Awards
In Spring 2005, I was honored to receive the John S. Diekhoff award for graduate teaching.
In Summer 2005, I worked as a Freedman Center Fellow to redesign my History of the English Language course (English310/410) to take advantage of multimedia resources and to enhance student learning.
In 2006-2007, I was a Glennan Fellow, working to intergrate my scholarship and teaching in a new course entitled "Rhetorics of Health and Illness."
Courses
English 506 - Professional Writing: Theory and Practice
English 506 is a graduate seminar in advanced composition theory and pedagogy, focusing primarily on the teaching of writing for disciplinary and professional contexts. It is required of all graduate students who wish to teach English 202 (“Advanced Composition”), English 217B (“Writing for the Health Professions”), English 398 (“Professional Communication for Engineers”), and any future disciplinary writing courses that the department might develop. The course begins with an overview of the histories and theories of disciplinary and professional writing, introducing students to the primary scholarly venues and resources for research and teaching in these areas. Then, the course focuses attention on the writing practices within three broad academic disciplinary categories: social sciences, arts and humanities, and laboratory sciences. Finally, the course turns to the professional disciplines represented in Case Western Reserve’s schools and colleges: law, healthcare, engineering, and business. Throughout the seminar, students will attend both to the research and to the teaching practices that emerge from scholarship in advanced composition and professional writing. Course assignments will include weekly short (1-2 page) responses and activities, a research problem presentation (8-10 pages, plus annotated bibliography), and a significant contributions (both pedagogical and scholarly) to a collective web resource for teaching writing in specific disciplines.
Course texts will include: David R. Russell, Writing in Academic Disciplines (2nd edition; SIUP, 2002) ISBN: 0-80-932467-9; James M. Dubinsky, Teaching Technical Communication (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004) ISBN: 0-312-41204-5; and additional articles, chapters, and materials.
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This course provides an intensive training for graduate students interested in teaching composition in the English department and/or through SAGES First and University Seminars. The focus of this course will be on gaining an understanding of major themes in composition theory in order to develop a set of coherent, historicized pedagogical practices. Thus, the major goals of the course are: To gain an understanding of the major trends in composition scholarship and pedagogy; To explore and assess a variety of pedagogical strategies for writing classes, including assignment sequencing, assessment techniques, and student conferencing;To develop a research project proposal that demonstrates engagement with current issues in composition and rhetoric; and To construct a syllabus and assignment sequence to be used in a future writing course.
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“The Rhetorics of Health and Illness” explores the role of language in constructing, experiencing, treating, and understanding the states we call “health” and “illness.” We will ask questions like: Why do we fight cancer but mend broken bones? When (and how) do some experiences (sadness, hunger) become symptoms of disease? Why do doctors ask where it hurts rather than when or how? Is there a difference between saying that a patient is “med compliant” and that she has “taken her medicines”? Are men less likely to complain of emotional ailments than women? Is there really a perfect chemical balance in the brain? What happens when your experience of illness doesn’t conform to the expected story of the disease? Whose authority is embedded in “patient information” materials? Are direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns educational? Can drugs really “give you your self back”?
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English 379/479 - Digital Literacies
In this course we will be exploring the dynamics of networked environments and digital spaces by examining their social, cultural, political, legal, ethical, and rhetorical dimensions. We will consider the connections between all of these dimensions throughout the course - at the center of which will be our reading of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. This novel, as an example of popular culture's engagement with digital environments, will enable us both to practice our digital literacy (by creating a hypertext reader for the novel) and to explore the obligations of that literacy (by investigating the legal, political, social, and rhetorical questions raised in the novel). Other course readings will address past and current hypertext theory, legal and political debates over copyright and distribution, and multimedia design guidelines. Each component of the course will help us deepen our understanding of what it means to be "digitally literate."
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Do women and men use language differently? Is the English language sexist? This course will explore questions like these (and many others) as they relate to the interdisciplinary study of language and gender. In recent years, scholars from anthropology, psychology, sociology, English, and linguistics have begun to view gender as a central category for analysis. This course will explore some of historical and current theories about how gender and language interact. We will outline the progression of language and gender studies from Robin Lakoff’s 1975 Language and Women’s Place to the current proliferation of research on the topic. This course will explore a variety of methodologies and theoretical frameworks for studying language and gender. Assignments will include a weekly journal, several (2-3 page) research reports and/or book reviews, and a final research project/seminar paper (10-12 pages for ENGL 379; 20-25 pages for ENGL 479).
Course texts will include: Robin Tolmach Lakoff, Language & Woman’s Place (Rev. & Expanded Edition; Oxford UP, 2004) ISBN: 0-19-516757-0; Penelope Eckert & Sally McConnell-Ginet, Language and Gender (Cambridge UP, 2003) ISBN: 0-521-65426-2; and selected additional articles/chapters.
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The history of the English language encompasses a wide range of historical, cultural, linguistic, and social dimensions. To understand the language that we speak today--particularly to understand some of its quirkier facets--we will focus on general sound, word, and grammar changes that have taken place throughout the language's varied history. We will ask questions like: Where did the pronoun she come from? (And why is it the Word of the Millennium?) When did multiple negation become anathema to cultured speakers? How did English spelling become, according to linguist Mario Pei, the "world's most awesome mess"? How and why do "living" languages change? This course will cover the traditional periods in the "life" of English: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Modern English. We will focus on the general sound, word, and grammar changes throughout these time periods, as well as related literary, cultural and historical events influencing these changes. Detailed consideration of the past will help us make connections to and predictions about the future of English and its place in world communications. Course work will consist of a variety of exercises designed to reinforce linguistic skills, two short papers, a midterm, and a final examination. The most important prerequisite for this course is your curiosity about how languages change and your willingness to explore English in new ways.
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English 317 - Business & Professional Writing
This course will explore the kinds of writing expected "out there" in the "real world" beyond the university. To do this, students will adopt a company or organization to study through their public statements, websites, and other information channels. These companies will serve as the audience for a series of documents, for example, application materials, memos, research reports, press releases, and editorials. The focus of this class will be on understanding the rhetorical strategies necessary to complete a variety of professional writing tasks. Further, this course asks us to consider the unique stylistic, rhetorical, and material constraints (and opportunities) that a given professional climate makes possible. Assignments will include numerous short (1-2 page) writing assignments, independent research on a particular company, and a series of deliverables designed for that company.
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This course offers students practice and training in writing for the health professions (e.g., medicine, nursing, dentistry). Recognizing the importance of analyzing audience and understanding the rhetorical situation, this course places emphasis on the entire writing process: from planning and drafting through revising and editing. Students will complete a series of assignments that offer them guided practice in the genres most common to the healthcare professions. Beginning with professional development documents (resumes, letters of application and request, and project narratives), students will learn to adapt their writing skills to the demands of a healthcare audience. The course will then direct students’ attention to scholarly and public health documents (abstracts, articles, and reviews) common to the health professions.
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English 202 - Expository Writing: Prose Style
In this course, intended for students who have previously thought about and practiced academic writing in a variety of settings, students will continue to develop their expository writing skills. Through a variety of exercises and essays, we will consider how writing is a social interaction, a means of accomplishing the goals of particular communities. This view of writing requires us to think of our writing not only as a means of communicating our own ideas and arguments, but also as a response to the needs of the communities in which we write. Students will complete a number of draft-revision sequences throughout the semester, and they will conference regularly with peer writing groups and the instructor.
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FSCC 100 - First Seminar: Writing the Life of the Mind
This section of FSCC 100 will focus on the kinds of writing that appear in our environment in general, and that shape the university experience at Case in particular. We will ask questions about the role of writing in our lives, for example: What does body art (tattoos, clothing logos, notes in washable ink, etc.) say about us? How does writing on bathroom walls connect or alienate individuals? What rhetorical moves distinguish an academic argument from a personal opinion? Can literary forms of writing be used to do more than entertain us? Over the course of this semester, we will collect, examine, compose, and revise a variety of written texts in order to answer these and, more importantly, our own emergent questions. By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- >Engage in thoughtful, productive discussion with peers, faculty, and other professionals.
- > Identify and summarize the main points of a published piece of writing.
- > Reflect critically and constructively on their own ideas and those of others.
- > Craft a specific, informed question as the basis for sustained inquiry on a topic.
- > Refine their phrasing and ideas through a rigorous process of revision.
- > Identify representative University and University Circle resources to support current and future academic projects.
- > Describe their academic plans for their work within the University community for the next year.
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