Administration
The Writing Studio is an outreach service of the Department of English and the Writing Across the Curriculum program. The Studio is directed by a faculty member who has a specialization in Creative Writing and is a literary translator, while the associate directors are doctoral students pursuing scholarly interests in rhetoric and composition writing program administration.
Dylan Maroney, Associate Director of Technology and Finance
Pronouns: Them/They
Contact: [email protected]
Tyrell Collins, Associate Director of Research and Community
Pronouns: He/Him
Office: 2411, 25 Park Place
Contact: [email protected]
Tyrell is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at GSU studying rhetoric and composition. His work has appeared in places such as "Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora" and "Journal of Education & Policy." With a solid foundation in writing tutoring from undergraduate and graduate studies, Tyrell has honed his skills in helping students articulate their ideas effectively. His research focuses on Black LGBTQ rhetoric, exploring how marginalized voices navigate and shape discourse. Through his academic journey, he aims to contribute to a more inclusive and representative understanding of rhetoric and composition, and creative writing.
Admin Support
To support our admin and tutoring staff, we have admin assistants to support our outreach goals and budgeting/tech maintenance!
Writing Consultants
Our extensive staff has different skills and specialties that can help you reach your writing goals! Read below to learn a little more about our peer tutors:
Andrew Joiner
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Andrew is a second-year MA student in literary studies, with an interest in American and British Literature. He aims to create a comfortable and approachable tutoring environment and make writing feel more natural and accessible. His main goal in tutoring is to help each student find ways to clearly express their own ideas and voice. He is most comfortable with the MLA format, argumentative essays, research papers, annotated bibliographies, and many other humanities assignments.
Cole Cline
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Cole is a second-year MA student in Literary Studies and a first-year GTA. He received his B.A. in English and Psychology and has experience in undergraduate-level psychology writing, including research project papers. He has been peer tutoring since high school and focuses on helping students build writing and editing skills, along with assisting with MLA and APA formatting.
Gwyneth Ralston
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Gwyneth is a first-year MA student concentrating in Literary Studies. In addition to doing independent research and writing, her career goals include proofreading and copyediting. She has worked as a copy editor on The Underground Journal for 3 three semesters at Georgia State. She looks forward to helping people improve their writing and critical thinking skills through the Writing Studio this year!
Isabella Whitmore
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Isabella is a first-year MA student in literary studies with an interest in horror and the supernatural in American literature. She received a BA in English with a minor in Political Science from KSU. She has previous tutor experience as an SI Leader and Learning Assistant for first-year writing courses with a focus on students in STEM, poli-sci, nursing, and health sciences. She specializes in first-year writing, thesis statements, MLA and APA styles, editing, and copy editing. Given her previous tutoring experience, Isabella is most interested in assisting STEM and non-humanities students to build confidence in analytical and introspective writing.
Jennifer Molton
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Jennifer is a 2nd year Master’s student studying Rhetoric and Composition. She received her BA in Philosophy with a minor in Computer Science from The University of Georgia. Her interests include feminist rhetoric, philosophy, and African-American cultural studies. She is comfortable helping students with a variety of materials ranging from personal statements to research papers and everything in between.
Kai Walker
Pronouns: She/They/He
Research area: Kai is a second-year MA student in Rhetoric and Composition. They had previously received their BS in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of North Georgia. They describe their tutoring style as "seeing the trees" and a dynamic conversation.
Kaitlin Smith
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Kaitlin is a second-year MA student in the Literary Studies program. Her research interests include Ancient Greek tragedy, women in mythology and their receptions, and Romanticism. She believes tutoring is a way to foster community and creativity while challenging oneself academically. Areas of writing with which she is most comfortable are resumes, cover letters, and personal statements; papers on literary studies, anthropology, classics, or women's history; and creative writing of any kind.
Kaleb Steadman
Pronouns: He/Him
Specialties: Research, APA, personal statements, resumes, creative writing
Kaleb is an MA in the Lit Studies program. He approaches tutoring as one of collaboration and trust. The tutor and tutee should be able to have a comfortable and open discourse about the goals the tutee has for the tutoring session. The tutoring might also consist of, if possible, instances of peer reviews so that the tutee might be able to gain insight into ways to increase the effectiveness of their assignment. Additionally, Kaleb is knowledgeable in the field of Psychology and very knowledgeable in the field of pop culture (film, television, music, and books/graphic novels).
Kalin Williams
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Kalin is a professional writer, self-published author, ELA teacher, and YouTuber with a passion for servicing and resolving communication challenges for those he works with. He's established a profitable business writing service, has published over 160 articles to date on diverse topics, and makes informative videos for the public based on previous articles he's written. He's currently pursuing his Master's degree in English Composition and Rhetoric, assists student writers around the GSU campus with their writing, and reads voraciously on a variety of topics. His understanding and warm approach to personal and academic development make studying with him a joy.
Laura Jones
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Laura is a first-year PhD student in the Rhetoric and Composition track. She is delighted to return to the Writing Studio - one of her favorite parts of her MA experience. Laura's goal is to make the Writing Studio an integral part of the writing process - from the first look at the assignment sheet to the final read-through of the final draft. She has writing and teaching experience with both MLA and APA styles - and is eager to work with writers from any discipline. Laura's research interests include rhetorical listening, feminist research methodologies, and the examination of rhetorical artifacts like memoirs and personal narratives often excluded from traditional rhetorical study.
Laura Vazquez
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Area: Laura is a first-year PhD student, and her research interests span from Latinx/ Chicanx studies to 19th-century American Gothic literature. She is bilingual and has experience translating from Spanish to English and editing translated works to MLA standards. She prefers her tutees to come prepared with questions to understand what the student is looking for in the session. She is most comfortable with the MLA writing style.
Mack Reynolds
Pronouns: They/Them
Research area: Mack is a first-year PhD student in Literary Studies. They have worked in academic writing centers and for the past three years have worked as an editor for a publisher in Buffalo, New York. They are interested in the crossover of psychology and literature and are currently researching that space in aspects of the horror genre. Mack is comfortable and confident in their ability to assist with most degrees and topics as well as the technical aspects of the writing process.
Marian Russell
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Marian is a graduate teaching assistant and a second-year M.A. English student with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. This will be her fifth year tutoring English in a university setting, accumulated from her time employed at her alma mater, Brenau University, and Lanier Technical College. In particular, she enjoys working with ENGL 1101 essays as she helps incoming students find their academic voice, and she is proficient in APA and MLA formatting. She also excels in assisting on research essays, persuasive assignments, and even business writings such as application materials. Her research interests are in archival studies, women’s and feminist histories, and accessible pedagogy/tutoring techniques.
Melita Garmon
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Melita is an M.A. student in Literary Studies, aiming to focus on Comparative Literature. In her undergraduate studies, she enjoyed history, literature, and art, and she has taught each of those subjects in various levels of education. At the moment, Melita teaches English to 8th graders. Her favorite part of her job is guiding her students into feeling comfortable about writing. Her goal as a tutor is to build confidence in her students during the writing process while she teaches them skills built upon their strengths. Melita has extensive experience in tutoring students through all of the stages of writing from brainstorming, and thesis construction, to flawless paragraphs that flow into each other seamlessly. No matter what kind of essay she encounters - narrative, literary analysis, or argumentative essay - Melita believes that anyone can be taught to write an engaging essay. Specialties: ESL, structure and thesis, literary analysis, expository/argumentative essays, MLA, APA.
Nathaniel Meals
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Nathaniel is an English Ph.D. candidate concentrating in creative writing, and has an educational background in English and Philosophy studies. Outside of the academy, he has worked in a variety of professional domains (from real estate to nonprofit grant writing to private editorial consulting). He enjoys tackling writing projects from all disciplines. While he is most experienced in the MLA style, he can adapt to almost any style and formatting situation as long as he has a reference. Strengths include polishing sentences, cleaning up grammar and punctuation, combing for spelling mistakes, and reorganizing paragraphs for more punch and clearer takeaways.
Russell Beason
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Russell specializes in rhetoric. When it comes to tutoring he approaches the session much like a discussion and works to guide the tutee toward the answer in fine-tuning a paper. He specializes in argumentative and research papers.
Simon Montgomery
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Simon is an MFA student in Creative Writing focusing on poetry. His approach to tutoring is a collaborative one where the tutor and tutee come to an understanding of what the goals of a piece of writing are, and find ways to reach these goals. He believes in the joy of writing and its importance as an outlet for self-expression, and as a tutor, he aims to help others cultivate this joy and ability to present themselves. He is comfortable with argumentative and expository essays as well as creative writing in both fiction and poetry.
Simon Okediji
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Simon is a first-year PhD student in the rhetoric and composition program at GSU. His research interests lie at the intersection of cultural studies, media literacy, and public policy. His research covers political communication of climate change and its impacts on social action. Simon has previously worked as a teaching assistant and writing center consultant at The University of Alabama where he earned a master’s degree. In his academic life, Simon prioritizes representation, access, inclusion, and equity to promote effective learning and high student success. When he is not in class teaching or somewhere researching, he enjoys spending time with his family, reading good (not necessarily academic) books, or volunteering for community-based groups.
Swati Baruah
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Swati is a Ph.D. student in Lit. Studies with a focus on postcolonial studies, gender and queer studies, and world literature. Her specialties in helping students at the studio are- Personal Statements, College Applications, Statement of Purpose, CVs and Resumes, and the MLA format along with other forms of essays and assignments. Her tutoring goal is to make the process of writing and comprehending easier for students, while also learning along with them.
Tingyu Zhang
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Tingyu specializes in rhetoric. She wishes to work with students on personal statements, application letters, cover letters, persuasive opinion essays, research-based essays, and presentations. She hopes to support students with organizing ideas to suit a specific content, purpose, and audience. She strives to help students find suitable evidence, supporting details, and examples for their papers or to help them have an effective PEEL paragraph format in essay writing. She aims to provide inclusive tutoring services to meet the needs of all learners and eliminate barriers to access for all students.
Toni-Leigh Rahim
Research area: Toni-Leigh Rahim is an international graduate student from Trinidad and Tobago currently pursuing an MA in Literary Studies and holds a BA in English (Literature). Toni taught high school Literature, History, and English Language and is passionate about teaching and tutoring students as we work together to satisfy your individual goals. Toni looks forward to serving the GSU student body to the best ability possible.
Travis Bell
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Travis is a first-year graduate student of English literature with experience tutoring writing and mathematics from elementary to undergraduate levels. He believes in the power of tutoring to help writers achieve technical proficiency without sacrificing the unique voice that makes their writing their own.
Ty Davis
Pronouns: He/Him
Research area: Ty is a current MA student in Literary Studies and holds a BS in Film & Digital Media Production. He is interested in postmodern literature, media literacy, and the relationship between reading and its effects on writing. He enjoys tutoring on many types of writing, most especially focused on brainstorming sessions, creative writing, screenwriting, research papers, annotated bibliographies, as well as MLA formatting. He views writing as a collaborative venture and strives to help students become better writers through discussion, analysis, and organization.
Vanessa Payne
Pronouns: She/Her
Research area: Vanessa is an MA student in literary studies, focusing on nineteenth-century American literature. On account of her degree in literature, she has the most experience with literary analysis. However, she is more than happy to work with any type of writing. In her time working at the Writing Studio, she has gained a lot of experience helping students with research papers, personal statements, and MLA formatting. She believes a tutoring session should be like a conversation, and that students feel they have complete autonomy and ownership over their writing.