Your name: Monroe Hammond
Your home town: Columbia, South Carolina
Your major(s): French/Comparative Literature
Are you fluent in any language(s) other than English? I have some proficiency in French.
What are your career plans? I'd like to work for Teach for America for two years before going to law school. Then I hope to work for a civil rights advocacy group in Washington.
What is your favorite book or author and why? I'm quite fond of books with vivid, moving language. The first two that come to mind are This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
What is your most frequent grammatical error? Sometimes it’s difficult to avoid the passive voice.
What is your biggest grammatical pet peeve? Five years of transcribing depositions has made me a stickler for correct hyphen use, and stylistically, when to write out or not write out numbers.
What is your favorite word? “Gross movement” is my “cellar door.” For whatever reason, it’s terribly pleasing to me.
What is your favorite procrastination method when you have a paper to write? I’m procrastinating right now. In any case, if I happen to be writing in my room, I cannot start until the room is completely in order, especially my desk.
Describe (in a short paragraph) a significant breakthrough in your development as a writer: I think I still might be waiting for one. My proficiency has improved steadily over time—there really haven’t been any bursts. However, I would like to work on making my writing process less arduous. Oftentimes it’s hard to get past the first sentence of the first paragraph, or to not dwell on one word that just isn’t sitting right with me. I believe another tutor used the term “verbal constipation."
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