Over the last tenyears as a college writing instructor, I’ve come to approach teaching as an act of collaborative inquiry, a pedagogical movement wherein I work with students to compose critical-analytical texts. Classical rhetorical principles have long guided my pedagogy; however, as my research and teaching foci have shifted toward technical writing and professional communication, I’ve integrated a variety of approaches that emphasize rhetorical situation, design, ethos and relationality, inviting students to create texts and textual objects that are user-oriented. Whether teaching an introductory core writing course or an advanced course on documentation, my pedagogical practice reliably offers students opportunities to mature as thinkers, writers, workers and citizens.

Read my teaching philosophy here (.pdf)

Introduction to Technical Communication (ENG302)

WWU’s introduction to composing professional and technical documents.

Special Topics in Technical/Professional Communication: User Experience Design as Rhetorical Practice (ENG462)

A quarter-long investigation into the interwoven practices of rhetorical action and user experience design.

Special Topics in Technical/Professional Communication: Authorship, Intellectual Property and DIY Making, 1700-Present (ENG462) 

A quarter-long investigation into the author as a construct from the Enlightenment to today. Special emphases placed on the rhetoric of intellectual property, shifting definitions of authorship and the rise of DIY-making.

Professional Writing (ENGL3104)

VT’s introduction to Professional Communication for students enrolled in the Professional and Technical Writing Major.

Technical Writing (ENGL3764)

VT’s introduction to Technical Communication for non-English majors.

Writing and Digital Media (ENGL3844)

ENGL 3844 is Virginia Tech’s English course focusing on introductory web building, multimodal composition, digital identity and social media. This course examines our interactions with technology vis-a-vis writing from a variety of perspectives. We’ll first learn introductory coding in .html/.css to build a platform for the podcasts and digital video public service announcements we’ll compose in class throughout the rest of the term. We’ll also consider the ways that digital media technologies, including social media, shape our perceptions of ourselves, each other and our communities.

Rhetoric in Digital Environments (ENGL6344)

Digital environments mediate our collective experience of the public and the construction of our own digital identity(ies). This course will consider how the medium of the digital shapes rhetorical activity from a variety of perspectives that emerge across multiple disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The objectives of the course aren’t critique; rather, we’ll be aiming to develop scholarly genealogies, network visualizations and methodological explorations of what constitutes rhetoric in digital environments and will also investigate how that rhetoric articulates with other communicative lifeforms across the digital-material continuum. The work of the course will be distributed across a variety of sites, including our physical classroom, a course wiki, and a variety of social media platforms. You are not required to have any level of technological expertise before entering the course; however, an open disposition toward experimenting with digital tools is essential.

The Craft of Writing: Rhetorical Crafts///Writing-as-Techne (ENG730)

UNR’s graduate level seminar focusing on definitions, theories and applications of writing.

Advanced Nonfiction /// Rhetorical Genre Studies & Academic Publication (ENG401b/601b)

A custom course designed to introduce  students to the conventions of academic publication in graduate and undergraduate research journals using Rhetorical Genre Studies as a guiding analytic.

Introduction to Academic Research & Composition (ENG102) 

Special Topics in Digital Writing (WR496)

WOU’s special topics course focusing on digital writing, social media, and digital identity.

Syllabus (.pdf)

Student Evaluations

Composition History: Writing and Rhetoric Pedagogy (WR430)

WR430 traces major trends in rhetorical instruction and composition pedagogy from ancient times to the present.  Special emphasis is placed on process, cognitivist, expressivist, postprocess, and ecological articulations of writing instruction.

 Syllabus (.pdf)

Genres of Academic Publication (WR414)

WR414 (Advanced Composition) allows advanced undergraduate students from across disciplines the opportunity to explore a variety of critical and rhetorical approaches for American academic reading and writing.  The major goal of the course is for students to develop rhetorical practices for studying and producing within discipline-specific genres.

Syllabus (.pdf)

Collaborative Writing for Industry (WR323)

WR323 invites students to write collaboratively to produce technical and professional communications for organizations and individuals across the WOU campus.  Special emphasis is placed on workflow management software, technical communication authoring software, and service-learning opportunities.

Syllabus (.pdf)

College Writing II: Critical Analysis and Researched Argumentation (WR135)

An intensive writing course focusing on critical analysis, argumentation, and documentation.

Syllabus (.pdf)

Student Evaluations

Introduction to Digital Writing (WRT200)

This SU Writing Program pilot course examines our interactions with “digital writing” by looking both backward and forward at writing as a socially situated, meaning-making act.  The class introduces questions about the complexity, culture, and benefits/questions of writing in the digital age.  It also highlights basic multimodal literacies for the creation of digital compositions and personal websites.  Finally, the class pays special attention to the ways that digital writing transforms analog writing.

Syllabus (PDF)

Practices of Academic Writing I (WRT105)

Study and practice of writing processes, including critical reading, collaboration, revision, editing, and the use of technologies. Focuses on the aims, strategies, and conventions of academic prose, especially analysis and argumentation.

Syllabus (PDF)

Student Evaluations:  Fall 2009 / Fall 2010

Critical Inquiry and Research Writing (WRT205)

Study and practice of critical, research-based writing, including research methods, presentation genres, source evaluation, audience analysis, and library/online research. Students complete at least one sustained research project.

Syllabus (PDF)

Student Evaluations:  Spring 2010 (1) (2) / Summer 2010

Writing Center Consultant

SU, Spring 2011 / Fall 2011

As a writing consultant for the SU Writing Center I consulted in face-to-face sessions, asynchronous email sessions, and synchronous Skype/IM sessions.  While working with students, I drew attention to form, structure, style, rhetorical acumen and mechanics.  My clients were from various majors at the graduate and undergraduate level.

Rhetoric and Composition II (ENGL122)

Review of competencies stressed in English 121 with emphasis on the extended essay; use of research matter in writing; attention to diction, figurative and symbolic language, relationship of style and meaning.

Syllabus (PDF)

Western Humanities I (ENGL113)

A historical approach to the pivotal ideas, systems of thought, and creations of the Western world from antiquity to approximately 1600 C.E. Emphasis on matters of literary structure, style, and content.

Syllabus (PDF)

Developmental Writing I (ENGL100)

This course is a review of basic writing skills and basic grammar intended to strengthen the student’s background and to prepare the student to move into English 101. Emphasis is placed on the composing process of sentences and paragraphs.

Syllabus (PDF)