Getting started
This post outlines some ideas for texts and methodology. Let’s have a discussion in the comments, below. As we come to agreement, I’ll create a framework page which puts everything in writing.
Given the list Katie emailed, I’ve come up with the following texts. I’m trying to pick stuff I haven’t read yet (or haven’t read in a long time) so we can work through things together:
- Tate, Rupiper, & Schick, Guide to Composition Pedagogies
- Mina Shaughnessy, Errors & Expectations
- Clay Spinuzzi, Tracing Genres Through Organizations
- more to come
Each of you should continue flushing out the more specific areas that you are interested in. Nan has noted writing centers and Katie has a nice list. I would expect the process of reading to provoke thinking along those lines. Each of you will then find more things to read and discuss.
We’ll use the weblog to discuss the issues at hand. Like the wiki we used for the annotated bibliography, but more geared toward discussion. We can also use it to create pages which flush out research interests and for other things. We’ll learn as we go.
At least twice, I’ll head to the QC to (a) chat with y’all; (b) eat at an actual restaurant.
Expect the same amount of reading and work for a CBD graduate seminar; that is, eight or nine books and a sheaf of accompanying articles to get started, and then other texts which target the focus of your final essay. I suggest a seminar paper for the final project, though I am flexible. Basically the same framework as last fall’s 481: if it’s rigorous and academic, OK.
Schedule: proposal by June 10, draft by July 10, final by August 10.
Let’s talk about it…
May 7th, 2008 08:01
And here’s Katie’s list from email, with some more thoughts after each one:
1.) Understanding writing as a process—what happens when we write? how does the social context affect the writing process? how does understanding writing as a process affect the teaching of writing?
There are a million possibilities here. No one book jumps out to me right now unless we want to look at something “classic” from one of the big names (Elbow, Macrorie, etc).
2.) Teaching writing in high school/college–theories and practices that have shaped writing instruction; student-centered instruction; writing process theories; assessment; technologies of writing.
Again, a huge variety of things to talk about here. I could name four or five books on assessment alone. I think Tate, Rupiper, and Schick’s Guide will give us a glimpse of a wide range of thought on the subject. And for technology, I could talk forever, as you know.
3.) Managing writing in Organizations–writing needs of business, non-profit, governmental agencies; analyze missions, constituencies, structures, cultures; works include mutimedia and internal/external audience.
I think the Spinuzzi book targets this well.
4.) Sentence Power (based on course from John Hopkins) building paragraphs from sentence foundations–looks at authors updike, munro, welty, dillard, maclean, mitchell, brodsky, hecht, bishop, thomas, mcphee, quammen.
Got a link for that course? Do you want to look at something more literary or a writing oriented how-to text?
5.) Intercultural communication: document design for international audiences
6.) Editing–the how to’s; design and flow
I’ve taught from Amy Einsohn’s The Copyeditors’ Handbook quite a bit. It’s good, but I’m happy to look at other books in this area.
7.) Teaching ethics and writing
I think I might suggest something very old here, Aristotle or a secondary source about rhetoric. Some very relevant articles come to mind, and a few books as well, like Pemberton’s The Ethics of Writing Instruction.
May 10th, 2008 15:16
Hi!
I am looking through the suggestions above and the RMH link. Amazing amount of info out there! What attracts me first is the T,R, S guide. It may be a good starting point for the three of us together. Will explore more on this as well, but perhaps it offers a good center from which we can branch off into our specialized interests?
I would love the opportunity to veer off into ethics and writing. Looking at the RMH link provided an amazing amount of reading material. Reading Aristotle, Aquinas, and others sounds challenging, yet right up my interests alley. Just letting you all know I am on board and exploring!
May 11th, 2008 06:44
Aristotle’s stuff is short. We could read the Poetics or the Rhetoric, or even some of the ethical works.
May 12th, 2008 09:21
Hey, I’m finally on board!
RMH’s bibliography on Ethics and Rhetoric is fantastic. I’d like to home in on Writing Centers and Ethics. Jonathan Adler’s book BELIEF’S OWN ETHICS (2002), plus THE ETHICS OF WRITING INSTRUCTION: ISSUES IN THEORY AND PRACTICE(2000)–Ed. Michael A. Pemberton, sound interesting. There are also several articles that I’ll check out and report back on.
May 12th, 2008 09:38
I like the Pemberton, too. I’ve started putting texts on the framework page (see link above) and added that.
May 12th, 2008 10:19
Topic of Study: Composition Pedagogies & Its Applications
Plan of Action:
Resources to be used:
Outcomes to be achieved: Seminar paper; extensive research experience in particular field of interest related to writing building toward Engl 690: Thesis.
Expected date of completion: proposal by June 10, draft by July 10, final by August 10.
Number of hours sought: 3
Faculty sponsor: Prof. Bradley Dilger
Why pursuing particular topic: Additional research into professional areas of interests related toward culminating Thesis paper.
Why study cannot be accomplished with current course offerings: No writing specific courses offered through WIU Summer ‘08.
Feel free to edit and add–working copy.
May 12th, 2008 10:32
Nice job on the proposal. Should a proposal also include comments on plans to meet for discussion among the three of us and for counsel from Bradley?
May 12th, 2008 11:04
@Katie, yeah, very good start.
@Nan, yep, good idea to add that; something about using the weblog for discussion as well.
We might also say for texts that we have three picked and will isolate more as we go forward, pending individual student needs.
Feel free to copy that to the framework page and edit it. Let me know if you can’t edit…
May 12th, 2008 16:13
Okay, I finally have the time to sit down and reply! I’d love to focus on either #7 (ethics and writing), #2 (teaching writing) or #4 (sentence construction) from Katie’s list. Can’t say that I’ve explored any of the texts yet. Sorry!
May 12th, 2008 16:16
Not sure my last post “posted” . . . I’d vote teaching writing, sentence construction, and writing and ethics.
May 12th, 2008 17:00
OK, sounds like we need to look for a sentence book. That’s good; I wanted to tackle that anyway.
May 13th, 2008 12:12
Hi–
Came across some interesting reading for you all to peruse:
text-Anita Barry’s English Grammar ( I am not familiar with this)
International Writing Centers Association: http://www.writingcenters.org/gradbib.htm
this link has a list of reading for Nan and writing centers
The following link has a very good article on point with what we will be addressing: http://writinginstructor.com/cseeconnections
text mentioned is Tremmel & Broz-Teaching Writing Teachers
Back to work-Katie
May 14th, 2008 05:50
Bradley,
Came across a list of text for a graduate writing course. I am not familiar with many of them, so I thought I would throw them by you. The dates of pub appear to be more recent.
Possible texts:
–Mayers, Tim. (Re)Writing Craft: Composition, Creative Writing, and the Future of English Studies. Pittsburgh: U of P Press, 2005.
– Cheryl Glenn, Melissa Goldthwaite, Robert Connors. The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing. 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. (SMG)
– Gary Tate, Amy Rupiper, Kurt Schick, eds. A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. New York: Oxford, 2001. (CP)
– White, Edward M., Donald Daiker, and Lynn Bloom, eds. Composition in the New Millenium: Rereading the Past, Rewriting the Future, 2003.
– Corbett, Edward P. The Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook, 4th Edition. Oxford UP, 1999.
Excerpts from:
–Ray, Ruth E. The Practice of Theory: Teacher Research in Composition. Urbana:NCTE, 1993. (Unit 1: Challenging the Theory-Practice Relationship.)
– Boyer, Ernest L. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990. (Ch.1, “Scholarship over Time,” and 2, “Enlarging the Perspective”)
– Morton, Donald, and Mas’ud Zavarzadeh. Texts for Change: Theory/Pedagogy/Politics. Urbana and Chicago: U of C Press, 1991. (Ch. 1, “Theory Pedagogy Politics: The Crisis of “The Subject” in the Humanities.”)
– Herrington, Anne, and Charles Moran, eds. Writing, Teaching, and Learning in the Disciplines. New York: MLA, 1992. (Ch. 2, Russell, David, “American Origins of the Writing across the Curriculum Movement,” 22-42)
– Henry, Jim. Writing Workplace Cultures: An Archaeology of Professional Writing. Carbondale: SIU Press, 2000. (Introduction, “Changing Modes of Composition,” Ch.1, “Researching the Discursive Self”, Ch. 2,“What is a Writer?” and Ch. 8,“Intervening in Cultural Production and Reproduction.”)
– Dias, Freedman, Medway and Paré, Worlds Apart: Acting and Writing in Academic and Workplace Contexts. Mahwah, NJ: LEA, 1999. (Ch. 1, “Researching Writing at School and at Work,” Ch.2, “Situating Writing,” Ch. 3, “The Social Motive of University Writing.”)
Katie
May 14th, 2008 06:25
I have wanted to read the Mayers book; I met Tim at a conference. We already have the Tate on our list.
The Bedford/St.Martin’s guides are pretty good. I have been thinking about their sourcebooks, too. I can get those for you folks for free.
May 14th, 2008 13:55
I’ll take anything I can get for free.
Katie