The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher

The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher
Author: Shirley K. Rose
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1999
Genre: English language
ISBN:

This collection of essays discusses writing program administrators' (WPAs') research. The essays pose several questions to characterize WPAs' research practices: "What is WPA research? What characterizes WPA research and the sites of WPA inquiry?"; and "What values guide WPA research?" The 14 chapters are divided into 2 parts, "Writing Program Administrators' Inquiry in Action" and "Writing Program Administrators' Inquiry in Reflection." Part 1 exemplifies WPA research by describing and conceptualizing specific research projects conducted as part of WPA responsibilities, and thereby provides a detailed picture of administrative research. Part 2 then draws on the concrete experiences of particular WPAs and particular writing programs, raising and reflecting on issues about WPA research in general. Each chapter demonstrates that WPAs' inquiry is characterized by a recursive interplay between reflection and action. Some of the many topics addressed in the book include diverse research methodologies for diverse audiences, feminist methods, conflicts between teaching and assessing writing, outcomes assessment research as a teaching tool, the contributions of sociolinguistic profiling, assessing teacher preparation programs, reflective essays, local research and curriculum development, enabling research in the writing program archives, WPAs as historians, historical work on WPAs, the role of research in writing programs, and postmodern mapping. (RJM)

Writing Program Administration

Writing Program Administration
Author: Susan H. McLeod
Publisher: Parlor Press LLC
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2007-03-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1602350094

This reference guide provides a comprehensive review of the literature on all the issues, responsibilities, and opportunities that writing program administrators need to understand, manage, and enact, including budgets, personnel, curriculum, assessment, teacher training and supervision, and more. Writing Program Administration also provides the first comprehensive history of writing program administration in U.S. higher education. Writing Program Administration includes a helpful glossary of terms and an annotated bibliography for further reading.

The Writing Program Administrator's Resource

The Writing Program Administrator's Resource
Author: Stuart C. Brown
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 559
Release: 2005-04-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135648859

This handbook offers wisdom and guidance from experienced college writing program administrators. It is intended for WPAs at all levels of experience.

Transnational Writing Program Administration

Transnational Writing Program Administration
Author: David S. Martins
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2015-01-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0874219612

While local conditions remain at the forefront of writing program administration, transnational activities are slowly and thoroughly shifting the questions we ask about writing curricula, the space and place in which writing happens, and the cultural and linguistic issues at the heart of the relationships forged in literacy work. Transnational Writing Program Administration challenges taken-for-granted assumptions regarding program identity, curriculum and pedagogical effectiveness, logistics and quality assurance, faculty and student demographics, innovative partnerships and research, and the infrastructure needed to support writing instruction in higher education. Well-known scholars and new voices in the field extend the theoretical underpinnings of writing program administration to consider programs, activities, and institutions involving students and faculty from two or more countries working together and highlight the situated practices of such efforts. The collection brings translingual graduate students at the forefront of writing studies together with established administrators, teachers, and researchers and intends to enrich the efforts of WPAs by examining the practices and theories that impact our ability to conceive of writing program administration as transnational. This collection will enable writing program administrators to take the emerging locations of writing instruction seriously, to address the role of language difference in writing, and to engage critically with the key notions and approaches to writing program administration that reveal its transnationality.

Landmark Essays on Writing Program Administration

Landmark Essays on Writing Program Administration
Author: Kelly Ritter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2019-01-03
Genre: English language
ISBN: 9781138715356

Leading with the provocative observation that writing programs administration lacks ¿an established set of texts that provides a baseline of shared knowledge . . . in which to root our ongoing conversations and with which to welcome newcomers,¿ Landmark Essays on Writing Program Administration focuses on WPA identity to propose one such grouping of texts. This Landmark volume is the cornerstone resource for new Writing Program Administrators and graduate students seeking an ever-important overview of the literature on Writing Program Administration. Drawing broadly across scholarship in writing programs and writing centers, Ritter and Ianetta work to historicize, theorize, and problematize the ever-shifting answers offered to the question: Who¿or what¿is a WPA?

Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs

Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs
Author: Todd Ruecker
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2017-04-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1607326027

From scholars working in a variety of institutional and geographic contexts and with a wide range of student populations, Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs offers perspectives on how writing programs can support or hinder students’ transitions to college. The contributors present individual and program case studies, student surveys, a wealth of institutional retention data, and critical policy analysis. Rates of student retention in higher education are a widely acknowledged problem: although approximately 66 percent of high school graduates begin college, of those who attend public four-year institutions, only about 80 percent return the following year, with 58 percent graduating within six years. At public two-year institutions, only 60 percent of students return, and fewer than a third graduate within three years. Less commonly known is the crucial effect of writing courses on these statistics. First-year writing is a course that virtually all students have to take; thus, writing programs are well-positioned to contribute to larger institutional conversations regarding retention and persistence and should offer themselves as much-needed sites for advocacy, research, and curricular innovation. Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs is a timely resource for writing program administrators as well as for new writing teachers, advisors, administrators, and state boards of education. Contributors: Matthew Bridgewater, ​Cristine Busser, Beth Buyserie, Polina Chemishanova, ​Michael Day, ​Bruce Feinstein, ​Patricia Freitag Ericsson, ​Nathan Garrett, ​Joanne Baird Giordano, ​Tawanda Gipson, ​Sarah E. Harris, Mark Hartlaub, ​Holly Hassel, ​Jennifer Heinert, ​Ashley J. Holmes, ​Rita Malenczyk, ​Christopher P. Parker, ​Cassandra Phillips, ​Anna Plemons, ​Pegeen Reichert Powell, ​Marc Scott, Robin Snead, ​Sarah Elizabeth Snyder, ​Sara Webb-Sunderhaus, ​Susan Wolff Murphy

The Writing Program Administrator's Resource

The Writing Program Administrator's Resource
Author: Stuart C. Brown
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 589
Release: 2005-04-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135648840

The role of the writing program administrator is one of diverse activities and challenges, and preparation for the position has traditionally come through performing the job itself. As a result, uninitiated WPAs often find themselves struggling to manage the various requirements and demands of the position, and even experienced WPAs often encounter situations on which they need advice. The Writing Program Administrator's Resource has been developed to address the needs of all WPAs, regardless of background or experience. It provides practical, applicable tools to effectively address the differing and sometimes competing roles in which WPAs find themselves. Readers will find an invaluable collection of articles in this volume, addressing fundamental practices and issues encountered by WPAs in their workplace settings and focusing on the hows and whys of writing program administration. With formal preparation and training only now beginning to catch up to the very real needs of the WPA, this volume offers guidance and support from authoritative and experienced sources--educators who have established the definitions and standards of the position; who have run into obstacles and surmounted them; and who have not just survived but thrived in their roles as WPAs. Editors Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos contribute their own experience and bring together the voices of their colleagues to delineate the intellectual scope and practices of writing program administration as an emerging discipline. Established and esteemed leaders in the field offer insights, advice, and plans of action for the myriad scenarios encountered in the position, encouraging WPAs and helping them to realize that they often know more than they think they do. This resource is required reading for the new WPA, and an essential reference for all who serve in the WPA role. As a guidebook for WPAs, it is destined to become a fixture on the desk of every educator involved with or interested in administrating writing programs, writing centers, and writing-across-the-curriculum efforts.

The Things We Carry

The Things We Carry
Author: Courtney Adams Wooten
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2020-11-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1607329468

Emotional labor is not adequately talked about or addressed by writing program administrators. The Things We Carry makes this often-invisible labor visible, demonstrates a variety of practical strategies to navigate it reflectively, and opens a path for further research. Particularly timely, this collection considers how writing program administrators work when their schools or regions experience crisis situations. The book is broken into three sections: one emphasizing the WPA’s own work identity, one on fostering community in writing programs, and one on balancing the professional and personal. Chapters written by a diverse range of authors in different institutional and WPA contexts examine the roles of WPAs in traumatic events, such as mass shootings and natural disasters, as well as the emotional labor WPAs perform on a daily basis, such as working with students who have been sexually assaulted or endured racist, sexist, homophobic, and otherwise disenfranchising interactions on campus. The central thread in this collection focuses on “preserving” by acknowledging that emotions are neither good nor bad and that they must be continually reflected upon as WPAs consider what to do with emotional labor and how to respond. Ultimately, this book argues for more visibility of the emotional labor WPAs perform and for WPAs to care for themselves even as they care for others. The Things We Carry extends conversations about WPA emotional labor and offers concrete and useful strategies for administrators working in both a large range of traumatic events as well as daily situations that require tactical work to preserve their sense of self and balance. It will be invaluable to writing program administrators specifically and of interest to other types of administrators as well as scholars in rhetoric and composition who are interested in emotion more broadly.

Very Like a Whale

Very Like a Whale
Author: Edward M. White
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2015-03-04
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1457193515

Written for those who design, redesign, and assess writing programs, Very Like a Whale is an intensive discussion of writing program assessment issues. Taking its title from Hamlet, the book explores the multifaceted forces that shape writing programs and the central role these programs can and should play in defining college education. Given the new era of assessment in higher education, writing programs must provide valid evidence that they are serving students, instructors, administrators, alumni, accreditors, and policymakers. This book introduces new conceptualizations associated with assessment, making them clear and available to those in the profession of rhetoric and composition/writing studies. It also offers strategies that aid in gathering information about the relative success of a writing program in achieving its identified goals. Philosophically and historically aligned with quantitative approaches, White, Elliot, and Peckham use case study and best-practice scholarship to demonstrate the applicability of their innovative approach, termed Design for Assessment (DFA). Well grounded in assessment theory, Very Like a Whale will be of practical use to new and seasoned writing program administrators alike, as well as to any educator involved with the accreditation process.

Ecologies of Writing Programs

Ecologies of Writing Programs
Author: Mary Jo Reiff
Publisher: Parlor Press LLC
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2015-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1602355134

Ecologies of Writing Programs: Profiles of Writing Programs in Context features profiles of exemplary and innovative writing programs across varied institutions. Situated within an ecological framework, the book explores the dynamic inter-relationships as well as the complex rhetorical and material conditions that writing programs inhabit—conditions and relationships that are constantly in flux as writing program administrators negotiate constraint and innovation.