Faculty Spotlight: Tim Elliott

In autumn quarter 2018, WRD extended a warm welcome to Professor Tim Elliott, the newest tenure-track member of the WRD faculty. He will teach undergraduate and graduate Professional Writing courses at DePaul. This quarter, Professor Elliott is teaching graduate course WRD 523: Editing and undergraduate course WRD 301: Writing in Workplace Contexts.

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Kathy Yancey Recap

Introduction Kathy Blake Yancey joined the WRD Department as a part of its quarterly speaker series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Yancey is the Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University. Her presentation, “Tracing College Writers’ Prior Knowledge: What Is It, and How Can it Help Us Teach Writing Better?” highlighted why and how teachers should draw on students’ various prior knowledges about writing.

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New MA in WRD ePortfolio Requirement

As of the 2018/19 school year, all new students in the WRD MA program will create and submit an eportfolio as part of the degree requirement. This post details the new eportfolio process and offers tips to help students get started. While new MA students are required to submit an eportfolio, current MA students are encouraged to complete the eportfolio also.

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WRD Student Spotlight: Nikki Roberts

Nikki Roberts is a DePaul ‘20 Journalism major and Professional Writing minor. She declared her Professional Writing minor in Autumn 2017 to strengthen her writing “outside of journalism/AP style writing.” During Winter Quarter of her sophomore year, Roberts took WRD 263, Reading Between the Grooves: The Rhetorical Power of Popular Music with Professor Jason Schneider. “His class encouraged me to consider a broader range of topics outside of strict music reporting,” Roberts said.

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WRD Alumni Spotlight: Alex Gabriel

Alex Gabriel is a 2015 WRD alumnus who went on to pursue a Masters in Public Policy at the University of Maryland and worked at the Do Good Institute and Aspen Institute. He is currently a Research Analyst at American University. His forthcoming article, “Politics of School Choice: a case study of Maryland’s BOOST program,” will be released through the Equity Project in 2018.

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Elaine Richardson Recap

The WRD Department welcomed Dr. Elaine Richardson, Professor of Literacy Studies from The Ohio State University, as part of our ongoing quarterly speakers series, Writing and Rhetoric Across Borders. Dr. Richardson’s talk was co-sponsored by the Department of African and Black Diaspora Studies as well as the Department of Women and Gender Studies and the Black Cultural Center.

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Todd Ruecker Recap: Working With Multilingual Writers

Recently the WRD department welcomed speaker Todd Ruecker to discuss his research on working with multilingual writers in the composition classroom. Ruecker is an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at New Mexico University and author of Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College, an ethnography focusing on the writing practices of several Latino students as they transition from high school to college. Ruecker’s research focuses on the increasing diversity of the writing classroom and the role institutions and instructors play in making classrooms more engaging and successful environments for multilingual writers.

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Creating Knowledge: The LAS Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Looking to build upon the previous years of successful student publication, the WRD Committee for CK encourages faculty to identify strong papers and projects for submission. We are seeking submissions from WRD majors and minors in upper-level courses from the current academic year 2017–2018 (scholarship from SQ 2017 is acceptable). All submissions should follow the LAS guidelines (see below) and should be emailed to Jason Kalin (jkalin@depaul.edu) by Friday, June 1, 2018.

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Job Sleuth: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

The WRD program at DePaul offers a number of ways for students to understand the challenges of second language acquisition and teaching speakers of other languages. Undergraduate students engage with these topics through courses such as Global Englishes (WRD 368) and can get hands-on experience tutoring English language learners by taking Teaching English as a Second Language in Chicago (WRD 378). The MA in WRD also offers a TESOL Graduate Certificate.

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