Tom McWhorter, who has recently retired, taught the first fiction writing class I ever took at the University of Pittsburgh—the very aptly named Introduction to Fiction Writing—during the Spring of 2020. It was the first course I took for my English Writing major and the first writing course I took after Seminar in Composition. I absolutely loved it. 
I’ve always loved fiction writing, but Professor McWhorter’s class and way of teaching made me enjoy it so much more. I was invested in every reading, every class discussion, and every writing assignment. My favorite days, however, were the workshops.
McWhorter’s class had four fiction story assignments spread out over the duration of the semester in addition to our reading assignments—each increasing in required length as the course progressed—and for the workshop days that followed each deadline, a few stories from would be randomly selected for the entire class to read.
Every student had their story read for a workshop day at some point during the semester, and I consider myself lucky to have been chosen as part of the first group. Though Professor McWhorter gave detailed critiques on every story, the constructive environment and open discussion he facilitated in class helped me so much that I chose to revise that very first story for the course’s final.
His feedback helped me the most, however. I chose to write a fantasy story, entitled "Spellbound," and one thing that really stuck with me was Professor McWhorter’s advice about worldbuilding. He pointed out, and my peers agreed, that I started with too much summary and my story didn’t have enough concrete scenes.
It’s much better to begin a story with action, and mine was missing a balance in that respect. It may sound cliché, but it’s the truth—when writing creatively, show don’t tell. McWhorter’s class was the one where that finally clicked for me.
I believe my writing improved a lot over the course of a few months in his class. I can say with pride that Professor McWhorter helped my dreams of eventually becoming an author solidify into something that felt, for the first time, like a truly attainable goal.
But I owe Professor McWhorter thanks for more than this. Since I took Intro to Fiction Writing in the spring semester of 2020, my time attending his class in person was cut short over spring break, when everything moved online for the rest of the semester.
Looking back now, I can admit that I struggled a lot with focusing in my online courses. However, Professor McWhorter handled the initial switch very well. His class was the only one I took that semester that continued to hold synchronous meetings over Zoom, and it was the only class that didn’t feel incredibly different as a result. Our discussions about readings were as engaging at ever.
I could tell through the entire process that Professor McWhorter cared a lot about our learning experience. I was and continue to be very grateful for all of the effort that he put in to make sure our classes stayed as similar as possible to how they were before, even when a cat was walking across my keyboard.
I continued to learn a lot about writing and myself as a writer throughout our "COVID lockdown" semester, and I have since had the privilege of shadowing Professor McWhorter while learning how to be a peer tutor in the Writing Center, where I interned this past semester. Once again, he was able to teach me so much.
During my observation of his tutoring session, I noticed that Professor McWhorter did a wonderful job of keeping the student engaged by asking questions and checking in frequently to ensure they were on the same page. He addressed the student’s concerns throughout the session and made sure they had a clear idea of how to move forward at the end.
This strategy of checking in with the student throughout the tutoring session is one I used in all of my sessions when working in the Writing Center myself this past semester. I think effective communication is the most important thing when tutoring, especially when working with writing, and Professor McWhorter is the person who showed me that.
Tom McWhorter is a truly wonderful professor and person, and I am honored to be writing this tribute for him, even if his retirement is a little bittersweet for me, since I’ll miss seeing him on campus and in the Writing Center. I wish him all the best in his endeavors, though I— and I’m sure, many other students —are sorry to see him go.
—Charlotte Pearse
Charlotte Pearse is a rising senior with a double major in Public and Professional Writing and English Writing (fiction) with a minor in English Literature.