PhD or Bust

What this is

This blog has a new purpose. It will follow and report on my scholarly journey of earning a PhD in English from Old Dominion University, focusing on two areas: 

1. Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse Studies
2. Technology and Media Studies

My summer vacation

This summer I completed Dr. Sarah Appleton’s ENGL 775 English Pedagogy Seminar. The material was interesting, some students became friends and colleagues, and—more importantly—the course showed me a new way to look at my teaching. My career had been focused on the art of communication rather than the study and analysis of literature. Bringing that literary element of study to my classroom kicked everything up a notch. For example, by having student writers view their work from aspects other than their own, their audience, and their editor (as usual), they needed to consider the challenge of embracing non-readers (those not interested in the topic). Figuring out how to embrace “skimmers” increased the success of summer students published in mainstream media from 20% (2 of 10) to over 50% (5 of 9). 

The fall class of twenty students in that writing course looks to produce more published writers!