Melinda Hull - A Brief Introduction
Melinda Hull was born--a very long time ago--in the state of New York. She studied linguistics and anthropology at the undergraduate level and international politics at the graduate level. Ms. Hull came to Japan--also a very long time ago--learned Japanese, became an English editor and a Japanese translator, and then returned to the university to teach English writing to Japanese based on knowledge acquired during her years as an editor and translator.
Teaching academic writing to Japanese university students was an eye-opening experience for Ms. Hull. This experience helped her to understand the roots of many problems which she had encountered when editing and translating; why Japanese write in English the way they do; discover gaps in the English education system in Japan; and eventually how to better teach Japanese writers of English.
Ms. Hull took the next step and started giving individual lectures and workshops on writing academic papers in English to universities and research facilities throughout all of Japan. While a single lecture or a single workshop is nowhere near enough time to teach everything about academic writing in English, such lectures and workshops do provide enough time to change attitudes and mistaken notions about English writing. Once participants have gone through this process of “attitude readjustment,” real progress can be made through further workshops as well as independent study and writing skills can be greatly improved.
The process of writing an academic paper in English is hard, even for native speakers. Writing for non-native speakers can be a terrifying experience, particularly when your academic future and/or employment future depends on such papers. What Melinda Hull wants to really accomplish through her lectures, workshops and other activities offered through Ikagaku Kyoshitsu is to make the papers written by Japanese: “easier to write, easier to edit and easier to read.”
If your university or institution is interested in sponsoring a lecture or workshop, please contact Melinda Hull via Ikagaku Kyoshitsu using our website