Research Writer Interview With Tom

Writing has always been one of the easier subjects for me. My mother was active in the local theater company when I was young and she also taught drama and English before finishing out her public education career as a librarian. Similarly, my Dad, though he grew up on the farm, went on to earn his Phd and retired as an administrator of a public high school on Long Island New York. My family emphasized education, reading and good speaking skills. Writing was a logical extension of all this.

In addition to my own graduate and undergraduate work, I also used writing to various degrees throughout my various forays in employment. Two of the big things in my life have been music and social activism. While I was touring in my old punk band I had the opportunities to do some music columns in various publications like Maximum Rock and Roll. I always thought Henry Rollins did a good job at mixing writing and his reflections on playing in a band and I tried to put my own spin on that to varying degrees of success. More than my music writing, however, was the demand for my political writing. I ran an alternate media website and also wrote for publications like Blu Magazine (New York), Deek Magazine (Pittsburgh), The Underground Action Alliance (Pittsburgh), Independent Media Centers (Global), Kill Radio (LA) and a variety of other more progressive or left leaning publications. I've had the honor of working with political prisoners and a variety of interesting people that I only read about during my academic days. My life is random but writing and life long learning have been the constants.

First and foremost I can turn out high level academic writing products in a short amount of time. I'm also flexible since my other job is being a musician, so that gives me the freedom to work on things that I wouldn't have time to if I were doing another type of work at the same time. In addition, I taught college level communications skills at Pittsburgh Technical Institute while working on my Masters Degree (California State University), so I'm familiar with both sides of the equation. I have been a student, I know what students want and I'm also familiar with what teachers are looking for in terms of sound academic work. I have written for other companies like Custom Papers and I've done similar work freelance so I'm familiar with the process.

My undergraduate degree is in Social Studies and I was one course shy of a minor in Political Science. Similarly, in graduate school, I majored in Humanities and my emphasis was on Social History. It was split though, with a few more credits they would have considered my emphasis on literature. Most of my graduate work was done on people's movements, both violent and non violent and my thesis was on the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and how they have challenged the conventional definition of guerrilla warfare. In terms of personal hobbies too, I like to study different world religions; it fascinates me and I can turn out strong projects on religion. Overall, I know how to write academic papers and conduct research so this makes many subjects within my scope of completing satisfactory. I tend to avoid math, statistics, upper level physics or engineering and chemistry 90% of the time.