A specialist in writing assessment, Elliot is the author of On A Scale: A Social History of Writing Assessment (New York: Lang, 2005). Elliot has taught at Mercer County Community College, Rider University, the College of New Jersey, and Texas A & M University at Commerce. Elliot is a founding member of the School of Public Health, the nation's first collaborative school in partnership with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Rutgers University—Newark and NJIT.

In 1992, Elliot was the recipient of the NJIT Excellence in Teaching Award in Upper Division Undergraduate Instruction.  In 2002, he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the UMDNJ School of Public Health Student Government Association. In 2003, he again received the NJIT Excellence in Teaching Award, this time in interdepartmental, inter-institutional and team teaching in distance learning.

With NJIT colleague Nancy Coppola, he is the winner of the 2005 Rudolph J. Joenk, Jr. Award for Best Paper in the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

Elliot, of Little Egg Harbor, is married to Frances Ward, PhD, professor and founding dean of the UMDNJ School of Nursing. Their dinner table is graced with the company of their eight children: Christian, Kathryn, James, Luke, Sarah, Jesse, Nicholas, and Sophia. From time to time, each works, lives and plays at the Jersey Shore.

Elliot received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of New Orleans  and holds a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Tennessee.