As part of her recent sabbatical, the author proposed going to the University of Michigan Bentley Archives to do research on Fred Newton Scott, founder and chair of the Department of Rhetoric and teacher from 1889 to 1926 at the University of Michigan. Scott ran the only graduate program in rhetoric and composition in the country between those…

The purpose of this essay is to discuss current views of public writing and contribute notions of qualitative research and cultural geography to these conversations. The author also provides two pedagogical examples of how these contributions inform student writing and civic participation in various public spaces. The author believes that public…

In this interview-based project, the author examines the post-secondary transition of six predominantly home-schooled students who profess the importance of their Christian faith. The author analyzes their writing for hints about how they negotiate the ideologies of post-secondary education. He shows how home schooling has been characterized,…

Although teacher feedback is vital in teaching students to write, and is a topic of interest and debate in L1 (native or first-language) and L2 (second language) composition theory, there are virtually no studies that analyze teacher commentary conducted in a linguistically diverse setting of L1 and L2 first-year composition students. This study,…

This article provides a course overview of English 304 & Communications 250: Professional Rhetorics. This course was a pilot project instituted at Clemson University in spring of 2008. The project integrally linked English 304 (Business Writing) and Communications 250 (Public Speaking), requiring the same students to be enrolled in both 3…

This article presents the syllabus for the course "Professional Rhetorics: Bridging the Gap Between Writing, Speaking, & Digital Media." The course is designed to help students develop into effective rhetors for today's professional environments, and it will do so by exploring numerous rhetorical strategies associated with oral, written, and…

"Profession 2005" begins with a series of essays titled "The Future of the Humanities." Without exception, the authors contend that literary studies must reaffirm, or in some cases reassert, its connection with the humanities in order to retain viability for the foreseeable and distant future in American higher education. In the words of Robert…

As a service-learning teacher, the author advocates for both teachers' understanding of how activist literacy helps students to change as well as students' understanding of how it helps them to make change. Educators need to be aware of students' initial fears and be reminded of the risks they take to engage in these projects. In this article, the…

In this article the author introduces a concept she calls "Thirdspace identity construction," which instructors can use to understand what happens in students' texts when such ever-open possibilities for identity exploration are allowed. This concept borrows from the work of critical geographer Edward Soja. Soja's "Thirdspace" represents a dynamic…

This article reviews some of the work of rhetoric and composition scholars in discussions of place, and to enhance awareness of how place-related factors may limit and/or bolster pedagogies, it presents a case study of two geographically and culturally different student writers at Ohio University. This study describes some of the challenges that…

Over the past seven years, the 59 full-time faculty of Duke University's first-year writing faculty have birthed, fathered, or adopted 22 babies. What makes this faculty birth rate so staggering is not only that it nearly triples the United States' national average, but also that it differentiates their program from so many other spaces in…

According to the Michigan State University (MSU) course catalog, Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRA) 125--Writing: The Ethnic and Racial Experience is a themed-based Tier I (first-year) writing course that focuses on "drafting, revising, and editing compositions derived from readings on the experience of American ethnic and racial…

This article provides the syllabus for the course "WRA 125--Writing: The Ethnic and Racial Experience: An Afrocentric Approach." This course will examine writing the American, ethnic and racial experience, using an Afrocentric framework to explore the field of Composition Studies. Students will be introduced to Ebonics/African American Language…

In this article, the author focuses on John Rechy's debut novel, "City of Night," to consider how cultural pressures, and later disciplinary pressures in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual/queer (LGBT/q) studies, affect the acquisition of critical literacies, particularly among students and scholars who follow the moment of gay…

In this article, the author traces the life of Andy Warhol, an American artist. Warhol, who became ill with a nervous condition, had spend most of his childhood in a bed littered with comic books, paper dolls, coloring books, a camera, cap gun, and his Charlie McCarthy doll. Warhol was the only Pop artist who was not a professionally, academically…