Facebook Has Transformed My Students' Writing—for the Better

Teaching in the Cloud: How Google Docs are Revolutionizing the Classroom

Any experienced English teacher knows the drill: on the dreaded due date, students bring printed copies of their essays to class, where we collect them, take them home, jot inscrutable comments in the margins, bring them back to class, return them, and then watch students promptly toss them in the recycling bin on the way out of the room. The whole cycle borders on farce....

Teaching in the Cloud: How Google Docs are Revolutionizing the Classroom

Gibbs Model of Reflective Writing

More on Gibbs model.

Confessions of a Not-So-Careful Proofreader

I appreciate the feedback. Your comments actually didn't really surprise me. I think I already knew that I make plenty of small mistakes (that I should not even be making at this point in my life). However it might stem from that fact that I never had a teacher who took the time to teach the class about grammar. Well... I can't remember ever having a teacher who did that. I spent a great amount of time trying to fix it and I hope it looks better. I think I probably need to edit my writing pieces more thoroughly and take my time with them. I admit that I don't look too closely at the structure of my sentences these days.

Plagiarism & Turnitin

Turn it Down, Don't Turnitin: Resisting Plagiarism Detection Services by Talking About Plagiarism Rhetorically

A Pedagogy of Resistance Toward Plagiarism Detection Technologies

Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors

The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life (Charles Murray)

Article which summarizes the book, here.

Liberal Arts Survivor

6 Essential Books for Liberal Arts Grads

Smart Moves for Liberal Arts Grads: Finding a Path to Your Perfect Career

 I would recommend this book first and foremost because of it's accessibility. I know it might seem strange that this is coming before content, but it's not! My biggest problems that I have with books assigned for classes usually come down to this. It's my deciding factor on whether or not I like the book, and if I don't like it... well, I've already decided I'm not going to learn very much from it. I just can't enjoy books that feel like the author is working against my understanding of them. How as a student am I supposed to comprehend something in an area I may not understand very well if the author of the book is trying to communicate with me at a completely different level of language skill than I possess? Maybe this is not a very good attitude to take towards books, but I know a lot of other students probably feel this same way. Smart Moves is accessible, both in language and content. It's an easy read. It took me some time, but I didn't have to go back and reread and reread whole pages to understand what Curran was telling me.

 I didn't really have any specific issues with this book. Sometimes I was less interested in a subject's story than others. This book is written in my favorite way that things are written: It did not build and build and build on certain assertions it made in the beginning, except for that Liberal arts grads do have plenty of opportunities and perhaps more than in other fields. I love books like this because they are the type that you can come back to later. I don't have to take it all in at once. I can read about one experience and skip to another and go back to the one I skipped. You can jump around in this book (except for the beginning -- it's good to read the beginning part in succession) Books that you have to read in one large chunk to get anything out of don't really stay on my bookshelf.

 The last reason I would recommend this book was because I could see myself in many of the subjects that Curran wrote about and I think that is probably the most important thing to students who have graduated or are about to graduate. Half of the problem is being unable to visualize your career or yourself in any certain career. Curran gives many different accounts and I think there is someone to relate to in this book for everyone. When I read the accounts of the other liberal arts grads and I was able to visualize my career path choices, it made me confident in myself. It made the scary world of the recently graduated liberal arts student feel a lot less scary and more in reach. It wasn't just the accounts of these people also in my place, though. The whole first part of this book spends a good deal of time debunking "Myths" about the liberal arts degree. This is great because my confidence was affected by all of these myths in one way or the other -- and they're perpetuated by people who don't really know what they're talking about anyways. I don't know how many times I've heard from someone who knows little to nothing about an English degree tell me it was a poor choice on my part in deciding to attain one. And usually said person is working a job that I would never want to have in a million years, anyways. "Why would you go for English. You can't do anything with that." Um, why don't you take a step back and look at your career choices for a second before you insult mine? (Katie Landry, spring 2014)

10 Things Employers Want You To Learn In College (Bill Coplin)

I would not recommend Bill Coplin's "10 Things Employers Want You To Learn In College" for students who are majoring in liberal arts. Although I have learned useful skills from the chapters, I found myself regretting choosing another book.

 First, this book would be a great read for freshmen students or late seniors in high school. Coplin provides useful advice and tips. I wish I would have encountered the learnings from this book years ago. Because if that were the case, I could have build on the skills during my college years. He mentions how to be a better student and how to make the best out of your college years. He also provides advice on writing, verbal communication, networking, today's technology tools, life management, etc. This is why college freshmen should read this particular book. It really takes the time to explain what you need to do in college (in the beginning) in order to succeed in the end of your college years and, most importantly, the start of your career.

 The second reason why I would not recommend this book is it has little or nothing to do with liberal arts majors. There are skills that can help a liberal arts major in the workplace setting and being a college student. However, it did not provide information or advice for English majors specifically. This book is for a general audience not a specific (besides college students). A student with an English Major would be more interested in learning the kinda of writing they would do in the workplace, how to do research for a journal or magazine or for a non-profit organization, which technology tools should they be comfortable with, and what are the different jobs available for English Majors, and what resources are available to them. This book does not ask or answer these questions.

Those are my two reasons why I would not recommend this book to students with a liberal arts major. I did not hate the book. I actually enjoyed reading it. I was marking up the text and putting post-it notes on the skills that I really want to work on. My only disappointment was that I was not a college freshman. The book is useful but more to a specific age group. And so, I decided to let my cousin, who is attending his first college semester at URI in the fall, borrow the book. I know he will learn from reading it. (Madelyn Brito, spring 2014)

Life After College: A Complete Guide to Getting What you Want (Jenny Blake)

Though the author does not deal specifically with life after college for liberal arts graduates but I would recommend Life After College: A Complete Guide to Getting What you Want by Jenny Blake for anybody graduating college in the near future. In her novel Blake covers almost all facets of a new graduates life, ranging from work to home life.

Blake’s section on adjusting to a new work place is something that I think any person entering the professional workspace for the first time would find useful. In this section Blake discuses the importance of finding balance in each day and how someone can make their work life meet their individual needs. Though what I found particularly interesting is on page 129 and 130 she gives useful tips about building a resume. A couple of things that stood out to me were that Blake says to focus on the “Impact” of previous work responsibilities rather than just giving a description. By doing this the employer will hopefully see the candidate as a dynamic force in the workplace that can incite change and progress rather than just being another worker. Another tip for building the resume was the suggestion of taking personality assessments. Blake says this is useful because the person applying will be able to have a solid grasp on their strengths and weakness as an individual and tailor that to fit in their resume.

Blake’s section on money also has a lot of helpful information to offer. On page 259 Blake has a section called, “The Four Step Budget” and it is a great and easy way for someone to create a budget for themselves. I created one for myself and I find myself being much more money conscious lately. In this section she also goes into how to generate some extra income. One suggestion she has is using Craigslist to your advantage. Blake says that by offering up services on the site (such as dog walking and tutoring) you can find yourself making a few extra dollars on the side that will relieve some of the pressures of paying bills.

Relationships are also touched on extensively in this novel. Blake goes into how to balance family, home, and romantic relationships. She goes into the importance of finding the right roommate, how to go about dating as an adult without having the foil of school to rely on, and keeping a strong relationship with family. There is a ton of information and sound advice in these sections and it jives well with what I saw as the main message of this book: finding balance.

So all in all, I enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read and the Jenny Blake does and excellent job at involving the reader. There are also a ton of resources that are given for money management and tracking personal goal. I think that any newly graduated individual entering “the real world” for the first time would be able to pull something useful from these pages. (reviewed by Neal Beaudrea, spring 2014)

Notes from Sabbatical Workshop

Regarding #4...what are the reasons why I need this sabbatical now?

1. Tied up with teaching committee work...need this time to get re-engaged with my research (discuss the number of primary documents I've collected and the amount of attention I need to focus on these artifacts)

2. Have I been "scooped"--write about how there are other researchers looking into the history of hte writing programs at UNH...cindy gannett. I want to get my work out before she does...

3. Is there a reason why I need this sabbatical at this time--something urgent that will be happening during the time I am asking for "off"

Regarding #1 "Quality of the Proposal": Set my work in context, convince them that it is a worthy project, and then put forward my plan for sabbatical...in 3-5 (double-spaced) pages. Make sure the amount of work I propose is reasonable to accomplish in the time I am asking for. Timeline might be useful (month-by-month).

Imagining the Self

American Women's Autobiography

History 601: Faces of Narcissus? Autobiographies, Memoirs and History

Planning for Connections

Cross-Disciplinary:

Sociology/Anthropology: Food Interview

Behavioral Science: Environmental Factors in Food Consumption

Health Science: Food Journal

Communication/Rhetoric: Food arguments and persuasion

Cool Videos (ENGL 231)

Getting Started With Blueberry Jam

Eating in Iowa: Farm-Fresh, Fried and Frugal

Connections

Expressive Writing:

Theorize (Kinneavy, Britton)

Kinneavy: A Theory of Discourse (a philosophy of the aims of discourse (persuasive, self-expressive, literary, and referential)
Moffet: Teaching the Universe of Discourse (?)
Britton: Britton, J. N., Burgess, T., Martin, N., McLeod, A., & Rosen, H. (1975). The development of writing abilities (11-18). London: MacMillan Educational for the Schools Council.

Empiricism (Pennebaker)

Resources:

Pennebaker's website and list of selected articles

Writing To Heal (feature story on Pennebaker)

Practice (Art of Personal Essay)

Stuff To Read

The Meaningful Writing Project

Several trends emerged from the research: The majority of students noted as meaningful writing projects that were something they had never done before but that they felt would be connected to the writing they would do as professionals. Also meaningful were writing projects that were connected to students’ lives and interests beyond school, as well as writing projects that helped them learn or explore course content more deeply. Finally, a key implication for teaching is that meaningful writing projects frequently had required elements but simultaneously offered students considerable choice in topic or approach.

A Heterotopic Space (on audio feedback)

Anne Beaufort's "College Writing and Beyond: Five Years Later"

The Importance of Being OPEN

From Talia Ghazal's mid-term Memo (ENGL 477.SU2013)

The first piece of knowledge I have gained from both the radio station and magazine is to learn and experience anything and everything at any internship or job. I was aware of this well before beginning work, but I think it sunk in after the first week of work. Looking back at my very first post, I stated how I “just want to learn. Whether the knowledge I gain will benefit my future or not, it is still important that I learn from these two internships. I really want to know what it is like to work at both of these companies...” I still stand by this statement. I think any work related experience is vital if one wishes to have a successful career. And I literally mean any job experience. I did not think my work at A.T. Cross would help me get the internship at RI Monthly; little did I know that it was the reason why I was accepted at the magazine. They loved the blurbs I wrote for the pen catalogue and it was exactly what they were looking for. So because I am open to (almost) any experience, it shapes me as a writer. 

More Tools

doodlecast pro


Dan Pink's Idea Economy

Wordle

Grammar? FAIL.

Grammar FAIL, Part One

Teaching Writing Is Your Job

Teaching Writing Is Your Job
by Nate Kreuter

(note last line)

Comp Quote

Unlike academics who construct their pedagogical task as passing on knowledge (that is, unlike teachers in almost every other academic discipline), composition teachers profess the development of students' abilities.


Preparing a syllabus involves making predictions about how I semesters work will be orchestrated. The obvious predictions made by a syllabus are about timing and pacing. But a teacher preparing a syllabus also makes predictions about who students are and what they want from her class, and she predicts as well how what she knows will be integrated into the class. An experienced teacher of writing knows that what she knows will be modified by the experience of teaching a composition class, and she must admit as well that the conduct of any class is affected by her desires as well as her health and her well being. All of these things can change on a daily or even an hourly basis. When she is preparing a syllabus, she has to guess about how all of this will affect her plans as the group grows or shrinks, I students work together for 15 weeks, as their desires, health, and well-being affect classroom interaction. No wonder that syllabi are difficult to write (215).


Sharon Crowley, Composition in the University (215)

Watson 2014 CFP

http://louisville.edu/conference/watson

The Power of Writing

I might, for instance, say that I believe that it’s crucially important for students to become “better” (in the broadest conceivable sense of that word) writers — but not because they’ll have to write in their workplace, but rather because writing is our most powerful tool for thinking and learning anything, and because it is through writing (and reading — and they are no more separable than speaking and listening) that we can participate effectively in almost any sophisticated intellectual activity or society. (145)

"Worlds Apart: Acting and Writing in Academic & Workplace Contexts" (Russ Hunt)
Technostyle Vol. 18, No. 1 2002 Fall

Roommate Needed (great writing sample!)

$900 Fenway Apartment (Fenway) 

 Hey there. You look like the type of person that wants to live with us. Are you a person? Do you like apartments? Do you like living with three dudes with great hair? You're fucking right you do. This apartment is big as tits. Its got two floors...."wait did he just say?"...yeah TWO FUCKING FLOORS. Big ass kitchen if you're into that stuff. I got a question you should ask yourself, do you like pooping? Well good thing you do because we have 2.5 goddamn baths bitch! that means 3 toilets, in the words of Lil Wayne you can "shit all daaayyyy". Speaking of Lil Wayne, the two bedrooms are huge! Unfortunately, you won't have a bedroom to yourself! I know! It sucks! Kind of! But not really because you get to live in the same room as one of us and we fucking ROCK. You like couches? We got two, eat it. You like futons? We got two of those motherfuckeerrrrrrr. Futons like you read about. Let me guess, you cross me as the type of person that has a lot of clothes and shoes. Well good thing we have closets all over the place. You like walking into things? These are WALK IN CLOSETS. One in each bedroom baby! Ain't no thang. Just a couple of O.G.'s trying to find a roommate who wants to hang out with some awesome looking men, thats right we're men, well at least I am, not much of a man, but a man. You like sloths? SO DO WE. We can't own one, nobody can, but we can imagine how awesome it would be to have A FUCKING SLOTH IN THIS AWESOME FUCKING APARTMENT. Yeah its sweet. No pets though. There's a communal rooftop deck which means if we have a semi hot neighbor we can watch her over the four foot fence that separates us from normal people. You like Perrier water? That sucks, we piss in perrier, perrier in the toilets, champagne in the faucets. We ball. Groceries are fun, good thing there is shaw's supermarket less than 500 yards away thats 5 football fields if you're into math. We have a Nintendo 64, wanna Mario Kart? I'll see you on Rainbow Road bitch. See we lead pretty simple lives. We eat steak, we drink whiskey, we enjoy the occasional cigar. One of those is a lie, actually two, maybe three I'm not really sure. I can't smoke, it makes me cough, my friend can't eat steak I think he caught the gay, and the last kid doesn't drink because we are "underage" (*finger quotes) but rules were made to be broken, just like bones. You know what they say, when in Kiev, do as the Kievans do. Or something along those lines. We appreciate your time and we're glad you read this because we need a roommate really bad and whatnot.

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/roo/3701954817.html

New Journals to Publish

Literacy in Composition Studies

The Writing Instructor

Archiving the Literacy Narratives of Our Times

Archiving the Literacy Narratives of Our Times

An Interview with Dr. Cynthia Selfe and Dr. H. Lewis Ulman

By Megan Adams, Bowling Green State University

Books for Upper Level Writing Research Courses

Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies by Lee Nickoson, Mary P Sheridan

An essential reference for students and scholars exploring the methods and methodologies of writing research.

What does it mean to research writing today? What are the practical and theoretical issues researchers face when approaching writing as they do? What are the gains or limitations of applying particular methods, and what might researchers be overlooking? These questions and more are answered by the writing research field’s leading scholars in Writing Studies Research in Practice: Methods and Methodologies.

Editors Nickoson and Sheridan gather twenty chapters from leaders in writing research, spanning topics from ethical considerations for researchers, quantitative methods, and activity analysis to interviewing and communitybased and Internet research. While each chapter addresses a different subject, the volume as a whole covers the range of methodologies, technologies, and approaches—both old and new—that writing researchers use, and examines the ways in which contemporary writing research is understood, practiced, and represented. An essential reference for experienced researchers and an invaluable tool to help novices understand research methods and methodologies, Writing Studies Research in Practice includes established methods and knowledge while addressing the contemporary issues, interests, and concerns faced by writing researchers today.

Practicing Research in Writing Studies: Reflexive and Ethically Responsible Research by Katrina Powell & Pamela Takayoshi

 Research pratices-much like literacy and writing themselves- are shaped by and responsive to context. Contemporary research methodologists have increasingly called upon researchers to be explicitly and systematically reflexive about their practices. As writing researchers have begun untangling the complexities of ethical reserch practice, new practices have developed and new issues have arisen. This volume contributes to the continuing examination and development of ethically responsible, self-reflective, and systematic research on writing. With a look toward the ways diffractive methodology can inform our self-reflexitivity, this volume highlights particular ways of looking back and forward, as ways to complicate our practices in the moment. This text inculdes chapters focused on theories of research, research and institutional practices and reflexive/diffractive research practices.

On Digital Literacy Narratives

Issue of Computers and Composition online that has a lot on digital literacy narratives.

Digital Storytelling in the Composition Classroom: Addressing the Challenges by Ghanashyam Sharma

Archiving the Literacy Narratives of Our TimesAn Interview with Dr. Cynthia Selfe and Dr. H. Lewis Ulman By Megan Adams, Bowling Green State University

Writing Commons

Welcome to Writing Commons, the open-education home for writers. Our primary goal is to provide the resources college students need to improve their writing, research, and critical thinking. We believe learning materials should be free for all students and teachers.

FYS

Where does food come from? What's for dinner?

Take a meal and find out where it came from.

Materials: King Corn and Barbara Kingsolver
Project:

Book of Choice (cod, tomato, etc.)

Where does our food come from? (Fast Food Nation)

What is what we're eating doing to us? (?)

Units:

1. What's for dinner?
2. Where does dinner come from? (Fast Food Nation and Corn King)
3. What is dinner doing to or for us?
4. What else might we eat for dinner?

Find a list of other documentaries about food.
Find an academic article from different fields about each of these issues (perhaps enlist Carol Cummings?).

Videos on Professional Writing

Here is a collection of the video lecture-tutorials mentioned in my posts. (All are between 9 and 15 minutes long.) I’ll be adding links to the sample documents that appear in those lecture-tutorials. You can also retrieve them on the Docs page.

The More Things Change (III)

During the past few years many of our staff have become concerned about the quality of written and spoken English of our students. This concern is, in a large part, the outgrowth of our graduate program and the realization that advanced students lack, not merely good writing technique, but even an appreciation of the necessity for expressing themselves clearly. They feel that if writing doesn't come easy--and few of us of whom this is true--that it is impossible. They don't see the need for rewriting and polishing.

Professor Wilbur L. Bullock, Acting Chairman of the Department of Zoology (UNH), as qtd. in the Annual Report of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (UNH), 6/30/1952

The More Things Change (II)

The overwhelming majority of our students come to us seeking, primarily, material success. They seek preparation for a particular job and they are impatient with any courses or requirements which do not, in their judgment, advance them toward their materialistic goals. These students have been encouraged in their goals by their parents and friends. Their interest in the college diploma as a meal ticket reflects the perennial national quest for material security.

Annual Report of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (UNH), 6/30/1952

The More Things Change (I)

It is important that each member of the faculty, not the college alone but of the University as a whole, understand that he shares responsibility for the success of the student in acquiring an ability to express himself orally and to write with clarity and effectiveness. For whatever reason, young people entering college in these days are handicapped by lack of background; background that in the past was obtained through reading. Currently, most young people, unless they make an effort, acquire their background from the radio and the so-called "funny books", a combination which makes a far from dependable foundation for college work.

excerpted from the UNH "Annual Report of the College of Liberal Arts," 1946-47

Students' Research Processes

How the Writing Context Shapes College Students' Strategies for Writing from Sources. Technical Report No. 16

"This Was an Easy Assignment" Examining How Students Interpret Academic Writing Tasks. Technical Report No. 43 /

Constructing a Research Paper A Study of Students' Goals and Approaches. Technical Report No. 59 /

How Does Writing Emerge from the Classroom Context? (A Naturalistic Study of the Writing of Eighteen-Year-Olds in Biology, English, Geography, History, History of Art, and Sociology) /

UCF's WAC Fellows Program

Cool stuff...WAC Fellows.

For Fall 2013

379 for fall:

Unit 1: Intro to Rhetoric (OWL)
Unit 2: Genre Theory
Unit 3: Genre Analysis

Notes During Chris' 2013 Talk

The problem is that we are fixing the problem after the fact...faculty spend years assigning and grading writing, having been given very little instruction, if any, in this. Where do they look for models--they look to what they experienced. Was what they experienced pedagogically effective? Maybe.

So, we are trying to change someone's practice...not give them a practice. Much easier to give them this stuff when they are just starting out. Much less to let go of.

What is the process of change? Letting go...? We spend a good deal of time and energy trying to let people to let go of things...then we can give them something new or to replace that thing.

Research on how long people can listen to a lecture?

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