Interests: My teaching interests include technical and professional communication, writing strategies for game design, and writing for social media. Select courses at the bottom of the page have links to full syllabi.
Approach: A few years ago, I read an email reply to a developers’ listserv from Keith Wesolowski that made a well-reasoned plea for us to include empathy as a core value for engineering. He discussed how putting time into thoughtful development for real users instead of ideal users can improve everyone’s quality of life. Whether engineers or workplace professionals, effective and ethical communicators must consider the end user as integral to communication rather than “collateral damage” in the rush to provide bigger and better services (Wesolowski 2013). Empathy for users is essential for problem solving, design thinking, and collaboration, all key elements of effective professional communication. I strive to help students become more humane communicators whose writing solves problems, creates direct action, and considers human interaction.
My teaching philosophy is grounded in creating adaptability and fostering a design thinking approach (a process for creative problem solving). Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber articulate adaptability as essential for students and technical communicators to “become reflective problem solvers” (3).
A problem solving approach emphasizes the multiple strategies students can use to approach the unfamiliar, adapt their previous strategies to their new rhetorical context, and become thoughtful mediators with their users/audience. The importance of this approach is validated by my co-written article about creating multimodal assignments that challenge students to “filter information, remix modes, and remake practices” (Dusenberry, Hutter, and Robinson 1).
WRIT 5580: Social Media Management
WRIT 5540: Plain Language in Workplace Writing
WRIT 3233: Professional Editing
WRIT 3220: Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing
WRIT 3310: Digital Storytelling
WRIT 2450: Writing for Social Media
WRIT 2130: Technical Communication
ENGL 3700: Introduction To Communication
ENGL 3720: Business and Technical Communication
ENGL 5000: Writing Strategies for Game Design: Interactive Fictions
ENGL 5700: Promotional Writing (Strategic Social Marketing)
LMC 3403: Technical Communication (Fall 2014)
ENC 3250: Professional Communication (Online) (Fall 2013-Present)
LMC 3403: Technical Communication via Alternate Reality Games (Summer 2014)
LMC3403: Technical Communication via Alternate Reality Games (Spring 2014)
LMC 3403: Technical Communication (Fall 2013)
HUM 2305: What is the Good Life? (Spring 2013)
HUM 2305: What is the Good Life? (Fall 2012)
ENC 3310: Advanced Exposition (Summer 2012)
AML 2070: Survey of American Literature (Spring 2012)
ENC 5236: Advanced Business Writing For Accountants (Fall 2011)
ENC 5236: Advanced Business Writing For Accountants (Summer 2011)
IDS 2935: What is the Good Life (Spring 2010)
IDS 2935: What is the Good Life? (Fall 2010)
LIT 4334: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature (Spring 2010)
ENC 5236: Advanced Business Writing for Accountants (Fall 2009)
ENC 1101: Introduction to College Writing “Technology and Community” (Summer 2009)
AML 2410: Coming of Age: 20th Century American Adolescent Literature (Spring 2009)
ENC 1102: Introduction to Argument and Persuasion (Spring 2007)
ENC 1101: Introduction to College Composition (Fall 2006)
ENC 2210: Technical Writing Syllabus (Summer 2006)
ENC 2210: Technical Writing Syllabus (Spring 2006)
ENC 2210 Technical Writing Syllabus (Fall 2005)
Associate Professor of Writing and Linguistics, Department of Writing and Linguistics, Georgia Southern University, August 2020-Present.
Assistant Professor of Professional Communication, Department of Writing and Linguistics, Georgia Southern University (formerly Armstrong State University), August 2015-July 2020.
Assistant Director of Writing and Communication, School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, January 2014-May 2015.
Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, August 2013-May 2015.
Online Instructor, Flexible Learning, University of Florida, August 2012-April 2015.
Teaching Assistant, University of Florida, August 2005-May 2007 and July 2008-May 2013.
Humanities Preceptor (Teaching Fellow), University of Florida, Aug. 2010-May 2011.
Adjunct Instructor, English Department, Santa Fe College, Gainesville, FL. Fall 2008.
Writing Tutor, Reading and Writing Center, University of Florida, August 2007-May 2008.