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Teaching English 110 - Composition
I English 120 - Composition II (Spring 2005) English 275 - Introduction to Writing Studies English 320 - Practical Writing Engineering 320 - Technical Communication English 358 - Intermediate Composition English 357 - English 458/658 - Advanced Writing Workshop English 457- Electronic Communication (Spring 2006) English 755 - Composition Theory English 757 - Composition Studies English 758 - Composition and Rhetoric
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The history of writing instruction in western Canadian universities: A study in nation-building and professionalismKevin Alfred Brooks Major Professor: Dr. David R. Russell Iowa State University, 1997 "The History of Writing Instruction in Western Canadian Universities: A Study in Nation-building and Professionalism" explains why western Canadian universities no longer teach writing. Through contrasts with the history of writing instruction in American universities, this work also sheds light on why American institutions still do teach writing, particularly through the first-year requirement of composition. Writing instruction in western Canada—particularly composition—before mid-century was seen as a necessary technology of nation-building and the proper jurisdiction of English departments. After 1957, specialization in western Canadian universities enabled English departments to claim literature exclusively, and not composition, as the proper disciplinary object of their field. Only recently has writing instruction returned to western Canadian university curriculums, but not in any systematic fashion. The argument in this work challenges the standard account of writing instruction in Canada: that the traditional first-year literature and composition class has always favored literature at the expense or even exclusion of composition. Writing instruction in western Canadian universities was often shaped by local demands rather than English department ideologies. This work also challenges the idea that higher education and English departments in western Canada were primarily influenced by the University of Toronto, rather than American universities and English departments. Evidence from this research supports a continentalist, rather than nationalist, interpretation of the history of writing instruction in western Canada. The contemporary difference in the practice of writing instruction in the two countries can be traced to a Canadian rejection of American values and practices during the Cold War. Understanding the history of writing instruction in Canada and the US is particularly important at this time as the nature of education changes and the two countries’ cultures and economies become increasingly interrelated. An understanding of the historical relationship between nation-building and professionalism is particularly important as the values of governement and education become increasingly opposed. |
Research Recently published "Remediation, Genre, and Motivation: Key Concepts for Teaching with Weblogs." Into the Blogosphere. Ed. Laura Gurak et al. University of Minnesota, 2004. "The McLuhan Retrieval Reviewed." Kairos 9.1, 2004. In-progress "Changing the Ground of Graduate Education: Wireless Laptops Bring Stability rather than Mobility to Graduate Teaching Assistants." Book chapter. McLuhan for Compositionists. Book project. Other Stuff The annual Regional Studies Lecture, which I have co-ordinated since spring 2001.
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