I have been teaching writing in postsecondary contexts for over ten years. The following are a sample of the courses I’ve taught and their descriptions:
Advanced Composition: This seminar, a graduate course, explore the concepts of genre theory such as speech genres, genres as social actions, meta-genres, genres as situated cognition, genres as activity systems, amongst others to understand writing. To ground this inquiry, participants in the course will explore a range of everyday genres—shopping lists, lost dog posters, electronic communication, social network activities, etc. In doing this, we examine the viability of genre theory to understand written communication
Rhetorical Theories and Practices: This graduate seminar introduces the foundational concepts of studying language using rhetorical, linguistic, and literacy approaches, and how these concepts are applied in research and teaching. Precisely, this course focuses on non-western traditions of rhetoric and communication, and how contemporary approaches to communication under the umbrella of writing studies can be used to understand our current technologically and politically organized society.
Methods in Humanities Computing: This graduate seminar prepare students for graduate study in the humanities with training in research and Humanities computing. Students in this class build on concepts of close reading with specific writing and research tools. It socializes graduate students into the field of English studies in terms of entering a “professional conversation of scholars.”
Senior Seminar: This is a undergraduate capstone course focusing on the genres of literature that have marked the African American Literary Traditions, and how they might be employed as a form of cultural knowledge-making. That is, understanding how the meaning in poems, dramas, essays, short stories, and novels are distinct in themselves (even when they are similar thematically and topic-wise).
World Englishes in Literature and Education: This course, an upper level English elective, has been designed to introduce students to the plurality of rhetorical styles and English in a global context. It emphasized the role of language in educational and literary situations. It looked at the concept of World Englishes and how the phenomenon played out in African, South Asian, and East Asian contexts.
Advanced Writing in the Disciplines: This is an upper level writing in the disciplines class. This particular class aims to teach writing in the social sciences, wherein students must conduct research to find empirical findings and communicate it to academic readers. It also asks them to translate disciplinary knowledge to outside audiences.
Argument and Research: The second in a stretch model of composition, this course focused on teaching writing in academic contexts with an emphasis on research. Utilizing a portfolio framework, this course also instructed on using a writing process approach to composition and analysis.
Expository Writing: The first in a stretch model of composition, this course teaches the foundations of literacy skills needed for college and professional communication. It approaches writing as a tool for learning and communication. It is hoped that through this class you will begin to build the habits of engagement, persistence, creativity, and metacognition (thinking about thinking) needed for college and professional success.
at the centers/ at the edges 