Staff Listing

I earned my BA in Writing and Communication Arts from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2002, my Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Antioch University of Los Angeles in 2006, and my Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from University of Waterloo in 2021. I’ve been teaching writing since 2006 at the post-secondary level in addition to providing writing support in writing centres at Gettysburg College and University of Waterloo.

I will be providing strategic leadership, program direction and operational oversight of the multi-campus Writing Services unit, as well as the Laurier Scholars Award Program, Academic Integrity initiatives and English Language Learners Writing and Communication Support on a temporary basis beginning in Fall 2022.

As the Brantford Writing Consultant, I work with faculty to develop general and discipline-specific writing support at both the curricular and classroom level. Primarily, this support comes by way of collaboration with faculty on writing assignments, assessments, and in-class writing workshops.

I also support graduate student writing via 50-minute appointments. During these individual writing appointments, I provide help at every stage of the writing process from invention, to drafting, to revisions.

In tandem with my fellow writing consultants, I help lead our writing tutor program – with special focus on the Brantford tutors. This involves recruiting, hiring, training, supervising, and mentoring our team of exceptional undergraduate and graduate student tutors.

My academic research focuses on rhetoric and composition, specifically how to leverage both translingual and second language writing theory to provide effective writing support for translingual students.

Taylor, Christin. Crew: Finding Community When Your Dreams Crash. Wesleyan Publishing House, 2014.

Taylor, Christin. Shipwrecked in L.A.: Finding Hope and Purpose when Your Dreams Crash. Wesleyan Publishing House, 2013.

Taylor, Christin. “All”. Just Moms: Conveying Justice in an Unjust World. Barclay Press, 2011

Journal articles

Wright-Taylor, C. In Review. Bilingual Always: Second Language Writing’s Influence on Canadian Writing Studies. Discourse and Writing/Redactologie.

Wright-Taylor, C. (2021). “Sorry If My Words Aren’t Right”: Writing Studies’ Partnership with Second Language Writing to Support Translingual Students in the Anglo-Canadian Classroom. UWSpace. 

As a writing consultant, I work with faculty to develop writing curriculum and provide in-class writing instruction that is tailored to the learning outcomes of the course. I also work with undergraduate and graduate students in one-on-one appointments to assist them with their learning of discipline-specific writing conventions.

I also co-lead the writing tutoring program. This involves recruiting, hiring, training, supervising, and mentoring a team of exceptional undergraduate and graduate student tutors.

Finally, I conduct academic research, which primarily focuses on the interconnection between critical thinking and writing studies.

I began as a writing consultant at the Laurier Writing Centre in June of 2015. I completed my PhD at the University of Western Ontario in 2014 with an expertise in moral psychology and ethics. While at Western, I taught courses in the Philosophy department and was an instructor for the Teaching Assistant Training Program at the Teaching Support Centre. In 2019, I completed the TESOL certification (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Renison College, University of Waterloo.

Peer-reviewed journal articles (selected)

Southworth, J. (2023). The complexity paper: A writing assignment that targets cognitive bias. Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 33, 50-59. https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.981

Southworth, J. (2022). Bridging critical thinking and transformative learning: The role of perspective taking. Theory and Research in Education, 20(1), 44-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221090853

Southworth, J. (2021). A perspective-taking theory of open-mindedness: Confronting the challenge of motivated reasoning. Educational Theory, 71(5), 589-607. https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.12497

Southworth, J. (2020). How argumentative writing stifles open-mindedness. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 20(2), 207-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022220903426

Chaktsiris, M. & Southworth, J. (2019). Thinking beyond writing development in peer review. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2019.1.8005

Opinion Articles

Southworth, J. (2023). Rethinking writing pedagogy in a world of ChatGPT. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/rethinking-university-writing-pedagogy-in-a-world-of-chatgpt/

Southworth, J. (2022). Grasping others' perspective is the key to transformative learning. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/grasping-others-perspective-key-transformative-learning

Southworth, J. (2022). Will COVID forever flip learning. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/will-covid-forever-flip-learning/

Southworth, J. (2021). A skills-based approach to academic integrity. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/a-skills-based-approach-to-academic-integrity/

Southworth, J. (2020). The problem with argumentative writing. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-problem-with-argumentative-writing/

Southworth, J. (2018). The value of the op-ed as a writing assignment. University Affairs. https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/value-op-ed/

As a writing consultant, I develop and deliver in-class writing workshops across disciplines for undergraduate and graduate students. I work alongside faculty to create discipline-specific writing assignments and assist with the overall writing design of their courses. I also work with undergraduate and graduate students in one-on-one appointments to address their specific concerns and help them build strong writing skills. Additionally, I lead a variety of external workshops across disciplines for undergraduate and graduate students on academic writing skills to help students thrive in undergraduate programs and succeed at the graduate level.

Before joining the Writing Services team, I completed my PhD in the Department of History at Western University in 2018. My doctoral research focused on Canadian and American social history by examining the history of immigration, race, ethnicity, and transnational social movements in North America. I am an experienced educator and previously taught history at Western and Trent University.

Worsfold, Elliot. “Gatekeeping in the Lutheran Church: Ethnicity, Generation, and Religion in 1960s Toronto.” In Being German Canadian: History, Memory, Generations, edited by Alexander Freund, 140-162. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2021.

Worsfold, Elliot. “Cast Down, Not Forsaken: The Second World War Experience and Memory of German-Canadian Lutherans in Southwestern Ontario.” Ontario History 106, no. 1 (2014): 57-76.

Worsfold, Elliot. “Eastern Ontario’s Commemoration of the North-West Resistance, 1885-1939.” Canadian Military History 22, no. 4 (2013): 3-16.