.

—. “Food For Thought: Argument Writing.Who Speaks for Writing? Eds. Ethna Dempsey Lay and Jennifer Rich. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2012: 147-156.

—. “Gone with Two Flashes” (creative non-fiction) InsideHigherEd.com. 20 August 2007.

—. “Exploring Community in Service-Learning Writing Courses: A Case Study.Readerly/Writerly Texts: Essays on Literary, Composition, and Pedagogical Theory. 11.1/2 -12.1/2 Double Issue (2006): 69-88.

See all publications by clicking the link here.

Risa Gorelick

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