On April 13, 2018, Reynolds and Schiff led a discussion at Duke’s Perkins Library on how faculty can integrate their research and teaching. Questions they addressed included: What is writing-to-learn? What is “hot” right now in the field of STEM education? How can researchers learn to live with the “messy data” involved in education research? And perhaps most importantly, what’s the best way to get started? Julie Reynolds is a professor of biology at Duke University. Leslie Schiff is a professor of microbiology and… read more about Integrating Research and Teaching »
Author John Warner Urges Faculty to Write about Teaching Six years ago, writing instructor John Warner realized that higher education had a problem. Record numbers of students were experiencing anxiety, sometimes so severe they could hardly bring themselves to attend class. Yet data showed that college students were studying less. “Somehow, they’re working less, but worrying more,” he wrote in an article for his Inside Higher Ed blog – an article titled “… read more about Writing about Teaching »
Six years ago, writing instructor John Warner realized that higher education had a problem. Record numbers of students were experiencing anxiety, sometimes so severe they could hardly bring themselves to attend class. Yet data showed that college students were studying less. “Somehow, they’re working less, but worrying more,” he wrote in an article for his Inside Higher Ed blog – an article titled “Students Crying in My Office.” His conclusion? Students were too protected from adversity. They… read more about Author John Warner Urges Faculty to Write about Teaching »
Dr. Adam Boyette is an anthropologist and Lecturing Fellow in the TWP. In addition to teaching Writing 101 course options from the disciplinary perspectives of biological and cultural anthropology, Boyette also maintains an active research program on issues of child development in small-scale societies. Adam is an expert in children’s social learning and parenting and has worked primarily with hunter-gatherer and subsistence farming communities in the Congo Basin. Over the past two years, his research has taken him to the… read more about Dr. Adam Boyette, Thompson Writing Program Fellow »
The Duke Faculty Write Program’s annual retreat came just in time for statistician Elizabeth “Liz” Turner who was facing a looming deadline for an important grant proposal. With time short but the pace of the academic year finally past her, Turner packed her bags for the cozy amenities of the King’s Daughters Inn, where she and two dozen faculty colleagues spent four days talking about writing, sharing advice and getting down to work. Writing is a way of life for many of Duke’s faculty, and it comes in different… read more about At Summer Retreat, Faculty Brush Up on Their Writing »
Dr. Eliana Schonberg, Director of the TWP Writing Studio and Assistant Professor of the Practice in Writing Studies, has been named an incoming co-editor of The Writing Center Journal, the official journal of the International Writing Centers Association. The biannual journal, which was launched in 1980, is the primary research journal in the field of writing center studies and has an acceptance rate of 17%. Along with Drs. Pam Bromley of Pomona College and Kara Northway of Kansas State University, she will begin… read more about Eliana Schonberg named co-editor of The Writing Center Journal, the official journal of the International Writing Centers Association »
Denise Comer has been named winner of the 2017 Apereo Teaching and Learning Awards (ATLAS). The intent of the international award is to highlight innovative or transformative educational applications of Apereo tools. Comer received the award for her innovation designing Writing 270: Composing the Internship Experience: Social Media and Digital Discourse. Writing 270 is a fully online summer undergraduate course at Duke that enables students to meaningfully reflect on and productively narrate their summer internships or… read more about Denise Comer Named Winner of the 2017 Apereo Teaching and Learning Awards »
Nan is the Senior Global Fellow, teaching one semester at Duke each year, while traveling to China once a year to teach advanced research and writing at Duke Kunshan University. Nan took this position with the TWP in the summer of 2016 after having taught Writing 101 and Writing in the Disciplines for five years. Nan earned her PhD in History from the State University of New York at Albany in 2009, with a concentration in nineteenth-century American gender and cultural history. Her first book, Staging Family, Mid-… read more about Nan Mullenneaux, Senior Global Fellow »
TWP is accepting applications for the 2017 Rigel Scholars, a signature research and writing opportunity for 2016-17 Writing 101 and First-Year Seminar students. read more about TWP Accepting Rigel Scholars' Applications »
The Thompson Writing Program is currently accepting student writing submission for consideration for the upcoming issue of Deliberations — the journal of first-year writing. Students interested in having their work appear in the 2017 issue should complete the application process by Friday, May 5, 2017 at 5 p.m. read more about TWP Accepting Articles for "Deliberations" 2017 »
[This is a guest post by Jennifer Ahern-Dodson, an assistant professor of the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University where she teaches digital storytelling and researches learning communities and community-university partnerships. You can follow her on Twitter @jaherndodson.--@JBJ] On May 31st panic set in. I had agreed to commit to writing every day in the month of June as part of a faculty writing group experiment. Inspired both by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo),… read more about Scholarly Writing Hacks: 5 Lessons I learned Writing Every Day in June »
A new Duke writing group aims to improve faculty writing Until recently, Huffin the Puffin -- a quirky little bird perched on a fencepost above a pebbly seashore -- existed only in Dan McShea's mind. Then the Duke biologist tried to move his laser-sharp image of Huffin, a bedtime story character he created for his children, out of his head and onto paper. It didn't go smoothly. Writing, it turns out, isn't easy. So McShea joined a new initiative on campus aimed at helping faculty cultivate their writing. This… read more about From Brain to Paper: How to Write Well »