Composition Theory & Pedagogy
Dr. Joseph J. Essid, Writing Center Director
jessid@richmond.edu Personal Web page
Office Hours: In Person right after class or by appointment Zoom Room: click here You may schedule an appointment (please e-mail me 10 am-5pm please).
About the course:
Eng. 383, Introduction to Composition Theory & Pedagogy, explores fundamental theories of teaching writing, with particular emphasis upon the role of the peer tutor, know as a "Writing Consultant" on our campus. Although such study, may, in fact, help improve your writing, this is not primarily a writing course. We will discuss these and other questions:
Why does writing for academic audiences pose special difficulties for students?
How, and why, does peer tutoring work?
How can trained peers write effective commentary on papers? Hold good conferences?
Where is the balance in commentary between sentence-level concerns such as grammar and development of ideas, thesis, and support?
Which grammatical and stylistic errors most perturb professors?
How much help overwhelms a writer?
Why is some teacher commentary not effective?
How is writing influenced by a writer's culture? Identity? Neurodiverity? By technology?
Can tutors assist writers working with any subject?
How can we make generative AI partner, in an ethical manner?
We will be concerned with both the integrity of the theory and its practical applications in a classroom or tutoring situation. The course is by nature interdisciplinary, its materials drawn from English, linguistics, psychology, and education. What you learn can be applied in many settings, from teaching in middle, high, or graduate school, editing/technical writing for a corporation, working as a free-lance writer or editor. The course provides on-the-job training for undergraduate Writing Consultants, and for this reason, class members will often discuss students' papers. The most important part of this training will involve a weekly shift in the Writing Center as apprentice Writing Consultants.
Time on Task: To be successful in this course, you should expect to devote 10-14 hours each week in class to reading and studying the material, preparing the assignments, and working, come the second month, as an apprentice Writing Consultant.