The Association of Departments of English (ADE) released a report today on the changing English major. As those who tuned into the last episode (or the last 1000 episodes) of this program will remember, there has been a steady decline in English majors (going back to the early 90s when measured as a share of... Continue Reading →
what makes professional digital communication interesting?
First, a tangent. Over the last week I've been part of a listserv conversation that reprises the now familiar question about how English Studies majors should change (or not). As I noted there, this has become a familiar genre of academic clickbait, like this recent buffoonery from the Chronicle of Higher Ed. Among other things I pointed... Continue Reading →
rhetoric of podcasts, podcasts of rhetoric
One of the very best things about no longer running the composition program is having the time and mental space to get back to digital rhetoric in a more practical and compositional way. This has got me thinking, in this post, about podcasting in terms of its various rhetorical structures but mostly about the kinds... Continue Reading →
humanities, universities and sustainability
It's that time of year, when enrollments have been counted and academic job postings have begun to appear, that those in the humanities--though certainly not only the humanities--turn their minds to uncertain future. A recent article in Inside Higher Ed carries on this tradition, comparing the shrinking tenure-track job market to job losses in the Rust... Continue Reading →
Spending one's time in the tech comm classroom
As I've been writing about recently, I'm teaching an undergrad tech comm class for the first time in a long time. We're now a couple weeks in, and here's my primary observation. It's probably fairly obvious and not only to teaching technical writing but to almost any writing focused class. There really isn't any time... Continue Reading →
teaching technical communication again for the first time
As I've recounted here, for the last seven years I served as WPA in my department. As a result I was working almost exclusively with graduate students and teaching undergrads only during the summer and then the course was online. So this fall finds me back in the classroom with undergrads for the first time... Continue Reading →
near futures of professional-technical communication
Over the last few months I've been going through the process of proposing a graduate certificate in digital communication and professional writing. It's a long bureaucratic slog in the SUNY system but, with fingers crossed, we'll have full state approval in the next few months. In any case, it certainly has me thinking about what... Continue Reading →
professional writing's invention curriculum
As I've written here in the past, professional writing strikes me as an odd hybrid of liberal arts and professional curricula. Clearly there are many people for whom writing is a profession and/or for whom writing is the primary activity of their professional life--particularly if we define writing broadly in terms of networked composition. And... Continue Reading →
web identity project
Students in my Writing in the Digital Age professional writing course recently completed a web identity program (assignment). I don't often write about class assignments, but this one went off pretty well so I thought I'd share. Basically the idea is that most of my students have a fairly limited experience with creating online identities.... Continue Reading →
