Dorothy W. Culp, Associate Professor Emerita of English
I feel that I am betraying my favorite professors at Dickinson by writing this, because
it was a professor whom I didn’t know very well who made the biggest difference
in my career.
I double majored in mathematics and studio art at Dickinson but was required as a freshman
to take an expository-writing class.
As a child, I dreaded writing assignments. The worst thing my second-grade teacher could
do was to hand me a big, brown, double-lined piece of paper at the end of the school
day and tell me to write a story and draw a picture at the top as a homework assignment.
At age 7, I already understood the meaning of writer’s block.
When I arrived at Dickinson I wasn’t thrilled at being forced to take a writing
course. Prof. Dorothy Culp’s class stood out from the others, because she was having
students submit their assignments on computer disks. Watching her rearrange paragraphs
and rewrite sentences in my assignments taught me how to organize my thoughts. I soon
felt that writing was something I could master, and I realized I didn’t have to
be creative; I just had to relay the facts.
After graduation I began freelancing as a newspaper photographer. One day I photographed
an event, and the editor told me he was sorry he had not assigned a reporter to cover
it. Inspired by how well I did in Prof. Culp’s class, I wrote an article and surprised
my editor by submitting it with my photographs.
It led to numerous writing assignments and my landing a staff position as a reporter
and photojournalist. I’ve won 17 journalism awards and am now working as an editor,
helping reporters organize their stories.
It was the only class I took with Prof. Culp, but I will always be grateful to her,
because she taught me a valuable skill that I will use throughout my life.
Evelyn Short ’89
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