Toward Antiracist First-Year Composition Goals

We are finally ready to offer the FYC goals statement that my colleagues and I worked on. If you are unfamiliar with the history of how this document came to be, you can read about it in my past blog posts on the subject: "Why I Left The CWPA (Council of Writing Program Administrators)," Apr 18,…Toward …

Empire of Language #5 Tactical Uses of the I

The personal often seems to be the easiest way to get to an Authentic Black. I think this is a symptom of the remnant of slavery that invalidates African American gathering and union.When African Americans make use of the I in their work, it is often times to suggest a definitive difference between themselves and…Empire …

Flipping Batman

Really interesting blog on flipping images to support analysis of meaning. https://jamesdurran.blog/2021/08/21/flipping-batman/Flipping Batman

https://twitter.com/biblioracle/status/1427652920389033992?s=09

Writing Thesis Statements as Enthymemes

By Jennifer Fletcher In my new book Writing Rhetorically, I share one of my favorite quotations from rhetoricians Edward P.J. Corbett and Rosa A. Eberly: “Reasoning, by itself, will not get the potatoes peeled” (1). It takes humans in communication with other humans to accomplish real work in the world. When we reason rhetorically, we …

Strategies for Writing a Thesis by Publication: Book Review

By Cally Guerin Book Review: Lynn P. Nygaard & Kristin Solli (2021) Strategies for writing a thesis by publication in the social sciences and humanities. Insider Guides to Success in Academia Series. Routledge. I was delighted to come across Lynn Nygaard and Kristin Solli’s Strategies for writing a thesis by publication in the social sciences …

What is a labor-based grading system and how will it produce a final course grade in a writing course?

This is a series of blogposts meant for students who are in courses using grading contracts of some kind to determine their final course grades, or those who just want to understand better what grades are, what they do in classrooms, and how they effect learning. This is the fourth post in a series of five blogposts meant to address…What …

Audience Created

The concept of audience is a key composition concept. I love the series of Lunsford & Ede articles on audience and have been known to teach them as an example of how a concept in the field keeps being revised and re-examined. I think it’s time to re-look at “audience” again. Lundsford & Ede’s concept …

Composition and the Irrational: Some Lacanian Concepts

Note: The picture above represents an internet meme called “Doge.” This is related to the LOL Cats meme, but Doge must feature a picture of a shiba inu dog (a Japanese dog, very active and smart, I have known one), several ungrammatical phrases, usually two words, starting with “very,” “so,” “much,” “many,” or “such,” rendered …

So You’re Going to Teach Composition

I wrote this originally for the composition TAs I am supervising, but the questions are relevant to anyone designing a university-level reading/writing course. In subsequent posts, I will expand on many of these ideas. These posts will be listed on the page, “Teaching First-Year Composition.” When I taught my first composition course, more than 30 …