About Me

I have worked as a consultant of academic writing for over seven years in a variety of institutional settings as well as on an independent basis as a private editor for doctoral students and university faculty members.

I most recently held the position of Assistant Director of Tutoring at the University of La Verne in Southern California, where I developed writing support workshops, trained writing consultants, and held individual consultations with doctoral students. I also created the EdD program’s dissertation template, and regularly received accolades for my work with students in that program. I acted as a coach for students beginning the research process, helping them develop a systematic approach to writing that would push them to stay on track with their graduation timeline. Before leaving La Verne, I played an instrumental role in shifting tutoring services to an emergency remote learning setting as well as launching an Academic Coaching support service for students struggling to stay afloat academically during the pandemic.

Before that, I worked for four years as a graduate writing consultant at the University of California, Riverside, including two years as lead consultant. In this position, I met routinely with dozens of dissertation writers, helping them move from the planning stages of their dissertations to revision to completion. I specialized in working with students writing grant and fellowship applications, with several of my clients being awarded funding from the Fulbright Scholars Program, National Science Foundation, or Ford Foundation. 

In my experience as an academic editor, I have worked with writers in a wide variety of fields, from the humanities and social sciences to engineering and the life sciences. Most recently, I completed an editing project for a book accepted for publication by Cambridge University Press, where I worked with the author in all stages of the manuscript preparation, from the development of the book’s central arguments to the finishing touches of index creation.

I earned my PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Riverside, where I wrote my qualitative research dissertation on the impact of higher education and non-profit institutions on the jazz scene in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I have also written about retro soundchip technology and nostalgia in video game music, the life and works of film composer John Williams, and other topics. When not working with writing, I like to spend my time playing piano, designing my island in Animal Crossing, or watching NBA basketball (go Nets!).

—Matthew Neil, PhD