pz-writing.net

The
special issue of IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
focusing on the state of the field outside of the US is now out. Editing
this issue was am almost 3-year process and I learned a lot. Connie
Kampf, thanks for being a terrific collaborator!

Computers and Composition Online has published a very positive review of the first volume of Writing Spaces.

Quote:

"Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing
(volume 1) creates a new
category of first year composition textbooks.  Editors Charles Lowe and
Pavel Zemliansky offer a set of essays written by composition scholars
for an audience of first year writers.  The editors characterize this
unique writer-reader relationship: by “drawing
on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students
join in the conversation about developing nearly every aspect of the
craft of writing” (ii). In these essays, writers speak directly to
students in their capacity as agents of their own writing
development." 

Elizabeth Woodworth who is a member of the Writing Spaces editorial staff and a writing teacher coordinated the creation of this video that highlights the potential of open educational resources in writing center work.

Today, we at Writing Spaces are beginning a "writing sprint" during which authors are invited to contribute to a web writing style guide for undergraduate students. The project is open for participation for anyone interested, but this is not an "Wikipedia-like" exercise. Intrigued yet?  Here is more information: http://writingspaces.org/web-sprint

Here is another film from the Visual Rhetoric Class. This one is different from the one on graffiti and street art in that it relies more heavily on interviews to explore the issue of why recent college graduates make the life choices they make. The idea for this film came out of a NY Times article the students had read outside of class, about "life milestones" and how young people these days choose to go about reaching them.

A project long in the making, but well-worth the wait. Pat Bizzaro, Devan Cook, and Alys Culhane put together a great collection-tribute to Wendy Bishop. My chapter "“Do You Want to Do a Book Together?” or Mentoring Like Wendy," talks about Wendy's work as a mentor and what it was like to be mentored by her as a graduate student and a writer.

Here is a video made by three students in my visual rhetoric class. This is not the only excellent project I am seeing, but I like this one for its willingness not to rush to conclusions and to keep asking questions, the answers to which are less than obvious. How many of us can really distinguish between "graffiti" and "street art?"

This is the introductory class to our graduate program in technical and scientific communication, and this year we are offering it online for the first time.

Our goal is to attract students who are either just thinking about applying to our program or are not in the area yet. Since we do not yet have a full-blown online graduate degree, we thoughts offering this class online would be a good "test drive."

The substance and the subject of the class is what I like to call "the investigation of the uses of language and other means of communication" in the "professions," which includes but is not limited to the "technical professions" and the sciences. This is certainly much more than a "technical writing" course.

This has been a mainstay and a very popular course in the department since the time I developed and taught it first circa 2004. The course works to combine views on visual persuasion and communication from both the points of view of rhetoric (and some cultural studies influences) on the one hand and elements of some more "professionally oriented" subfields, such as visual and web design. This is a good fit for a variety of majors--from writing, rhetoric and tech comm to media arts and design, marketing and communication studies. 

The second volume of WS is to be published in December. Descriptions of the chapters are now available at www.writingspaces.org.