Barry Maid

Tutoring in Cyberspace: Student Impact and College/University Collaboration.

Abstract The Writing Center Consultation Project is a collaboration between the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College (RSCC) in Tennessee. Undergraduate RSCC students e-mail drafts of their essays to graduate students at UALR who then return the drafts through e-mail along with comments. The RSCC and UALR students then meet for a synchronous writing conference at a Cyberspace writing center. This study looks at the impact the pilot project has had on both the community college students and on the graduate students. Both groups of students said the experience was helpful. The community college students responded by engaging in more revision of their writing. The university students focused on the pedagogical potential and the contrast between traditional writing center and Cyberspace writing center conferencing. Specific student responses are cited. The benefit of collaboration between 2-and 4-year campuses is also discussed.

Implementing a writing course in an online RN-BSN program.

Scholarly writing is an essential skill for nurses to communicate new research and evidence. Written communication directly relates to patient safety and quality of care. However, few online RN-BSN programs integrate writing instruction into their curricula. Nurses traditionally learn how to write from instructor feedback and often not until midway into their baccalaureate education. Innovative strategies are needed to help nurses apply critical thinking skills to writing. The authors discuss a collaborative project between nursing faculty and technical communication faculty to develop and implement a writing course that is 1 of the 1st courses the students take in the online RN-BSN program.

Yes, a Technorhetorician Can Get Tenure.

Abstract Members of the Computers and Writing community are aware that it is all too common to find themselves or colleagues in tenure trouble. Interestingly, technorhetoricians are not the first identifiable group often in tenure jeopardy. Indeed, it has been commonplace among rhetoric and composition faculty to expect those who assume discipline-related administrative positions (e.g., Director of First-Year Writing, Writing Center Director, Writing Across the Curriculum Director) to become vulnerable at tenure time. Based on my eleven years of administrative experience and more years as senior faculty who works with mentoring junior colleagues, both in my own department and at other institutions, I will look closely at the problem of gaining tenure in English departments when one is not a literary specialist. Then, using Ernest Boyer’s (1990) new definitions of scholarship as a springboard, I will suggest several possible approaches to establishing a successful tenure case.