Emory College Writing Center

Our Staff

Your name: Alex Daoud

Your home town: Miami Beach, FL

Your major(s): Biology and English.

Are you fluent in any language(s) other than English? Not yet, but I’m getting there in Spanish. Speak to me in Spanish and I will edit your papers anytime!

What are your career plans? I want to become a doctor – I’m leaning towards emergency medicine.

What is your favorite book or author and why? Wow… there are many books that I love, but I guess I can narrow it down to two favorites: American Psycho and House of Leaves. American Psycho is nothing like the movie; Ellis, a veritable master of detail, creates a world in which exhaustive descriptions of physical objects assure the reader of reality’s existence. The ending of the novel, however, contradicts everything before it – simply put, it is one of the most ambiguous finales I’ve ever encountered, and it’s a great example of contemporary satire, as well. House of Leaves also follows along those lines – read it and you’ll question not only the book’s reality, but whether or not you’re really holding a book at all.

What is your most frequent grammatical error? Dangling modifiers.

What is your biggest grammatical pet peeve? “Your” is not “you’re.” Also, the tactless employment of dashes and semicolons drives me up a wall.

What is your favorite word? Veritable.

What is your favorite procrastination method when you have a paper to write? Facebook – isn’t it all of ours?

Describe (in a short paragraph) a significant breakthrough in your development as a writer: As lame as it is, I’m going to have to go with getting a five on the AP English Literature exam in twelfth grade. It was one of the first times I felt free in my writing; I was able to manipulate the text in front of me (in conjunction with my knowledge of literature gathered across my high school career) and, as nerdy as I feel in admitting this, it was one of the first times that I had fun writing in the academic setting. It revealed to me that assignments that seem rigid or immutable in subject matter could actually be the most mentally stimulating when there is a union between one’s knowledge and their creative forces.

Emory University Writing Center | 212 Callaway North | 537 Kilgo Circle | Atlanta, GA 30322 | (404) 727-6451

Contact the Writing Center | Emory University | Emory College | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences | Search Emory