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 …

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 …

Reflections on Teaching Comp at the HBCU

I have my students read sections of the Tao Teh Ching and Art of War in my composition courses at Bowie     State University. I consider it an introduction to two of the core classical texts that come from one of the         oldest civilizations in the world that also happens to be…Reflections on …

Online resources for doctoral writers: an annotated bibliography

Our guest blogger is Siân Lund from the Royal College of Art PG Art and Design college in the UK. She has been the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) Coordinator for almost 6 years. She has a background in language education and is passionate about exploring diversity in communication with a special interest in acculturation processes. …

How to Online Conference

Normally this is the time of year when I’d re-up previous posts: How to Plan for ConferencesHow to SlideshowHow to Conference We’re in a new era, however, thus How to Online Conference: Triple-check your time zones Turn your microphone off Put some pants on (This is still fairly new to all of us, I would …

A WPA Roundtable: Implementing Program-Wide Writing Studies-Based Composition Pedagogies

A WPA Roundtable: Implementing Program-Wide Writing Studies-Based Composition Pedagogies Abstract In this roundtable, five WPAs discuss how they implemented program-wide writing studies-based curricula, addressing concerns such as expertise, labor, resistance, and assessment. Introduction The history of so-called “writing about writing” approaches to teaching composition is well-documented (Downs and Wardle, “Teaching”; Wardle and Downs, “looking”; Bird, …

Improving writing by students annotating their own work

Annotated by the Author: Why Having Students Annotate Their Own Writing Is My New Favorite Writing Instruction ToolImproving writing by students annotating their own work