THE WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center serves as a hub for the study and teaching of writing and rhetoric on our campus. In addition to conducting original research in writing, literacy, and rhetoric, we support writers across the campus via research-based practices influenced by the larger scholarly fields and our own findings. Most new graduate students begin familiarizing themselves with our various writing programs through the writing center by serving as tutors, and all remain involved throughout their study here by supporting and encouraging their student's extensive use of these services. Many of our graduates also contribute their own original research in writing center studies by presenting at local, regional, and national writing center conferences (more than 40 since 2001!) and publishing in the key publications in the field (two in the Writing Lab Newsletter, one in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal). Some have chosen to focus their theses and dissertations on issues directly related to research and teaching occuring in our Writing Center. A forthcoming article in College Composition and Communication explores issues related to writing center publicity and the power landscape (see Shannon Carter's "The Writing Center Paradox: Legitimacy and the Problem of Institutional Change"). Another explores a related issue as it overlaps with the WPA's position (see Carter's "The Feminist WPA Project: Fear and Possibility in the Feminist 'Home'" in Brownwyn William's collection Identity Papers: Literacy and Power in Higher Education. Utah State UP, 2006).
Not unlike most campuses, the bulk of formalized writing instruction takes place in the Writing Center and the classroom. Our writing programs guide students through curricula that places their experiences at the center of the classroom and introduces intellectually-rigorous and rhetorically-sound methods for examining those experiences and making sense of them in new contexts. To that end, students read challenging texts that expose them to an ongoing, scholarly conversation surrounding a topic that's immediately relevant to their lives and invite them to join that conversation through their own ethnographic inquiry and write up. Recent topics include "places and spaces," "faith and religion in the classroom," and the mutliple literacies of our lives. See http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/fyw.html for more about our various writing programs and recent curricula.
Just as we do in/for the Writing Center, we approach the classroom as teacher-scholars. That means our classroom practices are deeply informed by our research and our research deeply informes our classroom practices. Much scholarship and major teaching resources have emerged directly from our First-Year Program, including Donna Dunbar-Odom's innovative textbook Working with Ideas (Houghton Mifflin, 2001), her ground-breaking scholarly book Defying the Odds: Class and the Pursuit of Higher Literacy (State University of New York Press, 2007), and a number of related articles and conference presentations. The Basic Writing Program at A&M-Commerce is small by some standards, but it has received much scholarly attention as both conference presentations and recent and forthcoming publications. See especially Shannon Carter's The Way Literacy Lives: Rhetorical Dexterity and Basic Writing Instruction (State University of New York Press, March 2008), "Living Inside the Bible (Belt)" (College English, July 2007), and "Redefining Literacy as a Social Practice" (Journal of Basic Writing, Fall 2006).
A number of graduate student presentations, dissertations, theses, and publications have emerged from these spaces. Please see "People" for examples of past and current graduate students and their work.
THE COMMUNITY
As we've already suggested, the reach of graduate student research in our department stretches across A&M-Commerce and into the scholarly community (through publications/presentations). In similar ways and for similar reasons, first-year student research does to. At the end of their second semester in first-year composition (English 102), students participate in Celebration of Student Writing. At this event, the entire campus and surrounding community came to meet the the researchers, learn about their projects and findings, and view relevant artifacts and other materials. As one key administrator described it following our first CSW, "Yesterday’s Celebration of Student Writing was outstanding. I have been a professor for 40 years and I have never seen that kind of enthusiasm expressed over a writing assignment in a required class. Having 240 students proudly display their work is a phenomenon." Says another, "The students who participated were excited and eager to talk about their projects, and this event was a great venue for them to share their work with a live audience outside their classrooms.
According to another, "It was refreshing to see student work celebrated rather than complained about, and the students I talked to were able to speak with real authority about the work they did." As yet another put it, "Yesterday was a great example of passion in writing and learning and teaching. . . . It was a great day at our university yesterday." And the buzz continues: "I just keep smiling when I think about CSW – the energy and enthusiasm generated from faculty and students about learning…What really gets me, is the second and third wave of conversations about the day. People are referencing 'factoids' and the observations they picked up at the event. . ." According to yet another, the CSW "was a special day for the university. . . Too often, we focus on the problems we have and not on the good things…and then there is a ray of hope. . . . Just think…when we look back into our history, it will be the CSW and your leadership that gave us the example of how it is done." (for additional comments, see http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/csw_comments.htm ).That's what we are all about.
Two of our first-year students have even been able to extend their research beyond our campus. Recent English 102 student Eric Pleasant's "Punk Literacy in Mid 1980's Waco: An Ethnography," has been accepted for publication in the next issue of the innovative, national journal Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric. February, 2007, Stephen Williams, then a current English 102 student, presented his original research at the Federation Rhetoric Symposium (with Shannon Carter, see "The (Il)literate Lineman: Decontructing the Literacy Myth Through Ethnographic Inquiry").
Though we are really just getting started with more formalized community outreach, on an informal level A&M-Commerce has been involved with various community literacy projects for a number of years. Especially interesting with respect to STL may be our partnership with Texas HOPE Literacy, a prison literacy program in the Dallas area. Additional projects include our forthcoming "Tutors in the Community" program, which will take place for the first time during the third International Writing Center Week. We also extend our reach into the community through our first-year writing programs. The projects developed in English 100, 101, and 102 send students out into the world to explore and research a particular place (English 101) and/or literacy as it manifests itself in a particular community (English 100 and 102). Most select communities in the areas in or surrounding A&M-Commerce. For additional information about areas explored in previous years, please visit http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/csw.htm.
THE UNIVERSITY
A major effort is taking place across the campus to locate and exploit the scholarly/pedagogical possibilities available at the intersection of multiple disciplines. One such effort is a collaboratively written grant that will focus on the cross-disciplinary potential of Math 131 and English 100 ("developmental" courses). We hope to extend that grant to Math 171 and English 101 (credit-bearing courses). Principle investigators on this are Pamela Webster (Department of Mathematics), Christy Foreman (Department of Literature and Languages), and Shannon Carter (see http://faculty.tamu-commerce.edu/scarter/special_projects2.html for more about this work in progress).
An important aspect of the Center for the Student and Teaching of Literacy is our connections with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Communication Arts and Design, among others.
An Advisory Committee of faculty and staff from across the campus. Committee members and additional information will be available soon.
Last updated, July 2007
Questions/Comments? Contact Shannon_Carter@tamu-commerce.edu, Donna_Dunbar-Odom@tamu-commerce.edu, and/or Bill_Bolin@tamu-commerce.edu.