We are delighted to announce that Stephen Romer FRSL, a renowned poet, critic, translator and editor will spend the academic year as Royal Literary Fellow with the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, available to advise students on all aspects of writing and to take part in different activities within the University.
Stephen, who comes to work at Wellington Square after two years as RLF* Fellow at Worcester College, is a poet, critic, editor and translator. During this coming academic year, he will be available one day a week at the premises of the MML Faculty to offer one-to-one advice on all aspects of academic writing. This service is free, confidential, and works on a voluntary basis. Stephen's services this year are offered in particular to Graduate students, working on dissertations, whether at Masters or Doctoral level. Anyone experiencing problems with writing, whether stylistic or structural, is welcome to make an appointment, which can be repeated. His expertise is essentially on formal aspects of academic writing; it should be stressed that he is not employed to comment on content. Given that wider remit, however, he is there to be consulted on all matters of usage, whether on the micro-level of sentence and paragraph construction, on bibliographical methodology, or on wider questions of structure. Normally, each appointment lasts 45 minutes, and, to repeat, it is strictly confidential in nature. Appointments are made in advance by e-mail; a short sample of the student's work is also required (preferably in hard copy) in advance of the meeting.
*The Royal Literary Fund (RLF) is a UK charity that places writers in universities to help students develop their writing. The principal aim of the RLF Fellow’s work is to foster good writing practice across disciplines and media. Students meet the Fellow on a purely voluntary basis, although they may initially be responding to a tutor’s recommendation. In the experience of RLF Fellows and partner institutions, students see benefit from learning about good writing practice from a professional author.