|
In 1973, with my colleague, Suzanne Jacobs, I started
The Writing Workshop, which I co-directed for six years, and which
I have directed at intervals since, the latest of which is 2003-04.
During that time, we also instituted the tutoring program in the
Department, working in connection with College Opportunities Program
and, in effect, started the graduate program in Composition and
Rhetoric by reviving the course, "The Theory and Practice of
Teaching Composition," which I teach regularly. In recent years,
I have also created two seminars in composition: "The Politics
of Teaching Composition," and "Writing Center Theory and
Research." In 1986-88, while serving as Director of Composition,
I expanded the tutorial program as part of English 101, our means
of mainstreaming entering Freshmen who need extra help with writing.
In connection with this, we instituted English 405, a tutorial training
class, which I have taught several times. With Tom Hilgers, I conducted
an evaluation of this program which resulted in an article in WPA.
I have received two Fulbright grants, one to China in 1981-82 and
one to Ghana in 1991-92. In both places, I taught the first American
Literature course and the first Composition course in the two schools
(The First Foreign Languages Institute in Beijing, and The University
of Ghana at Legon). I wrote a composition text for the Institute,
which became my textbook, Writing: A Workshop Approach, published
by Mayfield Publishing Company in 1992. The second edition, which
I am now preparing with a colleague, is under consideration at McGraw-Hill.
Like many composition specialists of my generation, my original
training was not in Composition and Rhetoric, but in 20th Century
American Literature, specializing in the narrative of William Faulkner.
I have thus also regularly taught an array of courses in this area.
In 2003, I served on the University-wide committee which completely
revised the Core requirements for Undergraduate students at the
University of Hawaii.
Areas of Interest
theory and practice of teaching composition, American literature,
20th-century fiction
Education
BA, University of Chicago
MA, Brigham Young University
PhD, University of Connecticut
Awards
Board of Regents' Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1988
Fulbright Lectureship, China, 1981-82
Fulbright Lectureship, Ghana, 1991-92
|