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.