{"id":204,"date":"2015-04-20T18:55:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T18:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/unccwrc\/?p=204"},"modified":"2015-04-20T18:55:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T18:55:21","slug":"henry-doss-an-interview-with-a-wrc-founder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/unccwrc\/blog\/2015\/04\/20\/henry-doss-an-interview-with-a-wrc-founder\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Doss: An Interview with a WRC Founder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Doss is an alumnus of UNC Charlotte where he received his BA in English in 1977. During his three years here at UNC Charlotte, Doss and a few of his peers founded the Writing Resources Center that we all know and love today. \u00a0After graduation, he went into banking for several years before joining T2 Venture Creation, a firm that works with startup companies, as Chief Strategy Officer. \u00a0Doss is also a regular contributor to Forbes magazine.\u00a0Doss\u00a0<\/em>continues to be involved on campus, serving\u00a0as Executive-in-Residence for the college of\u00a0Liberal\u00a0Arts and Sciences.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to delve into the\u00a0WRC’s history a bit more, we\u00a0caught\u00a0up with Doss this\u00a0spring\u00a0to ask him a\u00a0few\u00a0questions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Happy Writing!
\nAlex and Beth<\/em><\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> Was there a specific incident that really got you thinking about having a place where your fellow students could get help with their writing?<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> I don’t recall any particular event, except that over time it seemed to be clear that there was some kind of need for helping students with writing. \u00a0I was taking classes with Sam Watson, and I recall a great deal of conversation about writing, how to write, how not to write, how to think about writing, and how really, really mysterious the whole thing seemed to be. \u00a0I read Peter Elbow’s\u00a0Writing without Teachers<\/em> at that time and it made a deep impression on me. \u00a0This was in 1976! \u00a0It occurred to me that it was possible that: 1) writing could be learned and 2) learned in ways that were not in general practice at that time. \u00a0This wasn’t exactly novel or new, but was just Elbow’s ideas and thinking transplanted into our environment at the time. \u00a0but it was a pretty powerful idea, all the same.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> When you started the WRC, did you have any long term goals? \u00a0Did you imagine that the WRC would take off and expand to become what it is for UNC Charlotte today?<\/p>\n

A:\u00a0<\/strong>I don’t think any of us were thinking very long term. \u00a0Our situation was immediate, tactical and focused on the present. \u00a0We were thinking at a very simple level; it really was a very idealistic and kind of fuzzy thing, but it just happened to be grounded in some decent pedagogy and thinking. \u00a0It did take a while to catch on, but in those early days we were as much concerned with getting a door key and chairs as with anything else. \u00a0And although I can’t speak for others, I don’t recall thinking much beyond just getting started with something.<\/p>\n

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Q:<\/strong> What was the most important thing that you wanted to accomplish by creating the WRC? \u00a0Is that quality still a part of today’s WRC?<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> This is more personal than anything else, but what I thought was important was to simply introduce to others that writing:<\/p>\n