Phil Shaw Interview
Writing Center Consultant, BA in English (Literary Studies)

Where did you get your undergraduate degree?
I have yet to get my undergraduate degree, but Ive been discussing it with some of the folks at the registrars office, and they think its about time I did. The severance package theyre offering me includes a BA in English (Literary Studies) and a pair of minors, just as an added incentive.

Why did you choose DU?
Im a Colorado native, though I was born in LA (Lower Alabama), so the decision to go to DU wasnt an agonizing one. I was under the impression that DU was the best school I could go to locally for what I wanted to do. *hushed silence*. Im still under that impression, by the way.

What do you plan to do with your degree once you are done?
I plan on squeezing every penny, every all-nighter, and every drop of blood and sweat out of that degree and collecting it in a claw-foot bathtub. Ill then take that around with me to different Graduate Admissions offices and show it to them, demanding admission to their program because, so help me God, I will teach college-level English! And should they say no, I will cry two more perfect tears and let them fall into the ocean of my small accomplishments, and drag my weight to the next opportunity.

Describe what your writing process is like:
Well, there are really several different writing processes, and to some extent; I think that each paper or each story requires a different perspective or set of tools. For instance, when I write a prose piece, I like to think about the story as if it were already finished, although the plot details and characters might be unclear. I like to feel the emotions that that unique sense of completion creates in me, and from there, I know what kind of story Im going to write, and in what emotional context. I think that its very important to have an emotional plan, far more than any sort of plot-driven or character-centered one. At the end of the day, people read stories to get a feeling.

For an academic paper, I like to start writing a few days before the due date, and if it keeps coming, I keep writing. But thats atypical. Usually I get burned out, and spend the following days mulling over what exactly it is that I am burned out about. Ill flip idly through the texts Im using, looking for nothing in particular but never not looking. Eventually, as the due date approaches, I pull myself together and go to war. Most of the time a paper is finished within a single evening, read over the next day and turned in.

What drew you to become a writing consultant?
As with most aspects of my life, being a writing consultant meshes exactly with my goal in life: to become fabulously wealthy. Like backyard pool in the shape of Lee Iacocca wealthy. But it wasnt always that way. When I started here in the Fall, I was a volunteer. At the time the position was really only available to work-study students and I, in a poorly managed deal involving my financial future and a piece of carrot cake, lost that funding. However, by some fantastic miracle, I became a compensated member of the WRC team. So, what was the draw to the writing center? I want to learn about the ways other people write, and maybe in doing so, learn a little more about the way I write.

How would you describe your philosophy as a writing consultant?
Its embarrassing for me to admit, but I totally bought into the company policy. After having seen the way other consulting programs were run (both in high school and at other colleges), I was hooked by this idea of non-directive peer consultation. Its not just because I am by nature very lazy, either. I like to see people learn a little about the way they write as they try to fit their voice into other peoples boxes or tailor their ideas to fit an expectation. Not that those boxes or expectations are inherently bad or malevolent, just that for a lot of writers, it can seem that way. I suppose that my position in this struggle between expression and expectation is somewhere in the middle, as a sort of linguistic or rhetorical buffer. I dont really want to help people change the way they write, but how they think about writing. I think if we can accomplish that together, they have a better chance of understanding those outside expectations and being able to adapt, without losing that part of their voice which makes it unique.

What are your hobbies or outside interests?
In my free time I enjoy spending time with friends, eating sushi really slowly (because its expensive), playing various instruments I keep around the house, going on fantastic road trips, and dancing to the Talking Heads.

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