If you would like to see syllabi or assignment prompts for any of these courses, please feel free to reach out to me!

Writing as a Discipline (100-Level Major Foundation Course)

Welcome to Writing as a Discipline! This course is an introduction to studying writing at the college level and fulfills a Foundation Requirement for the English Major. In this class, we will explore different approaches to writing and consider writing itself as a topic of study. In particular, we will survey scholarship from the fields of literacy studies, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, and technical and professional writing in order to better understand writing as a process, product, means of discovery, and technology. Drawing from various fields will allow us to engage deeply with our subject—writing—while also offering an introduction to a breadth of fields that make writing its subject.

The organizing idea/concept of this course is discourse communities. In specific, our focus will be on your discourse communities—those communities you’re currently a part of or have been a member of in the past. The goal of organizing the class this way is to concretize the ideas about writing and the study of writing within specific discursive contexts you’re familiar with and that are relevant to your life. There will be three major assignments of the course, each focused on a unique inquiry into your chosen discourse community.

Some of the major questions we’ll be considering this term include: How do we learn to write? Who enables (or restricts) our access to literacy? What does the mean to say that “writing is a social act”? What tools and technologies impact the writing we do? How might culture, language, and identity shape how we write, how we learn to write, and our access to resources related to writing? For many of us, these questions are not only ideological but also emotional—perhaps even deeply personal. We will dig into them together in our class discussions and in our writing.

Collaborative Writing (Writing Center Tutor Training Course)

This is a class about understanding the social act of writing. We’ll consider the ways in which we and other people write, learn to write, respond to writing, teach and/or tutor writing, and more broadly, how access to literacy shapes our social and educational worlds. It is also a class centered or learning about and preparing to work in a writing center.

Some of the questions we’ll be considering include: How does writing help us create, transfer, and share knowledge? How do people learn how to write in particular fields or disciplines? How do social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds affect writing and learning to write? How should awareness of those backgrounds affect the teaching or tutoring of writing?  What is a writing center and what role does/should it play in writing education? For many of us, these questions are not only ideological but also emotional—perhaps even deeply personal. We will dig into them together in our class discussions and in our writing.

Students in this course will explore contemporary theories and pedagogies of writing tutoring and instruction; issues related to social, cultural, linguistic, and educational justice; and current conversations among scholars and practitioners in the fields of Writing Studies, Writing Center Studies, and Writing Across the Curriculum. Students will also engage in semester-long projects in which they conduct original research about key topics relevant to writing education. (The design of this course drew from courses taught by Dr. Kathleen Daly Weisse and Dr. Kate Chaterdon.)

College Teaching in Language & Literature (Graduate Pedagogy Course)

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of teaching college-level writing. The purpose of this class is two-fold: 1) to develop the pedagogical content knowledge needed to be an effective writing instructor and 2) to support and assist new graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in their first semester teaching composition. This course is focused on providing new GTAs with the knowledge and skills needed to be better instructors. These skills are meant to help them during theiry first semester teaching FYC and also provide the foundation needed to teach a range of courses including writing, literature, and creative writing. We read scholarship from writing studies to understand current theories of writing and how we can best teach writing to students. The course is structured as an active learning environment and models pedagogical approaches that GTAs can adopt and adapt to their own classrooms. (The design of this course drew from courses taught by Dr. Kaitlin Clinnin and Dr. Megan McIntyre.)

Digital Literacies & Composing in Digital Spaces (Advanced Composition)

What does it mean to be “literate” in our increasingly digital and technology-mediated world? How do digital technologies, tools, and media shape the way we read, write, communicate, collaborate, and learn? This course is themed around digital literacies and composing in digital spaces. Students examine how individuals learn and grow through social activity in collaborative digital and online spaces and discuss relevant theories, including John Swales (1990) concept of “discourse communities,” James Paul Gee’s (2005) “affinity spaces,” and Henry Jenkins (2006) “participatory cultures.” Students also experiment with and explore the social/rhetorical effects of composing in different digital modes and mediums such as podcasts, short-form videos, blogs, online forums like Discord or Reddit, etc. Students engage in research focused on the learning and composing practices of a digital/online community they are personally interested in and then communicate their findings through modes/mediums that are most relevant to that community. (The design of this course drew from courses taught by Dr. Cara Marta Messina, Dr. Dan Melzer, and Dr. Jennifer Higgs.)

Academic Literacies (First-Year Composition)

This course focuses on helping students become more confident and flexible readers and writers through activities and assignments that build their awareness of how discourse is shaped by epistemologies within disciplines and discourse communities. Students explore their own histories with literacy and connect those histories to their current and future experiences with college writing. Students also engage in an extended research project about a discourse community of their choice where they gather primary and secondary data and analyze genres, languages, and methods of communication to understand how their chosen discourse community operates through discourse.

College Reading and Writing (Basic/Developmental Writing)

This course focuses on identifying, defining, and applying practices of college reading and writing. It is designed for “developmental writers” who may not yet recognize the practices that successful readers and writers use to complete academic literacy tasks. Therefore the course focuses on articulation of existing practices, introduction of new practices, application of practices, reflection about use of practices, and metacognitive awareness/self-regulation related to strategic use of practices.

Writer’s Workshop (Co-Requisite Course)

This is a 2-unit co-requisite course that students take with Academic Literacies (see above). The course focuses on developing students writing and revision strategies, while also exploring ways to both understand and appropriately respond to a writing task. Students develop their knowledge of the different rhetorical situations, academic literacies, and discourse communities they may encounter in the university and learn strategies for responding as a critical writer and reader within these various contexts. The course shares learning outcomes and some assignments with College Reading and Writing (see below).