UNLV ENG 701

Alllen's annotated bibliography

2011-11-07T15:39:00.001-08:00

My comments on Allen's annotated bibliography:

Allen, these look like good sources. In terms of writing your own annotated bibliography, you should write the summary of the article in your own words, which enables you to capture the main idea but also record particular details or quotes specific to your project.

Borrowing concepts such Basgier's author function and defining the site as a new genre and how it is like or unlike genres described in previous reserach and that exist on the Web can be the bulk of your paper.

I was struck by your summary of the Wired articles where you write the community has the ability to "its ability to spontaneously come together" to influence culture or protest corporations. This seems like a good example of a new form of online social agency.

You say 4chan is not Web 2.0 but you may want to double-check definitions of what counts as Web 2.0. Usually, Web 1.0 is considered static information, or the "one-way" transmission of information from website to user. Once the transmission of information becomes "two ways," where users can interact with the site or each other on the site, it moves into Web 2.0 technology.

Comments on cognitive theories

2011-10-26T11:44:00.001-07:00

My comments on Allen's blog, which didn't seem to let me post to his blog:

In the late 70s, early 80s, "cognitive" theorists such as Linda Flower borrowed from cognitive psychology to look at how the individual mind develops writing ability. This seemed a more promising and "scientifically rigorous" extension of early anecdotal process theories of Donald Murray and others. This line of research was attacked by Bizzell and others for its lack of attention paid to the entire context of communication and in particular the social interaction of the individual and community. Later theories, such as "distributed cognition" by Dias et al. try to balance the individual/social binary. The promise of distributed cognition is that the activity of a community can be manifested in its documents and thus gives some creditability to textual analysis as a viable method for understanding the social activity of people (since our field threw out cognitive models in the 80s). Some people still work in the cognitive realm, as evidenced by the Kellogg article I included, another article you didn't mention in your blog ;-)

And for Cagles blog:
I liked your comparison of Flower and Hayes, and Kellogg. They are both looking at cognitive development, but Flower and Hayes are looking at writing process as an act and Kellogg is looking more longnitudinal. That's a good summation.

Regarding your rationale for knowing grammar (grammar 1 is it, according to Hartwell?), it makes sense to a degree. However, I still tend to think its the rules of Hartwell's grammar 4, which are really about style, that move the writer along the basic to advanced continuum. For example, the rule not to end a sentence with a preposition. Ending a sentence with a preposition is grammatically correct in grammar 1, but more of a violation of grammar 4 because it is a stylistic technique to eliminate wordiness.

The models/theories of "distributed cognition" of Dias et al. and genre activity systems of Russell can be contrasted with the "inner directed" theories of Flower and Hayes, Kellogg, and to some extend Ong. "Distributed cognition" are meant to explain the complex interaction of individual and social, but we might question how useful they are to developing indivdiual writers.

9/15 - Comp Studies Origins

2011-09-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

"...the advent of composition studies needs to be understood less as a local weather disturbance in departments of English and more as part of a fundamental climate change involving the evolution of general espistemologies animating thought about discourse" - Nystrand et al. p. 273

Part I: Open Discussion

Read the blog of the person following your name on the ENG 701 blog roll.
Post a thoughtful response
Read and respond to someone eles’s if you have time.
Class discussion

Allen –

Yancey – more relevant to today, different ways of writing
Technology emerging issue, more accessible by non-student
Who is the audience for Jurzwik et al. and whole field of composition studies
Arose because of problem with literacy and there still exists a problem

Isabel

Yancey’s new modes of writing “hot topic”
Adams Sherman Hill – over 100 years ago, but still dealing with same problems today

Cagle

Didn’t like Yancey – delivery was too experimental, bandwagon-y
Traditional print literacy vs. new media literacy

Part II: Histories, Problems, and Methodologies

Do a binary comparison the “old” American college to the “new” research university, including how writing instruction faired in both systems.
Identify the main elements of the Harvard model of composition? (curriculum, philosophy, leaders…)
What are some alternative models?
What is the rationale for English A given by Hill?
What is the significance of Hill’s piece to the history of composition studies?
What is the "domain" of composition studies?

Development of literacy, teaching of writing
Symbolic interaction, written discourse
Core vs. margin

What are the areas of research in the field of rhetoric and composition?
What are the research methodologies used in composition studies?
What larger intellectual movements influenced composition research?
What is unique about composition studies?
What is the relationship of composition to literature and English departments?

4/29 - Theories of Assessment

2010-04-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

"The essence of reliability findings from the last two decades of research is that no single essay test will yield highly reliable results, no matter how careful the testing and scoring apparatus. If the essay test is to be used for important or irreversible decisions about students, a minimum of two separate writing samples must be obtained- or some other kind of measurement must be combined with the single writing score." (White 41)

"Directed self-placement is no panacea. It does not address the problem of how to teach, how to bring students in from the margins, or how to deal with all of the politics of institutional change. Soliday, Grego and Thompson, Bartholomae and others address many of these concerns that would take us far beyond the limited scope of placement alternatives. But our placement alternative does lay the ground work for much that these authors recommend." (Royer and Gilles 70)

LINKS

The Council of Writing Program Administrators: http://www.wpacouncil.org/
Digital book, Writing Program Administration by Susan McLeod http://wac.colostate.edu/books/mcleod_wpa/

READINGS
Huot, Brian. “The Literature of Direct Writing Assessment: Major Concerns and Prevailing Trends.” (1990)

Direct vs. indirect assessment of writing
Three types of direct assessment: primary trait, analytic, holistic, (portfolio)
Topic development and task selection
Text and writing quality
Influences on rater judgement of writing quality

Royer, Daniel J., and Roger Gilles. “Directed Self-Placement: An Attitude of Orientation.” (1998)

What are traditional methods/measures for placing students in firstyear writing courses?
What are some of the problems with traditional methods?
What are the reasons given for directed self-placment?

White, Edward M. “An Apologia for the Timed Impromptu Essay Test.” (1995)

Multiple-choice vs. essay vs. portfolio
What the advantages of the timed essay assessment measure? What are its limitations?
Validity, reliability, cost-effectiveness

White, Edward M. “The Scoring of Writing Portfolios: Phase 2.” (2005)

What are the advantages of portfolios?
What is the main problem with portfolios?
What are key components to "phase 2" scoring of writing portfolios?

4/22 - Critical and Cultural Studies Pedagogy

2010-04-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

"All educational practice implies a theoretical stance on the educator's part. This stance in turn implies--sometimes more, sometimes less explicitly--an interpretation of man and the world. It could not be otherwise." (Freire 616)

"Overall, this problematic study of "work" offers one means to engage students in an extraordinary reperception of something very ordinary. It not only develops literacy skills and consciousness relevant to the problem theme, but it also validates students psychologically, because the exercise is based on their experience and their language resources." (Shor 120)

"...we are ethically bound by students' own aims, even if those aims seem uncomfortably close to elite values. Our distrust of such values does not permit us to tell students what they "really" want, or should want. We are very limited, I think, in how far we can set ourselves up as ends-experts. The only thing we are certainly justified in imposing on students is our judgment of means: Here, in my expert opinion, is the best way to learn this thing that you and I have agreed should be taught." (Smith 317)

Freire, Paulo. “The Adult Literacy Process as Cultural Action for Freedom and Education and ConscientizaÇão.”

Literacy as disease metaphor
Critical consciousness

Berlin, James. “Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class.”

Ideology: what is real, what is good, what is possible
What is the goal of a critical pedagogy?

Shor, Ira. “Monday Morning Fever: Critical Literacy and the Generative Theme of “Work.”

literacy instruction vs. writing instruction
What classroom techniques does Shor discuss?

Hairston, Maxine. “Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing.”

What are the causes of the "cultural left suddenly claiming writing courses as their territory"?
What are the shortcomings of critical pedagogy?
What alternatives does Hairston propose?

Smith, Jeff. “Students' Goals, Gatekeeping, and Some Questions of Ethics.”

Comp studies' "Standard Model": "means-ends equivalence," "ethic of direct enactment"
Universities and professions as "intentional communities"
Teachers' ethical obligations: to students, to society

4/15 - Theories of Pedagogy

2010-04-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

"...in teaching writing we are tacitly teaching a version of reality and the student's place and mode of operation in it. Yet many teachers (and I suspect most) look upon their vocations as the imparting of a largely mechanical skill, important only because it serves students in getting them through school and in advancing them in their professions. This essay will argue that writing teachers are perforce given a responsibility that far exceeds this merely instrumental task." (Berlin 766)

"...ours is a truth-telling course; it forefronts the field's current labor practices and requires that we ask how FYC students are currently being served by writing instructors who couldn't teach a writing studies pedagogy. Our field's current labor practices reinforce cultural misconceptions that anyone can teach writing because there is nothing special to know about it." (Downs and Wardle 575)

Hillocks, George. "What Works in Teaching Composition." (1985)

Duration of treatment
Mode of instruction: Presentational, Natural Process, Individualized, Environmental
Focus of instruction: Grammar, Sentence Combining, Models, Using Criteria, Inquiry, Free Writing

Berlin, James. “Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories.” College English 44.8 (1982): 765-77.

Epistemology = what is knowable
Major pedagogical theories: Neo-Aristotelian, Positivist or Current-Traditional, Neo-Platonic or Expressionist, Epistemic Rhetoric

Breuch, Lee-Ann M. Kastman. “Post-Process ‘Pedagogy’: A Philosophical Exercise.” Villanueva 97-126. (2002)

Rejection of mastery
Post-process assumptions: writing is public, writing is interpretive, writing is situated

Fulkerson, Richard. “Composition at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century.” CCC 56 (2005): 654-87.

Fulkerson's metatheory of pedagogy: axiology, process, pedagogy, epistemology
Three major approaches to teaching of composition: critical/cultural studies [CCS], expressivism, and procedural rhctoric

Downs, Douglas, and Elizabeth Wardle. “Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions: (Re)Envisioning ‘First-Year Composition’ as ‘Introduction to Writing Studies.’” (2007)

Rationale, pedagogy, challenges, benefits
How would Fulkerson classify this course?

4/8 - Computers and Writing

2010-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

"The gap between the manuscript and the printed page is closing. Through the technology, first through the development of the desktop publishing software and now, increasingly, through the standard word-processing package, the writer is entering an era where the published page is more directly under her or his control. This innovation has profound implications for writers, for writing, and the teaching of writing with computers, and for theories of electronic writing. Thus, weighing the consequencesof "taking control of the page" needs to be placed on our agenda for the nineties." (Sullivan 44)

"Despite these limitations, our project indicates that combining synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated communication did help our students improve as writers. Frequent contact with an actual audience, frequent practice in writing, and a more enjoyable writing environment helped students become more competent, comfortable writers....If one of the purposes of education is to help students become not only more complex thinkers and writers, but also more tolerant, accepting people, computer-mediated exchanges can be used to foster that humanistic goal." (Harris and Wambeam 370)

Sullivan, Patricia. “Taking Control of the Page: Electronic Writing and Word Publishing.” Evolving Perspectives on Computers and Composition Studies: Questions for the 1990s. Eds. Cindy Selfe and Gail Hawisher. NCTE, 1991. 43-64.

What was the "problem" with computers and writing research circa 1980s, early 1990s?
What are ways that desktop publishing affects theories of the writing process?
What does Sullivan propose as possible explanatory theories for electronic writing?

Harris, Leslie D., and Cynthia Wambeam. “The Internet-Based Composition Classroom: A Study in Pedagogy.” Computers and Composition 13 (1996): 353-371.

What were the goals of their "Internet based [first year composition] discourse community"?
What pedagogical methods were used to achieve this community?
What research methods were used to assess the pilot?

Tim McGee and Patricia Ericsson. “The Politics of the Program: MS Word as the Invisible Grammarian.” Computers and Composition 19 (December 2002): 453-70.

MSGC reinforces current-traditional practice, assumptions
MSGC inhibits writing process (i.e., novice writers too focused on surface-level corrections)
Writing teachers should be aware of role of grammar checkers, computer tools on writing process, development of writing process

Mueller, Derek N. “Digital Underlife in the Networked Writing Classroom.” Computers and Composition 26 (2009) 240–50.

What is "digital underlife," which is based on Robert Brooke's (1988) "Underlife in the Writing Classroom"?
What recomendations does Mueller offer for "enriching our understanding of digital underlife"?

OPTIONAL

Sullivan, Laura L. “Wired Women Writing: Towards a Feminist Theorization of Hypertext.”
Grabill, Jeffrey T. “On Divides and Interfaces: Access, Class, and Computers.”
Slattery, Shaun. “Un-distributing Work through Writing: How Technical Writers Manage Texts in Complex Information Environments.”
Howard, Rebecca Moore. “Understanding ‘Internet Plagiarism.’”
Amy Diehl, Jeffrey T. Grabill, and William Hart-Davidson. “Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life.”
Purdy, James P. “Anxiety and the Archive: Understanding Plagiarism Detection Services as Digital Archives.”

3/25 - Literacy Theories (and other business)

2010-03-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

We have several things we can cover today:

Website tutorial
Workshop research paper proposals
Review feminist rhetorics and other voices readings

feminist rhetoric, contribution to comp studies
rhetoric of racism
distinct nature of L2 writing
teaching ESL

Review literacy theory readings

oral vs. literate traditions
sponsors of literacy
workplace literacy
writing across the curriculum
public intellectualism, service learning, activist research

3/4 - Social Theories

2010-03-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

"If the student knew what he was up against better than the teacher giving the assignment seemingly does, he might ask, "Who wants to know?" (Ong 59)

"The case of the diary, which at first blush woudl seem to fictionalize the reader least but in may ways probably fictionalizes him or her most, brings into full view the fundamental deep paradox of the activity we call writing." (Ong 73)

"Writing is an attempt to exercise the will, to identify the self within the constraints of some discourse community. We are constrained insofar as we must inevitably borrow the traces. codes, and signs which we inherit and which our discourse community imposes. We are free insofar as we do what we can to encounter and learn new codes, to intertwine codes in new ways, and to expand our semiotic potential--with our goal being to effect change and establish our identities within the discourse communities we choose to enter." (Porter 41)

"As representatives and delegates of a local, disciplinary community, and of the larger community as well, teachers are responsible for the continued vitality of both the knowledge communities we value. Responsible to both sets of values, therefore, we must perform as conservators aand agents of change, as custodians of prevailing community values and as agents of social transition and reacculturation." (Bruffee 432)

"We will need...to look at collaborative learning not merely as a process of consensus-making but more important as a process of identifying differences and locating these differences in reltation to each other. The consensus that we ask students to reach in a collaborative classroom will be based not so much on collective agreements as on collective explanations of how people differ, where their differences come from, and whether they canlive and work together with these differences." (Trimbur 470)

"But if we take away that hierarchy [between “original” text and “borrowed” text] we remove the impulse for students to lie about it. If a piece of the assemblage is valued primarily for its function rather than its place in a hierarchy, students are no longer pushed so hard to hide the citations for their sources. In fact, if skills at making assemblages are made the focal point, then teachers would want to put great value on the ability of students to find existing chunks of text they can reuse. Re-inventing the wheel becomes an inefficiency, a misplaced waste of effort.“You borrowed that chunk? Great! Where did you get it from? Maybe I can use it, too.”" (Johnson-Eilola and Selber 400)

Key concepts

"Audience is a fiction"
Admissible ignorance
Audience addressed vs. audience invoked
Intertextuality (iterability and presupposition)
Discourse community
Forum analysis
Collaborative learning
Conversation / Social construction
Normal discourse vs. abnormal discourse vs. acratic discourse
Consensus vs. dissensus
Originality / Creativity
Assemblage

2/25 - Cognitive Theories

2010-02-25T12:05:00.000-08:00

"To achieve expression effectively, of course, the musician has to have interiorized the technology, made the tool or machine second nature, a psychological part of himself or herself." (Ong 24)

"The larger point to be made here, however, is that no scientific research, no matter how rigorously it is conducted, possesses the kind of authoritative certainty inner-directed theorists are seeking....The strongest appeal of certainty, however, is its offer of a solution to our new students' problems that will enable us to undertake their socialization into the academic discourse community without having to consider the ethical and political dimensions of this act." (Bizzell 406)

"To encourage students to take on the same stance--to share some of the same knowledge--as the instructor is not the same as having them contribute to the work of the institution in the way that employees at the various institutions do. To put it simply, the captain needs the information provided by his most subordinate navigator. The Governor of the BOC needs the lowliest analyst's report. The professor, however, does not need any specific student's essay in the same way. A student who does not hand in his work does not impede the operation of the university. (In fact, he eases the instructor's task of grading.'" (Dias et al. 148)

Flower and Hayes, "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing" (1981)

Stage process models vs. cognitive process model
Protocol analysis
Task environment, long term memory, writing processes
Goal-setting patterns

Bizzell, "Cognition, Convention, and Certainty: What We Need to Know about Writing" (1982)

Inner-directed vs. outer-directed language theory
Discourse community/interpretive community
Discourse analysis
Sociolinguistics
Situated
Certainty
Hidden curriculum

Kellogg, "Training Writing Skills: A Cognitive Developmental Perspective"

Stages of cognitive development of writing ability: knowledge-telling, knowledge-transforming, knowledge-crafting
Executive attentional control
Training methods: relative automaticity, deliberate practice, cognitive apprenticeship

Dias, Freedman, Medway, and Pare, "Distributed Cognition at Work"

Distributed cognition

Russell's "Rethinking Genre in School and Society"

Dialogism
Activity theory
Activity system(s)
North American genre theory/genre
Cultural-historical theory
Contradictions/double-binds

2/18 - Product Theories

2010-02-18T12:59:00.000-08:00

"Little wonder that in such a sea of confusion [the new teacher] clings to his handbook as a shipwrecked sailor clings to his raft, and by an interesting human weakness, soon comes to believe that these rules, which only yesterday were unknown to him, are the sole criteria of good writing." (McCrimmon, qtd. in Connors 69)

“More than any other enterprise in the teaching of writing, responding to and commenting on student writing consumes the largest proportion of our time. Most teachers estimate that it takes them at least 20 to 40 minutes to comment on an individual student paper, and those 20 to 40 minutes times 20students per class, times 8 papers, more or less, during the course of a semester add up to an enormous amount of time. With so much time and energy directed to a single activity, it is important for us to understand the nature of the enterprise.” (Sommers 148)

"It would not be so bad if students were only commanded to correct errors, but, more often than not, students are given contradictory messages; they are commanded to edit a sentence to avoid an error or to condense a sentence to achieve greater brevity of style, and then told in the margins that the particular paragraph needs to be more specific or to be developed more." (Sommers 150)

A bit more on responding to student papers:

• “Average Time on Course for a Writing Teacher,” Richard Haswell http://www.comppile.org/profresources/compworkload.htm

• “The Complexities of Responding to Student Writing; or, Looking for Shortcuts via the Road of Excess” by Richard Haswell http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/articles/haswell2006.cfm

What are the reasons Connors gives for teachers' (and society's) emphasis on grammar and correctness?
Why is direct instruction in grammar ineffective means to improve students' writing ability?
What are the main findings of Sommers' and Connor and Lunsford's study of teacher comments on student writing?
What (again) is the aim of the freshman college writing course?
Why teach non-academic discourse?
Teach academic discourse, yes, but what is academic discourse?
What are the stylistic features of academic discourse?
But how much should one focus on style? Or how should style be taught?

2/11 - Process Theories

2010-02-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

"Year after year the student shudders under a barrage of criticism, much of brilliant, some of it stupid, and all of it irrelevant. No matter how careful our criticisms, they do not help the student since when we teach composition we are not teaching a product, we are teaching a process." (Murray 3)

Do you agree with Murray’s estimate: 85% prewriting, 1% drafting, 14% Rewriting?
How does one teach writing as a process?
What is the role of the teacher when teaching writing as a process?
What are the criteria for judging "good writing," according to Elbow?
What is the role of the teacher when using Elbow's "method for teaching writing"?
How is Elbow's approach a "process" approach? (How does it fit with Murray's guidelines/implications?)
What are the four language processes discussed by Emig?
What are the biggest differences between talking and writing, according to Emig?
What are the “unique correspondences” between writing and learning, according to Emig?
What are the implications for teaching writing when it is understood as a mode of learning?
Describe the methodology used by Perl
In the case study of Tony which mode (extensive or reflective) did did Tony perform better in and what
What are some significant findings from Perl’s study regarding the phases of prewriting, writing, and editing?
What is the methodology of Sommers' study?
Why does Sommers study revision, or what fault does she find with composing process models?
What are inexperienced writers concerned with during revision?
What are experienced writers most concerned with?
What do inexperienced writers need more practice in based on the studies by Perl and Sommers?
How are student (print) journals and weblogs related to process pedagogy?
What are the pros and cons of journals vs. blogs?
What are some other possible electronic tools discussed by Lowe and Williams?

2/4 - Basic Writing Theory

2010-02-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

"But as we come to know these students better, we begin to see that the greatest barrier to our work with them is our ignorance of them and of the very subject we have contracted to teach." (Shaughnessy 317)

“…[W]e need to look closely at these claims and at the theories used to support them, for both the theories and the claims lead to social distinctions that have important consequences, political as well as educational…Social and political hierarchies end up encoded in sweeping cognitive dichotomies.” (Rose 346)

"The rising tide of discourse on plagiarism does not necessarily indicate a rising tide of plagiarism." (Zwagerman 678)

What is “Basic Writing”?
What is wrong with current models/scales of student writing development, according to Shaughnessy?
Define each of the four stages of her “developmental scale” for basic writing teachers? What question does the teacher ask at each stage?
What are the problems with applying the following theories to writing development:

Cognitive style: field dependence-independence
Hemisphericity
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
Theories of orality-literacy

What is a “behaviorist approach to writing”?
What is the problem with defining writing as a “skill”?
What is the problem with associating the term “remedial” with writing ability?
What’s problematic about saying college students are “illiterate”?
What is the “myth of transience”?
What steps does Rose recommend to change discourse on writing instruction in higher education?
How does Bartholomae define “basic writers”?
What are the stages of development of the academic writer, according to B.?
What research method did B. use in this paper?
How might B’s notion of “commonplaces” be applied to the teaching of academic writing/style?
What are some "reductions" and problematic assumptions in the "war on plagiarism"?
What are some problems with electronic plagiarism detection services?
What motiviates cheating?
What are some alternate/successful models for basic writing instruction (Goen Salter, Glau)?
What are some ways to measure writing success/effectiveness in college?

1/28 - Modern Theories of Rhetoric

2010-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

"Our discipline has been long in knuckling from its eyes the sleep of the ninetheenth and early twentieth centuries, and the real lesson of the modes is that we need always to be on guard against systems that seem convenient to teachers but ignore the way writing is actually done."
- Connors, "Fall and Rise of the Modes"

What are some definitions for "rhetoric"?
What are the features of a rhetoric?
What were the influences on early modern American rhetorics and writing instruction?
What was the role of textbooks in the development of early modern rhetorical theories?
What is the difference between the modes of discourse and Kinneavy's aims of discourse?
How are theories of discourse "built," what method do they use?
How do these readings fill in the "gap" in composition scholarship from week 1, i.e., the early 20th century?
How would a "timeline" of composition scholarship look, as we know it today?
What are the major contributions of modern theories of invention to comtemporary rhetorical theory and pedagogy?
What is the issue between rational and non-rational forms of invention?
What are some of the emphasese of more contemporary forms of invention (social, critical, etc.)

1/21 - Comp Studies Origins

2010-01-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Part I: Open Discussion

Read the blog of the person following your name on the ENG 701 blog roll.
Post a thoughtful response
Read and respond to someone eles’s if you have time.
Class discussion

Part II: Histories, Problems, and Methodologies

Do a binary comparison the “old” American college to the “new” research university, including how writing instruction faired in both systems.
Identify the main elements of the Harvard model of composition? (curriculum, philosophy, leaders…)
What are some alternative models?
What is the rationale for English A given by Hill?
What is the significance of Hill’s piece to the history of composition studies?
What is the "domain" of composition studies?
What are the areas of research in the field of rhetoric and composition?
What are the research methodologies used in composition studies?
What larger intellectual movements influenced composition research?
What is unique about composition studies?
What is the relationship of composition to literature and English departments?

Welcome

2010-01-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

If you are reading this you are probably sitting in CBC C309 on the UNLV campus. I'm sitting in front of you. You may be wondering why you are taking this course in a computer classroom. You might be wondering why you are taking this class at all. Hopefully, I'll answer any questions you have, and you might decide to stay.

After discussing the course and syllabus, we'll spend some time reading some recent news and articles related to the course. The readings can be found on the course reading list.

According to the reading list, the texts for the course on any given week can be found in one of two places:

Required textbook, Cross-Talk in Comp Theory by Victor Villanueva (2nd ed.)
Webcampus course

For next week's class, you'll need to do the following:

Pick up or order a copy of Cross-Talk
Read the articles for 1/21
Write your blog entry for the articles before the start of class next week
E-mail me the link to your blog and post your URL of your blog to Webcampus

-Dr. J

Recent technology articles

2008-05-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Pew Internet & American Life Project and the College Board report Writing Technology and Teens notes that 85% of teens communicate through digital writing and 86% percent of teens consider formal writing skills essential to future success. In addition, it notes that over half of teenagers from all races and income levels have social networking profiles in places like Facebook and MySpace. The Christian Science Monitor, May 14, 2008
"Facebook, Meet Blackboard": Inside Higher Ed, May 14, 2008

Final exam room/time change

2008-05-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

The final exam for ENG 701.001 is now Monday, May 12 from 4:00 to 6:00pm in CBC C120 (TEC, 42-capacity).

4-7 Class

2008-04-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

We'll spend some time today discussing the readings. I thought this week's Johnson-Eilola and Selber article was interesting in terms of its method: theory building, what we call "re-articulating" concepts for new understanding. I thought their essay as "assemblage" had a lot to do with the shift in thinking of writing as design, which subsequently took their thinking and reading to new fields that "composition is beginning to pay attention to," like web design and architecture, even popular culture (remixing music).

To the extent that people want to, we can also discuss the website project as well as the proposal project. I added a section called "website tutorial" in webcampus that contains a PDF file and a flash movie that I use in my ENG 406B, electronic documents course. It contains information about creating a basic page using Dreamweaver and publishing it using a free web hosting service. You can follow this approach or us your Rebel Mail account to publish your site.

Your research paper proposals are due next week, in print form, sent to my university e-mail, although you'd be welcome to post a version on your blog for comments.

3-31 class

2008-03-31T15:29:00.000-07:00

Today we'll discuss the proposal assignment for the research paper. We'll do an exercise analyzing the "rhetoric of CCCC proposals" to develop a list of criteria for the proposal assignment (See materials added to Webcampus). This should answer most of your questions about how to write the proposal. It will also be an exercise in "joining" the discourse community of composition scholars.

I read through everyone's annotated bibliographies. I liked the ones that opened with a brief summary of the research project. There was one that concluded with a summary of insights gained from the preliminary research. Now that's using the annotated bib in a generative way, as was the intent of the assignment. Contrary to one person's comment that annotating was taking time away from writing the paper. I suppose research writing is one type of more formal writing process (given the fact that many research projects need to be articulated clearly up front for either grant or acceptance purposes).

I also read the responses to week 3/24. You should see grades for both in WebCampus. Yes, I still need to get the grades for Dissonance papers and week 3/10 done.

I'll be heading out to New Orleans on Wednesday for the field's big conference: The Annual Conference on College Composition and Communication. Susan is going too. She better blog about it, from New Orleans preferably!

Website Project Info

2008-03-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

As stated in the syllabus, one of the course requirements is to write or design a professional website (counts as 5% of final grade).

In keeping with one of the course's major themes of technology, the aim of this project is to give you some experience writing in a new media environment.

The project requirments are as follows:

You must create a a basic professional website that includes information about you, your research, and your teaching
You can use either complabs server or request a web services account: Complabs server, which is easier, or request a Web services account--this will involve "FTP-ing" files to the campus server, so you'll need to install SHH Secure FTP application
You must include the following elements: Home page; resume or vita page (in HTML format, downloadable version optional); teaching page (link to syllabi and/or teaching philosophy, in HTML format)
Add a reflection on your experience creating this website, minimum 500-750 words, posted to blog
Anything else you want to add (e.g., "about me/bio" page, photographs, writing samples, teaching philosophy, etc.)
Web site should conform to basic standards of good Web design. See Robin Williams' "Web Design Features" (read both "good" and "bad" lists) http://www.ratz.com/features.html

A draft of your website is due 4/28. The final version is due 5/5.

I'll discuss a draft with you at any point up to the deadline. You can share your working draft with the class at any point, too.

Research topics

2008-03-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

After reading through everyone's dissonance blogs, below is a list of topics I think people have chosen for their research projects.

Some people were a bit non-committal; the idea with the dissonance blog was to explore but then commit. Regardless, make sure you narrow and choose your topic ASAP. We can revise this list as necessary.

We are technically in the next phase of the project, which is to research and compile and annotated bibliography of a minimum ~6 sources (due in a couple weeks). I suppose the blog would be an appropriate place for your annotations, i.e., using your blog as an informal research journal (though you should also record formal citation of source).

Keep us all updated as your topic evolves.

My sense of your sense of your research topics:

Jessica McCall - Reflection/metacognition in writing development
Patricia Waters - History/influence of women in science/nursing writing
Stephanie Taylor - Text-messaging/instant messaging as dialect and writing practice
Monica Zarazua - teaching writing from the student perspective, or the role of reading in the writing classroom, or the ends of writing instruction
Gina Sully - Liberatory/critical pedagogy and subjectivity in the writing classroom [revised]
Ashley Nebe - Teaching writing to Standard English Learners (with technology?)
Jason Coley - The rhetoric of video games (& possible implications for writing instruction)
Susan Garcia - The role of technology in (workplace?) collaboration

3-3 class

2008-03-03T15:30:00.001-08:00

Today we'll discuss the your paper ideas and responses to this week's readings (not necessarily in that order). Some notes to guide discussion have been added to Webcampus.

The next phase of the research project will be an annotated bibliography, due 3/24. According to our syllabus:

Annotated Bibliography – You must compile a minimum of 6 sources
not from assigned course readings relevant to your topic of inquiry.
An adequate annotation of a source includes (1) the full bibliographic
citation in MLA format, (2) a concise summary of the main and supporting
points of the source, and (3) a reflection on the significance of the source
to your inquiry, i.e., how the source addresses your guiding research
question.

R-J article on texting

2008-02-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

Did you see this R-J article on text-speak: "Dis maks my teacha cry." Our own Patrice Hollrah, Director of the Writing Center, was quoted. All in all, another balanced and informed treatment of the subject. Surprising for the conservative R-J...

A couple more articles:

An interesting NYTimes article that challenges assumptions on technology and gender: More girls than boys are generating Internet content, according to "Sorry, Boys, This is Our Domain."
A story about an experimental online persuasive writing course taught to 5th and 6th graders, in "Experimental Online Writing Course Is Elementary"

2-25 class

2008-02-25T15:04:00.001-08:00

Today we'll discuss some early rhetorical theory, a form of discourse analysis. See 2-25 class notes added to Webcampus.

Your dissonance paper/blog is due next week as well. I'll discuss my expectations in class, but basically the goal is for you to write about your own process of selecting a topic for your research paper. The term "dissonance" refers to the idea that you should be pursuing a topic for which you have some desire to understand better, based on your personal experience, professional goals, or both. Your dissonance paper should therefore identify topics related to this course that you want to understand better and reflect on why you want to pursue them. You can pose questions, discuss in or out-of-class readings, relate your experience. You also need to narrow and select a topic and explain your selection, based on personal interest, fruitfulness of preliminary searches in CompPile, etc. In the end, your paper should raise some possible topics, discuss your interest in them, and then identify the topic you want to pursue for your outside research paper. You won't necessarily be bound to the topic (I will read your dissonance papers with an eye toward helping you choose an appropriate topic), but you should have a good start and get the opportunity to get feedback from me and your classmates (so I suppose it should be a sharable blog?)

Next week's readings are mostly in the Cross-Talk book, but there is one article (Hillocks) in the library's e-reserves (not Webcampus). You should be able to access e-reserves from home, but you'll need a library access code. Can everyone access e-reserves?

California's Standard English Learner program

2008-02-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting news story related to our discussion of Canagarajah's “The Place of World Englishes in Composition." Written by Naush Boghossian, "Students Struggle to Leave Dialects at Home" is about the "Standard English Learner" (SEL) program in California schools, which aims to help minority students code switch between their vernacular dialects spoken at home and Standard English used in schools.

Boghossian discusses many issues of language poltics in education related to Standard English and national dialects. Boghossian points out that a big part of the SEL program is professional development for teachers aimed at instilling cultural sensitivity to the home langauges and helping students recognize the differences between their dialect and Standard English.

Boghossian treats the subject pretty fairly, recognizing the political and social complexities of language learning in a diverse, multi-cultural environment. He points out that we still don't know much about why students from minority households struggle to learn Standard English and that dialects persist as a form of cultural identity. He also recalls the 1996 debate over Ebonics in Oakland schools. There's also a few comments to the article.

2008-02-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

After reading Patti's week 2/11 response I started to post a comment to her blog site specifically, but then thought, in the spirit of turning the course blog into more of a blog, my comments might appropriately fit here. So here they are:

Patti: wow, very thoughtful reflections this week. As I was reading through your response I started thinking to myself, wow, I'm glad Patti stayed in this course and has goals to become a nurse educator. Part of that is because your views (about language and new media) are very open-minded, or "progressive." Unfortunately, not everyone is as open-minded. Language is another historical site of power struggle. Why is English the WE (world English) and not Spanish, you ask? Because the ME (metropolitan English) countries colonized the globe. And think of the recent Pahrump "English only" language battle: It is a fight over the expansion/acceptence of the Spanish language. Those same language conservatives would likey be aghast at talk of teaching "new media" writing vs. good, old-fashioned grammar. (We'll read in a few weeks why direct instruction in grammar can actually be detrimental to the developmet of writing ability.) I'm glad Patti's in the course because she shows a willingness to consider the complexity and variability of writing. She openly wonders about the place of "formal" writing (and there is a place for it), but I feel comforted knowing Patti might be helping future nurses learn how to communicate.

Patti, and a few others, also commented on the difficulties they had reading the Juzwik et al. meta-analysis of writing trends circa 1999-2004, especially compared to reading Yancey's article. Part of that is because, remember, the field of composition studies is multi-modal: the Juzwik et al. article uses the straightforward scientific article format (problem-method-results-discussion), whereas Yancey uses an almost experimental theory/essay format. Perhaps the Jurzwik article is too abstract in terms of intentifying problems without really giving any examples and citations of specific research. Perhaps a review essay, that summarizes a corpus of research would be more useful. But I did want everyone to get a bird's eye view, if you will, of contemporary research concerns and, new to the disucssion, research methods. We also got to talk about the range of journals in the field, which was useful too.

Furthermore, most of you are generally being asked to read differently than you're used to. Most of you are used to reading literature and to a lesser extent literary criticsm. You're not used to reading the scientific article genre, with its heavy use of citation, emphasis on technical specificity, and explication of research method. One trick for reading scientific articles is that you can pay more attention to the results and discussion at the end, and gloss the method section. Generally speaking, if a scientific article is published, it's method is acceptable--at least for our purposes in this class.

Lastly, I thought last night's class was a great mix of discussing the articles, the field in general, and our course itself. I was satisfied with our blog-inspired discussion of the aims of weekly blog responses. As we discussed, the blog needs to be focused on the readings (this would be the "formal" aspect of the assignment) but it can/should be written informally (I'm not grading your blogs for mechanics, for example). The "style" of the blog, as we discussed, is perhaps the gray area. You can critique, but you need to back up your criticism. Your tone should be balanced.

If I had to name the sub-genre of blog we are modeling, I suppose I would call it the academic's research blog. The academic's research blog can reflect more informally than published scholarship, but I would say it still maintains a "public" dimension of respect that one should afford fellow academics. A good example would be Clay Spinuzzi's blog, which is a sort of "this is what I'm reading now" blog. His two most recent book reviews are somewhat critical, so you can compare the level of tact employed by Spinuzzi. Spinuzzi's blog also contains posts related to other aspects of his professional life and some personal posts, and so can yours. I'll likely read the other posts, and maybe comment on them, but your "grade" will be based on your reading posts. (If you want to argue the grade should be based on the whole blog, that's another discussion.) With that said, see if you can find me some "vitriolic" toned academic research blogs...

I also updated the 2-11 notes file in Webcampus based on the in class discussion.

Lastly, did anyone notice we got our first "outsider" comment to our course blog!

-Dr. J

2/11 class

2008-02-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

I graded the first week’s blogs in Webcampus (out of 10 points). Remember, I am looking to see familiarity and engagement with the readings. You can reflect personally, but you must engage the readings (e.g., use specific examples, quotations, etc. from text). A main goal is to convince me you did the reading. I was lenient this first week since my expectations weren’t really known (you are being disciplined, in the Foucauldian sense, can you feel it?)

I thought I should try to turn the class blog into more of a blog…did you read my musings on the 2/4 class?

I compiled a partial list of blogs (see below)

Log into Webcampus for a list of questions on this week’s readings

I’ll be passing out handouts on research methods, too.

Rhet/Comp Blogs

A question: What would you say is the typical profile of a rhet/comp blogger?
An artifact: “Amy’s Rhetoric Blog” or this will be you… http://amysrhetoricblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-is-platos-gorgias-so-agreeable.html

Individual blogs

Clay Spinuzzi, associate professor of rhetoric at University of Texas at Austin. http://spinuzzi.blogspot.com/
Jeff Rice, English professor at University of Missouri-Columbia and Director of the Composition Program, http://www.ydog.net/
Johndan Johnson-Eilola, professor of communication and media, Clarkson University http://people.clarkson.edu/~johndan/workspace/
Steve Krause, professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University http://stevendkrause.com/
Paul Kei Matsuda Professor of English at Arizona State University, http://www.public.asu.edu/~pmatsuda/blog.html
Charlie Lowe, assistant professor, Department of Writing Grand Valley State University http://cyberdash.com/
Krista Kennedy, a Rhetoric Ph.D. Candidate in the University of Minnesota Department of Writing Studies http://slimcoincidence.com/blog/
Jill Walker Rettberg, associate professor at the University of Bergen, http://jilltxt.net/

Community Blogs

Kairos News “A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy” http://kairosnews.org/
KairosNews Blogroll: http://kairosnews.org/weblogs-by-teachers-and-scholars-in-composition-rhetoric-and-literature
Council of Writing Program Administrators http://www.wpacouncil.org/
Rhet/comp.com blogroll http://rhetcomp.com/ (click on “blogs”)

Musings on 2/4 class

2008-02-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Thinking how the class went, I felt we didn't "review" the readings as much as I had hoped. Maybe we spent a bit too much time reading each other's blogs, or working out the technology of posting to each other's blogs? Perhaps this is a simple classroom management issue on my part, but it also raises the question of the use of blogs in the classroom. It is artificial to be sitting in a face-to-face classroom reading each other's posts? Should blogs be an out-of-class-type activity? How useful did the class find reading each other's posts? Did the in-class blog activity help with understanding of the readings?

Another issue of using blogs in the classroom I need to resolve is that by making the student blogs public, I now have to think about how I'll provide feedback on the blogs. I can't very well be evaluating individual blogs in public.

We started some good discussion of the first week's readings. The impact of the Harvard program on the formation of English departments and the development of writing instruction in North America is not questioned by most scholars, though as even Brereton notes, there were "other" versions of freshman English taught elsewhere and some scholars look to these alternatives to re-examine the prevailing narrative of Harvard's influence. And this is not to say that Harvard's program was all bad: Harvard pushed the reform of the Latin-based recitation method that was used from, oh, say, Classical times to the middle- to late-19th C. (though, as we discussed, some elements of the recitation system emphasized language use more than the new lecture model of the research university.)

We also started to discuss some common assumptions about teaching writing, in light of the histories we read, namely about the role of reading, in general, and literature, specifically, in teaching writing. This is good. Most teachers (and writers) don't have a theoretical foundation for what they do, which could lead to ineffective or inconsistent teaching (or writing). One of the goals of this class is to help devlep a more theoretical stance toward writing or teaching writing. Histories help show where common practices and assumptions come from. Theory and research is necessary to test whether these practices and assumptions are useful and effective. If you're interested in the history of composition and rhetoric, there is a section in the Bedford Bibliography of Writing worth looking at.

Lastly, I'm starting to look for some blogs by scholars in our field...

Dr. J

2/4 Class

2008-02-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

Last week we discussed the syllabus. Apart from reading and weekly "blog" responses, the major project for the course is a conference length paper. Keep thinking about topics that interest you (a "dissonance blog" that narrows your topic is due on March 3.

I mentioned the 2008 Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference call for papers (CFP) coincides with the proposal due date for this class. I will pass out the CFP in class, as I can't yet find an online link to the announcement.

I uploaded our notes from last week's class discussion to a folder in Webcampus. We discussed "First-Year Writing Gets a New Look," which highlighted the English Alive program at Drexel University and its efforts to incorporate new media technologies in composition classes. We discussed some key themes in composition studies, including

What is the aim of post-secondary writing instruction?
What is the most appropriate way to achive those aims, or what are the best teching methods? ("pedagogy" is the study of teaching)
What role does new media in post-secondary writing instruction?

It loooks like everyone managed to activiate a blog (see our blog roll). We'll start this week's class with some reponse to the responses:

Part I: Open Discussion

Read the blog of the person following your name on the ENG 701 blog roll.
Post a thoughtful response (how easily will the person's blog site allow this?)
Read and respond to someone eles’s if you have time.
Class discussion

Part II: Taxonomies

With a partner, answer the following questions:

Do a binary comparison the “old” American college to the “new” research university, including how writing instruction faired in both systems.
Identify the main elements of the Harvard model of composition? (curriculum, philosophy, leaders…)
What are some alternative models?
What is the rationale for English A given by Hill?
What is the significance of Hill’s piece to the history of composition studies?
Outline the “story” of rhetoric, from classical to contemporary times.
List as many areas of research in the field of rhetoric and composition as you can.
What larger intellectual movements influenced composition research?
What is the relationship of composition to literature and English departments?

For next week, 2/11, read and "blog" about "comp studies today." Three of the readings are on Webcampus, and one is a link to an online collection called "Into the Blogosphere."

Dr. J

Welcome!

2008-01-28T14:34:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this, you are probably sitting in CBC C321 on the UNLV campus. I'm sitting in front of you. You're maybe half excited, half tired, half wondering why you're taking this course. Hopefully, I'll answer any questions you have, and you may decide to stay.

After discussing the course and syllabus, we'll spend some time reading and discussing some recent news stories related to writing. The readings can be found at the course's reading list.

According to the reading list, texts for the course on a given week can be found in one of three places:

Required textbook, Cross-Talk in Comp Theory by Victor Villanueva (2nd ed)
Webcampus site for ENG 701
Library E-reserves (this may not be set up yet)

For next week's class, you'll need to do the following

Pick up or order 2nd edition of Cross-Talk
Read the articles for 2/4 (three are in webcampus, one is online)
Choose a blog service and create your blog
Write your ~1,000-word reflection and post it to your blog before the start of class next Monday
Post the URL of your blog in Webcampus

-Dr J