Persuasive Games

If I've done this right then the blog will contain two examples of "persuasive games." Although we will not be producing a computer game (should we decide to pursue the WPA board game project), these links should provide examples of how arguments can be embedded in "fun activities."

Also, if it helps, I think it's useful to think of this project as the production of a rhetorical text that grapples with the roles, challenges, and types of knowledge associated with writing program administration. Although none of us are experts at "making games," we all have some expertise in making arguments. Ultimately, I think our ability to articulate those arguments will determine the relative success or failure of the project.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life

Persuasive Games

TS

WPA Seminar Assignment for Jan 29 and 31

Assignment for Tuesday, January 29 and Thursday, January 31
What Does a WPA Need to Know? How is it learned? Part Two:
Arguments and Assumptions about Graduate WPA Apprenticeships/ Experiential Learning

For Tuesday’s meeting (Jan 29),
please read the following discussions of graduate students’ WPA work, which discuss learning modes that could be located chiefly near “experiential learning” in Phelps’s continuum from formal learning to experiential learning to pragmatic learning. As you read, please consider the following question:

Do these discussions suggest that different areas of WPA knowledge are learned in different ways? Create a visual representation of the relationships between these areas and ways. I encourage you to be playful with developing your representation.

Desser, Daphne and Darin Payne. “Writing Program Administration Internships.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 89-99.

Long, Mark C., Jennifer H. Holberg, and Marcy M. Taylor. “Beyond Apprenticeship: Graduate Students, Professional Development Programs and the Future(s) of English Studies.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 20.1/2 (Fall/Winter 1996): 66-78.

Thomas, Trudelle. “The Graduate Student as Apprentice WPA: Experiencing the Future.” WPA: Writing Program Administration 14.3 (Spring 1991): 41-51.

Jukuri, Stephen Davenport; W.J. Williamson. "How To Be a Wishy-Washy Graduate Student WPA, Or Undefined But Overdetermined: The Positioning of Graduate Student WPAs." Kitchen Cooks, Plate Twirlers & Troubadours: Writing Program Administrators Tell Their Stories. Ed. Diana George. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999. 105-119 (coursepack)

Brown, Johanna Atwood. "The Peer Who Isn't a Peer: Authority and the Graduate Student Administrator." Kitchen Cooks, Plate Twirlers & Troubadours: Writing Program Administrators Tell Their Stories. Ed. Diana George. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999. 120-126. (coursepack)

Richard McNabb, et al “Future Perfect: Administrative Work and the Professionalization of Graduate Students” (A Symposium). Rhetoric Review 21.1 (2002): 40-87. (coursepack or online)

Micchiche, Laura R. “More than a Feeling: Disappointment and WPA Work.” College English 64.4 (March 2002): 432-458. (coursepack or online)

For Thursday’s meeting (January 31),
consider this question about these same articles:

Some might argue that writing about graduate student writing program administration is a distinct subgenre of WPA discourse. What are some shared qualities or features of these articles and essays in this week’s reading? Create a list of generic features of gradWPA discourse OR draw from these articles to draft a manifesto for gradWPAs OR devise your own synthesis of these articles.

Assigment for Thurs, January 24 Meeting

Professor David Blakesley, Director of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue, will be the guest leader for the January 24th seminar meeting.

He has suggested that you read his article "Directed Self-Placement in the University" and says, "In honor of this occasion, I've worked on that issue of the archives, so it's now online: http://wpacouncil.org/wpa25n3"

Professor Blakesley is also the web developer for the Council of Writing Program Administrators, so I recommend that you do some browsing of the site beforehand. By now, you should also have signed up for the WPA-L listserv and have monitored posts for awhile.

I will be out of town on Thursday and will not be able to attend this meeting of the seminar.

"Formal Preparation for WPA Work" Readings

I will read Stygall, Miller, and Enos.

Tom

Hello,

I'll read Miller, Barr-Ebest, and Rose & Weiser.

See you soon,

Megan

My readings

Hi, guys. I will read the Stygall, Enos, and Rose and Weiser articles. Have a good long weekend!

Assignment for WPA Seminar meeting on Tues Jan 22

the following is the assignment I announced at our seminar meeting on January 25 (see below). Please post a comment to the blog indicating which 3 of the 6 readings in the second group you plan to focus on (everybody does Phelps)

Topic: Formal Preparation for WPA Work: What Does a WPA Need to Know” and How is it learned? (Part 1)

For this class session, we will read several relatively recent articles addressing preparation for WPA work.

As you read, consider the following questions and make notes from which you could present your observations to the class:
--What areas of knowledge (“content”) does each author assume or argue are the most important for WPAs develop?
--What kinds of knowing are required of WPAs? (use any means of classification /description that seems useful)
--How is that knowledge developed—who develops it in what settings by what means, etc.?

Readings: Everyone should read:

Phelps, Louise. “Turtles All the Way Down: Educating Academic Leaders.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 3-39.

For helpful further context-building (not required, but recommended), read:
MLA Commission on Professional Service. “Making Faculty Work Visible: Reinterpreting Professional Service, Teaching, and Research in the Fields of Language and Literature.” Profession 96. New York: MLA, 1996. 161-216. (coursepack)

Each person choose three from the following group.

Stygall, Gail. “Certifying the Knowledge of WPAs.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 71-87.

Barr-Ebest, Sally. "The Generation of WPAs: A Study of Graduate Students in Composition/ Rhetoric." WPA: Writing Program Administration 22.3 (Spring 1999): 65-84(on disc)

Miller, Thomas P. “Why Don’t Our Graduate Programs Do a Better Job of Preparing Students for the Work That We Do? WPA: Writing Program Administration 24.3 (Spring 2001): 41-58. (on disc)

Enos, Theresa. “Reflexive Professional Development: Getting Discipline in Writing Program Administration.” The Writing Program Administrator’s Resource: A Guide to Reflective Institutional Practice. Ed. Stuart C. Brown and Theresa Enos. Matwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002. 59-69.

Rose, Shirley K and Irwin Weiser. “Beyond ‘Winging It’: The Place of Writing Program Administration in Rhetoric and Composition Graduate Programs.” Culture Shock: Training the New Wave in Rhetoric and Composition, Susan Romano and Virginia Anderson, Eds. Hampton Press, Cresgill, NJ: in press. (in coursepack)

Your own review of WPA course syllabi available on the web. Look at CompFAQs at this URL: http://comppile.tamucc.edu/wiki/WPA-GraduateCourses/ListOfSchools but also see what else you can find online.


Remember that our visiting candidate for our position in rhetoric and composition will be sitting in on our class on Tuesday.

Notice re WPA class Jan 17 and Jan 22

WPA Seminar Members--
On Thursday, January 17, we will forego our regular meeting in order to attend the Research Presentation of one of our candidates for the Rhet-Comp position from 1:30 to 2:30.

On Tuesday, January 23, one of the candidates will be sitting in on our seminar meeting.

Shirley

Meetings of Interest to WPA students

WPA Seminar members:

Barbara Dixon, CLA Associate Dean for Administration, has encouraged me to pass along this information about Purdue's participation in the VSA to any students who are interested in WPA work--particularly assessment issues. I've cut and pasted from her email message:

As you probably know, Purdue is planning to participate in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), which is a joint project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). VSA will provide a Web format titled "College Portrait" to publicize information about the universities who participate, including tuition costs, retention rates, and institutional performance in students’ writing and critical thinking. My current understanding is that 7 of the 9 public universities in the Big Ten are also planning to be a part of VSA.

A week from Wednesday representatives from the testing services will be on campus to present their tests, and respond to questions. I particularly want to invite ... any colleagues or students with an interest in writing evaluation.
Wednesday, January 23,
from 1-4 pm in STEW 302-306.
1 pm--MAPP: Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress by Education Testing Services

2 pm--CLA: Collegiate Learning Assessment by Council for Aid to Education

3 pm--CAAP: Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency by American College Testing

If you have a chance, please come give feedback about the tests. Light refreshments will be available.
Thanks,
Barbara

I encourage you to pass along this information to other students interested in WPA issues.

Follow-up from 1-10-08 class

Here's the citation for the article I mentioned in today's meeting when we discussed Tom's question about what research had been done on institutional expectation of WPAs:



Olson, Gary A., and Joseph M. Moxley. "Directing Freshman Composition:
The Limits of Authority." College Composition and Communication
40.1 (February 1989): 51- 59.



Olson and Moxley did a survey of English department chairs, asking them about the perceptions of the WPA's role.

Assignment for Tuesday, January 15

Assignment for Tuesday, January 15
Read the texts below and consider whether the role definition of a WPA has changed over time; include the “Portland Resolution” and the WPA Intellectual Work Document.


“Administration of the Composition Course: The Report of the Workshop No. 13.” CCC 1.2 (May 1950): 40-42. (J-stor)

“Administration of the Composition Course: the Report of Workshop No. 13.” CCC 2.4 (December 1951): 24-26. (j-stor)

Horner, Bruce. “Redefining Work and Value for Writing Program Administration.” JAC 27.1 & 2 (2007): 164-82. (coursepack)

Welcome

Welcome to the Assignment Blog for our Spring 2008 WPA Seminar at Purdue. Details about reading assignments and discussion questions will be posted here periodically.