Let's Talk UNLV

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.

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Welcome to another segment of Let's Talk UNLV on KUNV. You're here with Tanya and Alicia. And today we are joined by our wonderful guest, Andrew Yim from the Assistant Director for the Writing Center. Hey Andrew, welcome aboard, welcome aboard. So before we get started, so tell me, how was your weekend? What did you do Alicia?

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Well, well, well, this weekend was more relaxation for me. I didn't do anything adventurous. I did basic chores around the house and just took time to catch up on some things around the house. So, not very exciting, but needed. You know, you come off a very busy week and for this weekend, I needed to relax. What about you?

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So, um, I went on a hike and, and I use that term loosely. I was invited to go see the petroglyphs with a friend of mine, um, at 8am in the morning, we ended up going out at 830 and it was a wonderful hike. And I saw a beautiful petroglyph. I also saw a snake. Wow. It was a small snake and he seemed as startled as I was. He went on about his life and apparently for this particular hike there are three waterfalls that you can choose to scale up or scale down. Okay. Yeah, it looked like the amazing race. Like we were like lifting each other up, lifting each other down. This is intense. You had me at the waterfall part, but when you talk about going up and down. Oh no, no, no. Since Vegas, there was no water in those waterfalls. Only waterfalls. But it was a beautiful hike. There were wonderful, wonderful petroglyphs. Just bring water and bring energy and know that you ain't got nothing to prove. Take your time. You get there when you get there. The petroglyphs ain't going nowhere, girl.

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Exactly. You know what? I'm so glad about we're transitioning the weather is getting more warmer. It's not too too hot You know, we're gonna go probably from zero to ten eventually, but this is a good time to be hiking It's a perfect time to be hiking and see well, well while we are out here chopping it up mom Andrew We don't typically ask I guess but what did you do for your weekend? Yeah, good question

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Yeah, I actually saw the new Super Mario Bros. movie.

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It's really good.

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Nice, nice. Yeah, Mario, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man.

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I'm dating myself now.

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We had Nintendo, Atari, and all kinds of things when I was growing up. I was talking to the producer, Wes, just a second ago before starting the segment, and he had some music playing. I said, oh, my gosh, that sounds like Nintendo and Mario. I wish he was in here so I can ask him the name of that. But he had a playlist where it just sounds like the music that you will listen to when you're playing the games running the studio as he's preparing for the segment.

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So, that is awesome. So, while we are talking about you, Andrew, would you be so kind as to share your origin story? What brought you to UNLV and specifically what brought you to the Writing Center?

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Sure. So I actually have a lot of previous experience working in the Writing Center. So when I was an undergrad at Purdue University, I actually worked as a business writing consultant where I helped a lot of writers with their business documents like resumes, cover letters, purpose statements. And then as I moved into my master's and PhD program, I continued to work in Writing Center. So I think in total, I have around seven years of writing center experience at three different universities. And last summer, I saw that there was a job application for the assistant director role at UNLV. I applied, I got the job, and I've been here ever since. I'm just really excited to be at a writing center. So this will be my fourth writing center in the past seven or eight years.

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So, follow up, are you a writer? I mean, I know that seems like a random and ridiculous question. You're the assistant director of the Writing Center, which assumes you write, but do you write for your own personal enjoyment?

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Yeah, I do actually.

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So for my own personal enjoyment, I like to usually write journals. So I like to journal my daily life. After work, I like to journal what I did in my day, things to improve on, and ways to, how to move forward in my daily life. So I like to journal a lot. Okay, wonderful mental health plug, thank you.

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Well, just so you know, Andrew, I heard that Oprah, I heard Oprah say that she has so many journals because she documents her everyday routines, whether small or large, at the end of the day, she writes down how her experience was. So it's pretty cool to hear that you do that as well. Well my question will be, just share with those listeners who are listening now and not familiar with the Writing Center here at UNLV, what are some of the resources available for at the Writing Center that students as well as even faculty can get involved in? Yeah for

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sure. So at the UNLV Writing Center we support all writers, faculty, and staff and some of the ways you can help all writers on campus, including writers, faculty, and staff, are the following. So we offer different consultation types. There are four of them. So we offer in-person appointments. These are appointments where you will meet with your consultant for 45 minutes in our center. We're currently in Central Desert Complex CDC 3. We also offer virtual consultations. These are consultations where writers can actually meet with their consultants over Google Meet. So if you want to work from home, from your office, or from another state, that's a possibility. We also offer what we call the OWL service, the Online Writing Lab. And with the Online Writing Lab, it's actually a very helpful service for faculty, writers, and staff because it's an asynchronous appointment where you can submit your document through our website. And depending on the turnaround time, within 24 to 36 hours, we can return the document with you and have feedback provided asynchronously. And it's very helpful because if you want to get written feedback and also submit a written draft, you don't need to actually be there for the appointment. So, that's our OWL service. And then finally, we have our quick question service. So, if you have any questions that take less than ten minutes and you want to send us a question, email us, call us, we can answer one question for you per day, and then that service is available every day for other people.

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Awesome. I was just going to follow up and say I hope that, number one, if you could share, if it's a free service, but for individuals, when I was in school, I was using Grammarly, you know, that software, and we were paying a pretty penny for that. So is it safe to say, Andrew, that these services for faculty and students at UNLV are free?

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Yep, the Writing Center is free for all students, faculty, and staff.

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Oh, wonderful. And listen, I'm grateful for Grammarly, but I'm just saying, if you have these resources for free, this is definitely a bonus, for sure.

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I was thinking the same thing. I was like, you know, this is like a higher end grammar league. You don't have to come out of pocket for it. I love this idea. And I, you know, I personally understand the usefulness of the right Writing Center. But if you were to sell this to a student, how would you explain what the usefulness of the Writing Center is for them in their academic careers?

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No, so definitely the way to sell it to students is that we work with all kinds of papers, you know, including academic papers. So we work with writers, you know, on, you know, if they don't have a draft, for example, so they have an academic paper, and they're like, Andrew, I haven't started, where do I go, the writing center actually help them brainstorm ideas for their paper, or they have a current draft and needs to be revised, they can actually come on in and our consultants can help them revise their paper or they're doing final edits. We can also have our consultant do a final read-through and help them, you know, revise for their final paper. It's always helpful to get a second pair of eyes when you're working on these kind of documents, especially academic ones.

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So at all stages of writing, you're able to be useful and helpful for them. So they don't necessarily have to have a completely written paper to proofread. They can still be figuring out what they want to do and you can help with that as well.

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We help with all kinds of papers in the writing process. So if there's no draft, if there is a draft, or if it's like your quote unquote final draft that needs to be submitted tomorrow morning, we can look at any type of writing document.

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Wow, tomorrow morning.

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Wow.

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That may be me in some cases.

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It's like, where were you during my academic career?

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Awesome. Well, listen, I know from, you know, writing can be intimidating, formatting can be intimidating. So for you, Andrew, what's your favorite part about working at the Writing Center? What keeps you getting up every day, having passion, I would assume, to assist students and faculty? What's your favorite part?

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Yeah, I think for me, one of my favorite parts of the job is training our consultants to work with all kinds of papers in the writing center. With all our consultants, I've seen a lot of really cool appointments. I've seen people bringing papers like fan fiction, biology reports, savings of purpose. I even saw someone bringing an obituary once. There was a story where someone brought an obituary for their appointment, and one of our consultants was able to help them you know revise her obituary for their family. But that's what we like working at Center is that we're able to train our consultants and help them understand that it's not just academic papers, we work with all kinds of papers out there. The only papers we don't work with is maybe legal documents like an I-94 or like papers that are another language like Chinese, Spanish, Korean. But otherwise, that's my favorite part of working at Center, you know, just seeing all the papers come through and helping our consultants and writers feel more comfortable writing in any type of document they bring in.

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So what I hear you saying is, I can bring in the drafts of my new novel.

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Yes, that part. I love that. Don't pay an editor. You can say, this is it right here.

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This is the solution.

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I love it.

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That was a good one there.

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So you were saying?

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Oh, no.

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I was just saying, like, yeah, feel free to bring in a script for even this podcast, right?

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If you guys are working on your next drafting idea, feel free to come to the Writing Center.

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We'll be able to help you out with, you know, any future, you know, planning, you're working

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on the draft. If you guys have someone to talk to about, you know, how to structure a future podcast,

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we love to hear from you. So, yeah, I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here.

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I'm happy to be here.

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I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. I'm happy to be here. If you guys have someone to talk to about how to structure a future podcast, we love

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to help that.

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We can also do that, too. We're here to brainstorm and talk about ideas. So you're out there changing lives.

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I'm telling you, we were totally joking, but I'm impressed to see that this is really an

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option.

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I am, too. You are out there changing lives and not just changing grades. It was the biology portion and all the, you know, the obituary portion. I would have never assumed that. So I'm glad that you're seeing the different areas of expertise. I would imagine, you know, you have to be pretty diverse in being able to, you know, to assist with such, you know, projects. But for students who are not aware, how do they find out more information about the resources and what's the process of signing up or what do they have to do? I know you said call in earlier. Do they go online, Andrew?

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What's the actual process to actually say, hey, this is what I want to do? Yeah, so they're wanting to schedule an appointment at the Writing Center. Generally, they can either go to our website, and we have instructions on how to register for in-person virtual consultations, the email service, and quick questions. So for in-person virtual consultations, you can schedule those through myUNLV. you can also call us or send us an email. And generally, our front desk staff or one of our admin team can get you scheduled. For the OWL service, that one is just you send your paper in. And depending on the turnaround time, those papers can get returned within 24 to 36 hours. And then quick question, same service. You can call us, email us, come into the center. And if it's one question that's just less than 10 minutes to answer, we'll go ahead and help you answer it to the best of our ability.

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So who are these magical humans that are working at the Broadview Center? How big is your team? And are they staff? Are they students? Say someone wanted to be on the other end of helping someone to structure their writing. How would that work?

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Sure, so currently for our staff, we have around 24 to 25 consultants. Majority of them are graduate students from the English department. And we also have a few undergraduate consultants too. We also have our front desk staff. We have about four front desk staff who work our front desk. And the way we train our consultants is it's a pretty extensive training process where, you know, we go through the semester, train them on how to work with different kinds of papers and individuals, and then eventually we allow our consultants, you know, open them on the schedule and they're able to, you know, start consulting with writers and then over time they can start to get more comfortable working with the different modalities of appointments we offer.

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Well, I was going to, on a more serious note, I know we're laughing, and this has been very enjoyable. I wanted to know, in regards to students with disabilities, say dyslexia, I know personally it's just sharing, when I was in college, one of the ways that I was actually, they found out that I had dyslexia, I had an English teacher pull me to the side and say, hey, Hey, Leisha, your paper is great, but have you ever considered watching patterns in your writing that may suggest that you have a form of dyslexia? And I was in college, first off. So I want to know. And so that was informative to me because then it brought awareness and being able to be tested for that. And then also I had additional assistance through the Writing Center and some form of I don't want to say flexibility, but assistance to get through my papers to ensure that I was putting my best foot forward with that support. So does your department help with individuals such as with disabilities of dyslexia or any type of hindrance that would infiltrate them being able to complete their papers and things

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of that nature?

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Yes.

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So we work with writers of all different backgrounds. So for example, with writers with, like you mentioned, like with dyslexia or similar disabilities. If writers, you know, come on into the center, we can help those populations. In addition, we also offer consultations with the multilingual writers and consultations for neurodivergent writers. So we have consultants who are specifically trained to work with, you know, international students or students who identify as having a neurodiversity. So, you know, if a writer, you know, discloses that to us, you know, before they make the appointment, we could try to find them a consultant who's been trained working with neurodiverse writers or multilingual writers to help them feel more comfortable in the actual appointment

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itself.

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Good.

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That's great. These are wonderful resources. So what do you need in way of support? Like how can we support you in terms of promotion, in terms of, like, what do you need to help support the Writing Center?

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Yeah, no, for sure.

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So just some things to, like, kind of do a shout out. So we're currently looking to hire two people for the fall semester for our front desk team. So our front desk team, you know, help, you know, check in writers. They help us, you know, maintain and clean the center. They help us, you know, check voicemails. So, if anyone's interested in working in the Writing Center as a front desk staff member, we'll be posting that probably in early August on our Instagram page, or you can always send us an email about when the job calling for that will come out. So, that will be the first thing to kind of drop is we'll be hiring in the fall semester for two front desk people, and they can check our Instagram handle. I would also...

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Oh.

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No, go ahead.

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Sure. I would also say, too, that we are going to be moving into our new building in the fall. So, currently, we're in CDC Building 3. And our plan is to move into the Campus Resource Center building in the fall semester. And we're planning on having an open house. So, maybe that's just something to kind of drop as the time gets closer. Oh, wonderful.

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Now, Andrew, what's your social media handle for those who are listening?

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Yeah, so our social media handle, we currently have an active Instagram page, a YouTube page, and also our website. And our handle is going to be hashtag UNLV Writing Center. So I'm going to be doing a bit of a deep dive into your origin story.

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So why writing? I'm looking at your bio and it says your ultimate dream is to continue to work in writing centers. So why writing? What drew you to writing? How did you come to decide that this was something that you wanted to do?

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Yeah, so I think for me, part of my origin story is I ultimately wanted to be hopefully a writing teacher at the university level. So I'm currently doing a PhD in writing. And it was the only career that I seemed to, that I really enjoyed when I was, you know, in high school and college. I took math classes, I took science classes, and I did not enjoy any of it. I was really struggling. But when I got into my first writing class in college, I really enjoyed it. And ever since then, I love to read writing theory, I love to read writing center pedagogy, but when I look at a matter of science textbook, I don't see the joy there. So that's just me personally. I respect people who love math and science, but for me, it's writing seems to click for myself.

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You and me both, when I see math and science, I'm like, why did someone put letters into math? Like, those are two different things. Like, why would you do that?

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Why would you put letters into that?

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So I definitely can identify with a passion for writing. So it makes sense that you would funnel your passion for writing into helping other people discover their passion for writing. So thank you for sharing that.

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And then I was going to say, too, I think that's awesome. You hit the nail on the head there. What would you say to students who are also avid writers, or they love the art of writing? What would you say to encourage them or to empower them to continue to pursue their dreams at any level? Maybe it's not the university level, but maybe it's becoming an author of a book or anything of that, or maybe filming and things of that nature. Film writing, what would you say to those who are listening who enjoy writing but haven't quite found their path?

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Sure. No, I would definitely say that, you know, look for resources that can help you

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stay on track with your writing. And I think the Writing Center can be one, you know, resource or organization that can help you with your progress as a writer, right? So, you know, we all need accountability when we're working on brainstorming and drafting and revising. And you know, the Writing Center is just one of many organizations out there that can help writers, you know, feel less stressed about, you know, their writing. You know, it can give them tools and opportunities to manage their time. And it can help them transfer skills, you know, from, you know, their papers to future careers. So I would say, like, you know, look for people who can keep you accountable. And the Writing Center can be one way to help writers, you know, achieve their dreams or careers out there.

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And on the flip side, what would you say to someone who's like, nah? Because, you know, one of the things I think we don't recognize when we're in elementary school is how much writing is involved in college. Like, you might be able to duck and dive around a math class or two, but writing is something you're going to be doing from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave. So, what would you say to someone who's like, I don't think this writing gig is for me, I don't think that it's possible for me to be helped, like I just don't have the skill set for this.

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Yeah, I would say like,

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they'll have to find like their genre of writing, right? Because I think for everyone who writes, you know, we write in academia, we write, you know, in our free time. So obviously, you might not enjoy writing reports for your science class, but you might love writing video game reviews for when you play video games. So I would say like look for the types of writing that you really enjoy in your daily life. And then from there, it might be easier for you to, I'd more identify like, oh yes, I love to write video game reviews. I can see the genre. I can see the audience awareness. I can see the applicability to maybe a future job. I want to be a video game reviewer. So that's my passion. So how do I pursue it? And then from there, if you're a student at UNLV, come to the Writing Center. We can help you with the video game review, look at how you can reshape it for your own purposes.

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So then understanding that writing is expansive and that there are different forms of writing. So something even like journaling constitutes writing, you know, that you don't necessarily have to love all forms of writing. But that doesn't mean that because you don't love a particular type, you're not necessarily bad at writing. Does that sound about right? Yes, exactly. That sounds about right. And interestingly enough, even great writers, and I've read some bios on great writers, at some point think their writing stinks. Even prolific writers are like, this is garbage, and want to step away from it. So this idea of feeling like you're not suited for this task is a common human experience, even from people who do it all the time. Do you have any stories of students who came through the Writing Center and then returned back to tell you how the Writing Center has impacted their ability to do their own writing?

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Sure, I can share a few stories. So first, with students, I have seen students come back. So there's this common literacy narrative assignment where the student has to write about a previous experience and what they learned from it. And I have seen writers come in with an original draft. And they didn't feel confident in their writing. But when they actually worked with a consultant, we saw them transform their first draft into a final draft. So I've seen that happen quite often. I've also seen faculty use our center too. So there's a story that there's a few faculty members who use the UNLV Writing Center quite often. And a lot of our consultants have told us stories about like, oh, I'm working with this faculty member, they're bringing in their assignment prompts or they're bringing in the feedback they give to their students. And I'm actually getting to work with faculty on their writing. And we have that happen quite often. I've also seen people bringing in screenwriting. We had one consultant who had a screenwriting appointment, and they got really excited because they have experience with MFA creative writing. So they were really excited because they got to do screenwriting and help the writer develop a script for a possible movie or TV show. So those are just some of the many examples of writers who are coming to the center and

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returning.

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Well, I'm hoping I'll see the Writing Center on one of those film credits.

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Me too. The next time we're writing. So as we wrap up, is there anything that you wanted to share that we haven't asked you

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or anything that you just want to share in general with our audience? Yeah, I would love to also share about regarding that the writing center is not as a place to help, you know, address writing, but it's also a place to help writers feel less stressed. So that's another plug too, is that any writers are feeling overwhelmed with their writing or they're feeling, you know, unsure about where the writing's going, they can make an appointment at the writing center and generally I've seen, you know, writers who come in, by the end of the appointment, they feel much better because, number one, the consultant is able to encourage the writer, give them feedback, and give them positivity, especially when maybe they're working on assignments where they're stuck or they've just received negative feedback from a professor or someone else. So, it's also a good way to, I think, help de-stress when you're working on a writing project because sometimes you just need to have someone else look at it and give you feedback.

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Wonderful. I personally just want to thank you so much, Andrew. And I just love the fact that I came in not really knowing much about a writing center in regards to this interview, but I love the fact that it's not just for students, but to hear at a professional level as a professor, they too utilize the writing center. So it's encouraging to know that we're constantly growing, we're constantly developing, and sharpening ourselves as students, but also business professionals. So thank you so much for sharing your stories with us today.

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Yes, thank you. You're not only teaching writing skills, you're building confidence.

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Yeah.

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So that is wonderful. Thank you so much for coming through and thank you for spending time with us today. And that is a wrap.

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For more Let's Talk UNLV, be sure to follow us on social media where you can get the latest updates on the show plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook at Let's Talk UNLV Podcast, Twitter at Let's Talk UNLV, and Instagram We're on Facebook at Let's Talk UNLV Podcast, Twitter at Let's Talk UNLV, and Instagram

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at Let's Talk UNLV POD.

Transcribed with Cockatoo