Nicholas McArthur

I am a writer and teacher with ten years of classroom experience at the college level. At Toronto’s Humber College, George Brown College, and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, I taught courses in Literature, Critical Thinking, Composition, and more. I also have experience in curriculum design, having liaised with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers to create new Communications courses for their journeymen and apprentices.

As a writer of fiction and poetry, and an instructor of “The Art of Fiction,” I’ve enjoyed helping students to trace the histories of literary genres, and to hone their understandings of the interrelationships between literary form, authorial language, and theme, particularly as these textual elements situate within a broader social and political framework. I always find it rewarding to hear students’ insights during class discussions.

After a decade of teaching Literature and Communications, I know the importance of getting students excited about sometimes challenging material, especially if the subject matter lay outside their pre-existing areas of interest. As a lesson-designer, my courses focus on active learning in order to build the learner’s interest, balancing the role of professor-centric lectures with “flipped classroom” strategies, in which students engage directly with texts through group work, games, creative writing, and introspection.

I look forward to discussing my courses and pedagogical approaches with you in more detail. Thank you so much for taking the time to consider my application.

I hold a Master's degree in Creative Writing, a Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language, and a Joint Honours in Writing and English Literature.

During my studies I was a winner of a Constance Rooke Scholarship, a Board of Graduate Research Fellowship, the Irving Layton Poetry Award and the MacGuigan Essay Prize.

My work has been featured in a number of literary magazines and my first book, "Short Accounts of Tragic Occurrences" was released in 2009.

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Joint Honours in English Literature and Creative Writing, April 2008

• Graduated with distinction.

• Winner of the Irving Layton Poetry Award and the MacGuigan Essay Prize.

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

MFA in Creative Writing, August 2012

• Winner of a Constance Rooke Scholarship and a Board of Graduate Research Fellowship.

HUMBER COLLEGE

TESOL Canada Certification, April 2013

•Completion of DEV 014 - Clinic for Online Teachers,

• HUMBER LITERARY REVIEW, Assistant Fiction Editor/Copy Editor, 2013-01-01, 2016-08-01, Reading submitted stories and conferring with other editors to determine the fiction content for issue three of HLR., Carefully reading the finished editions of issues 1-3 in order to prevent all grammar, spelling, typographical and layout errors.
• STROPHEA INC., 2013-01-01, Present, Planning, writing, and editing content for interactive novels., Consulting with system designers and developers in order to tailor literary style and content to software limitations.
• LUDIA INC., Content Provider, 2009-02-01, 2010-08-01, Writing and editing dialogue for computer- and console-based games such as The Price is Right and Family Feud., Researching and writing questions for The $100,000 Pyramid.
• VIZIR CONSULTING, Writer and Editor, 2008-12-01, 2010-02-01, Liaising with clients in the Montreal video game and software industry to determine their needs., Researching and writing internal recommendation reports.
• XTRANORMAL, Writer and Editor, 2008-04-01, 2009-01-01, Pitching and writing comedic, web-based animations to showcase Xtranormal's animation software., Refining and editing the scripts of other writers.