About Me
Hello! My name is Linda Smith-Brecheisen and I want to help you with your writing
I have been working with academic and professional writers for 15 years, giving them the tools they need to analyze and assess their own writing, and make writing and revisions decisions based on their audiences.
Advanced writing is complicated and nuanced, and has high stakes — it constructs new knowledge, it persuades readers to take action, it advances complex arguments, just to name a few tasks. Because there are [unfortunately] no rules to good writing that will work for all situations, I work with each writer to understand who their audience is and help them leverage that knowledge in order to effectively communicate their ideas.
My approach to helping writers write and revise is rooted in my training and 13 years spent working at the University of Chicago’s Writing Program as Assistant and then Associate Director. There I designed writing instruction and support services for students, faculty, and staff and taught in courses such as Academic and Professional Writing — affectionately known as the Little Red Schoolhouse. Recently, I have joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas in the School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. Currently I run graduate writing programming in the Bass School of Arts, Humanities, & Technology at UT Dallas, where I work as an assistant professor of instruction.
Outside of academia, I have worked with writers across different professional fields — from policy to public health to development to marketing — to help them meet the demands of their audiences.
Over the years, I have helped writers understand why readers reacted to their texts in the ways that they did and, ultimately, helped them write more effective texts. This rhetorical analysis approach gives me the ability to help writers from all fields and in all professions. While I am not an expert in every kind of document, I can help writers learn the most effective strategies for communicating with their audiences.
To build a sustainable and dread-free writing process, I can help you analyze your current writing practices and develop strategies specific to your needs so that you can get unstuck and reduce feelings of shame associated with the writing process.
To tackle the challenges of revision, I’m here to help you see your texts as readers see them — to read your texts not as the writer, but as a reader. The way to accomplish this seemingly impossible out-of-body experience is through techniques of rhetorical analysis — by taking your text and reading it in different ways that will help you get to the heart of the problem.
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Current & Past Clients
Professional Clients: The Art Institute of Chicago, the Beta Cell Foundation, Close Concerns, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, UChicago Urban Labs, the Chicago Literacy Alliance, AmeriCorp Food Matters, the Driehaus Foundation, and Bridge Strategy Group.
Faculty & Graduate Student Clients: University of Chicago, University of Illinois Chicago, Wayne State University, University of Texas at Dallas, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, George Mason University, the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning & Leadership, and Hitotsubashi University.
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Selected Courses Taught
Academic & Professional Writing (aka The Little Red Schoolhouse)
Effective Writing in Business & the Professions
Principles of Teaching Writing
Pedagogies of Writing
Methods of Argument & Discourse
Writing for Research
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Selected Presentations
“Write-in Toolkit: Building Community & Writing Skills”
“Publishing in Academic Journals”
“Best Practices for Setting Up Your Writing Day”
“Productivity & Writing During COVID-19”
“Strategies for Managing Breaks from Writing”
“Mitigating Stereotype Threat in Writing Feedback”
“Rhetoric of Writing-Focused Feedback”