Staff Spotlight: Interview With Shawn Picht, Teacher, Writer, and Traveler

Tuesday, March 18, 2014 Staff Spotlight No comments

Writing Instructor Shawn Picht

The Walden Writing Center and Academic Skills Center welcomed a new staff member in late 2013. I caught up with this busy individual this month and learned about his interests and the trajectory that brought him, lucky for us, to Walden!

Tell me about your dual role at Walden.

I devote Mondays and Tuesdays to my role as Coordinator of Faculty Development in the Academic Skills Center, assisting with the Writing Center students support (WCSS) courses by answering student questions and providing guidance for faculty teaching the courses. Currently, I am working on a faculty expectations manual. On Wednesdays through Fridays, I focus on my role as writing instructor, often reviewing 12 to 16 student papers per week.

What is your approach to one-on-one reviews?
My goal overall is to help students strengthen their writing skills and increase their confidence in expressing what they’re trying to articulate.

I know you do your own writing, both creative and nonfiction. How does your writing process inform how your work with Walden students?

My nonfiction process is fairly methodical: writing sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, while looking to be as specific as possible and demonstrate confidence. I encourage that approach when working with students during my paper reviews, as well.

What is the most helpful advice you’ve received about writing?

I was once told by a professor that my writing was “too baroque” and that I was trying too hard. I learned from that piece of advice that I should write intelligently without going overboard with complex words and sentences. The most helpful advice I give to students and myself in both creative and nonfiction writing is to make sure that the writing process has closure. You can always go back to edit and revise, but a story (whether fiction or an essay) needs to open and close an idea.

How do you spend your free time?
I like to read philosophy and literature, when I get the chance (FYI: reading Nietzsche on the commuter bus is always interesting). I didn’t have much occasion to read literature during my MA studies, and I think that philosophy and literature both help me better understand the world and different viewpoints. I also play acoustic guitar nearly every day. I think music is an important medium of expression; it’s creative, relaxing, and it gives me a break from the computer screen! Of course, spending time with my 7-year-old daughter is a huge priority in my life, as well. We recently started playing chess together.

Which authors or books have influenced you the most?
That’s a difficult question to answer because it depends on what point in my life you’re asking about. I will say I like to read Nietzsche and other German philosophers (their writing is not as dark as you may think!). I also like J. D. Salinger, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Jhumpa Lahiri. I’ve read Crime and Punishment six times, so I guess you could say that’s a book I continue to learn from and enjoy.

I understand you are well traveled.
I am well-traveled in Europe. I lived in Rome, Italy for five months in 2003-04, and I have spent considerable time in Germany over the past two years. But there is a lot of the rest of the world yet to see! (I would love to travel to India someday). I think that travel is a good priority to have at some point in your life to meet new people and experience something different, but there is a time for putting down your roots as well.

What do you like most about working at Walden?
I have been so impressed with how invested the Writing Center and Academic Skills Center staff are in defining what we do, and then delivering on that to best serve Walden students. Also, the people I work with are wonderful. They are friendly, appreciative, intelligent, and quite obliging with me as I learn the ropes at Walden.

Learn more about Shawn on the Writing Center’s Meet Our Staff page.