Talk for Maureen's class...

1. Why did I choose to pursue this career? Where did my interest in comp/rhet come from?

My interest in composition/rhetoric happened gradually. I never set out to get a Ph.D. in comp/rhet.

Went to Iowa to get an MAT to teach h.s. English. Like a lot of students, I had no exposure to the field of composition or rhetoric as an undergraduate at UNH.

• Bonnie's Approaches to Teaching Writing Course (freewriting; writing as thinking or write to learn; writing a paper about Dale over the course of the entire semester; reading Murray's The Craft of Revision). The idea that at Iowa, I began to learn the theory behind what so many of my writing teachers had asked me to do at UNH.
• Working as Bonnie's research assistant (helping edit a book on teacher literacy narratives; transcribing Murray interviews for induction of his materials into the Poynter institute)
• The Iowa Portfolio Group/Attending first conferences (UNH and NCTE, fall 1996)--a glimpse at the profession and how things work.
• During the second year, teaching FYC at Iowa, having a "lab" where I could try out some of the things that I was learning in my coursework (freewriting, writing conferences, group workshops, portfolio assessment, etc)

After student teaching and then teaching h.s. for one year, I noticed that I was moving away from the conversation about how writing is taught and learned. I wanted to get back into that conversation and, hopefully, to contribute to it in some way. Enrolled at UNH.

2. A bit about my current work.

After teaching h.s. for one year, I tried my hand at working as an adjunct. When you need money, you'll take just about any position you can find (describe range of teaching experiences--community college, online, in corporate, and at traditional colleges/universities).

Working with adult learners at GSC as an important moment--also, watching my mother fly to Chicago to graduate with her bachelor's degree at mid-life--the confluence of these two things.

At the time of dissertation, a range of possibilities, but feeling myself pulled back to the adults withi whom I worked at NSC and reflecting on my lack of preparation for that kind of teaching (before and during grad school) and my lack of knowledge about those students themselves. I began to imagine a project--something that would have been useful for someone like me. I was my own audience--what could have helped prepare me for that work? That is the project I created and still work towards. Descriptive and qualitative. Briefly discuss project.

At the center of this work and my work, an interest in people--how they learn to write (or fail to), what they write and why, how they transition between writing contexts (like school and work).

As I begin to wind down on this project and look to the future, possible future work--continued work with adult or nontraditional students making the transition to academic literacy or, perhaps, with undergraduates making the opposite transition, from school to work.