Here's a proposal I've prepared for a session at Writing Matters, a conference to be hosted at SUNY Cortland on March 18th 2018. *** Writing with Mirrors: Reflecting on Goals and Choices In FYC Jacob Richter Student-writers benefit from sustained and deliberate reflection on not only the writing of professionals, but also … Continue reading Writing With Mirrors: Reflecting On Goals and Choices in FYC
With 2018 nigh upon us, it's time to look back at the best contributions from independent rhetoric and composition journals over the past year. I'm moving through the process of evaluating a number of essays for inclusion in a "Best of the Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals 2018" anthology, so my mind is already geared … Continue reading Best of Rhetoric and Composition 2018
Hacking the Curriculum: FYC, Critical Information Literacies and Social Web Environments Among the benefits of teaching writing at my current university institution is the freedom and flexibility it allots to its composition instructors. Next semester I’ll be teaching Writing Studies II, the second leg of the institution’s FYC sequence. Writing Studies II is … Continue reading Hacking the Curriculum: FYC, Critical Information Literacies and Social Web Environments
*** The following is an abstract submitted to the 2017 NeMLA convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania*** For the Fall 2017 semester, the SUNY Cortland composition program implemented “teaching circles” as a required, yet loosely-defined, obligation for all instructors teaching FYW in the program. Hoping to spur dialogue, conversation and communication among program stakeholders, the WPAs … Continue reading Putting it in Writing: Teaching Circles and Institutional Return on Investment
The scene is a familiar one. A student knocks reluctantly on my office door, enters the musty room with uncertainty and then proceeds to speak some deeply heartfelt words in a trembling, quivering voice. Something along the lines of “I do not feel comfortable with other people viewing the writing I produce for this class.” … Continue reading Discourse in Democracy: Composition, Digital Citizenship and the Crafting of Authentic Rhetorical Situations
I had the pleasure of presenting alongside a number of talented writers and writing educators at this past weekend's SUNY Council on Writing conference. My presentation on creative thinking's role in first-year composition classrooms was one of many that attempted to voice the inner intricacies and challenges facing our discipline as teachers of literacy and … Continue reading SUNY Council on Writing
Here's the body of what I'll present at the 2017 SUNY Council on Writing conference in Syracuse, NY. My talk is just that-- a talk-- so these notes are really only serving as memory aids. I won't be reading word-by-word directly from a conference paper, but rather will be verbally outlining a thesis on the … Continue reading Cognitive Seeds: The Role of Creative Thinking in First-Year Composition
Should first-year writing students choose their own essay topics? I’d like to take some time this morning to venture an interesting take on this question that has been turning around in my head for a few months now. Long a topic of boisterous debate within composition and rhetoric, the role of student … Continue reading Should Students Choose Their Own Writing Topics?: A Mindful Approach
I'd like to begin this post by posing a question to my readers, especially those involved in the ever-complicated undertaking that is the teaching of the craft of writing: how can we press our writing communities, whether they be inside of the college classroom or outside of it, to travel intellectually beyond current thinking into … Continue reading The Faces of Janus: Rothenberg, Divergent Thinking and the Productivity of Gray Areas
A recent report coming out of the Pew Research Center on U.S. politics and policy issues lays bare a startling dataset which paints a challenging-- and incredibly polarizing-- picture of how Americans view the landscape of higher education in 2017. The Pew report surveyed Americans registered to the two major political party affiliations on their … Continue reading Republicans and Higher Education
Jacob Richter 