Writing Samples

Occasionally I’m asked as an editor, do I write? Well, not as confidently as I edit, but I do know my way around a sentence. I rarely have the need to contribute to the student newspaper that I advise at Whatcom Community College—beyond the basic communications—but once in a great while, there’s a reason. I wrote when we had to explain ourselves after a mistake we made in ignorance. (Note that I said “we” — it’s a journalism habit — one for all, and all for one.) We took onus and I wrote a column. Another piece came about because the college lost a valued and beloved colleague and I felt compelled to write then, too. This most recent time I wrote for publication was due to COVID-19. That inconvenient little pandemic made a lot of people do a lot of things they don’t normally do. I wrote that we would “pivot” as a student newspaper, and we have. I’m proud of these pieces and I’m glad to have an audience that includes my own students. I even had them edit my copy, because every writer needs an editor.