Kara Poe Alexander | Baylor University (original) (raw)

Peer Reviewed Articles by Kara Poe Alexander

Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 2023

In this article, we discuss how participating in a writing group during and after the COVID-19 pa... more In this article, we discuss how participating in a writing group during and after the COVID-19 pandemic helped us reimagine what scholarly productivity means for us as writing center professionals (WCPs). Drawing on our experiences in an online writing group for almost three years with WCPs from four different institutions, we identify three themes that emerged across our experiences: (1) writing center work as scholarly and intellectual; (2) professionalization and mentoring; and (3) social support. Identifying these themes made visible for us a broader notion of scholarly productivity. It also helped us think more strategically about the complex and layered work we do as WCPs as we consistently juggle competing work demands. We hope this article can help WCPs not only re-conceive what it means to be productive as writing center scholars but also to integrate a broad range of scholarly work more fully into what they are already doing.

Computers and Composition, 2023

The literacy-as-success myth is prevalent in print-based literacy narratives but how students rel... more The literacy-as-success myth is prevalent in print-based literacy narratives but how students relate to this dominant myth in modes beyond print is still unknown. To learn more about how students characterize literacy in a non-print-based mode, I analyzed 170 audio literacy narratives (ALNs) from students who uploaded their essay to the Digital Archives of Literacy. Findings show that students ignore the literacy-as-success myth and instead offer a capacious view of literacy as an ongoing, fluid process of experimentation, communal connection, and play. Students promote literacy not as an end point but rather as a place to invent and reinvent oneself and to rethink previously held definitions of literacy. They also utilize creative and innovative composing approaches that not only expand the literacy narrative genre but also facilitate reimagination of their literate lives. Ultimately, audio literacy narratives provide a valuable means to disrupting the literacy myth and promoting a more expansive understanding of literacy development that breeds curiosity, creativity, and invention. As a result, it is an important assignment in writing classrooms. 1 See Faris et al. (2022) for a list of reasons to assign sound projects in classrooms.

College English, 2022

This essay examines the social byproducts of a faculty writing program for women associate profes... more This essay examines the social byproducts of a faculty writing program for women associate professors. Drawing on three years of survey and observation data, we highlight how investment mentoring, cross-university networking, and social support function as valuable benefits and essential elements of a faculty write-on-site group whose goal is increasing the number of women at the rank of full professor. We argue that cultivating supportive networks like a write-on-site group can help women faculty maintain active research agendas while also mobilizing them to reshape academic institutions into more equitable, supportive, and cohesive places.

Composition Studies, 2020

In this article, we discuss the three-year process of redesigning our writing major at Baylor Uni... more In this article, we discuss the three-year process of redesigning our writing major at Baylor University. In tracing our process, we discuss the decisions we made with regard to the redesign of our major and contextualize our decision-making process in relation to existing scholarship on the writing major. Additionally, we highlight the range of sources we examined in our efforts to understand how the various dimensions of each context might influence the redesign process. Finally, we distill key insights from our redesign process and provide practical guidance for writing scholars who plan to undertake similar redesign efforts. Through this essay, we aim to provide writing scholars with an approach for navigating-in thought and in practice the complex processes of decision-making and research central to (re) designing a writing major. On the whole, we hope our article will be a useful tool for helping others in their major-building efforts and serve as one possible response to an exigent and perennial question in writing major (re) design: How is a writing major developed or redesigned?

College Composition and Communication, 2020

Women continue to be underrepresented at the highest academic rank of full professor. Studies sho... more Women continue to be underrepresented at the highest academic rank of full professor. Studies show that once women earn tenure, they are inundated with teaching, service, and administrative responsibilities, which take time away from research and publication-the primary criteria for promotion. We believe that rhetoric and writing studies (RWS) faculty are uniquely situated to confront this challenge because of our disciplinary expertise, our experience administering writing programs, and our interest in equity. With the goal to increase the number of women full professors at our university, we created a year-long writing program for women associate professors. Based on results from this pilot study, we argue that RWS faculty can use their expertise to decrease the disparity at the highest academic rank and make the university more diverse and equitable. Moreover, we believe that RWS scholars can use their disciplinary expertise to address a range of other institutional and systemic challenges. The WFWP [Women's Faculty Writing Program] helped me set aside time, strategize how to achieve more writing time, and grasp the larger structural implications of the status of women faculty at Baylor University. The idea that I could set my time and largely keep it for writing was wonderful. I was accustomed to squeezing in writing when I could as opposed to

College English, 2019

In this essay, I analyze Malala Yousafzai’s memoir as a literacy narrative. When read as such, t... more In this essay, I analyze Malala Yousafzai’s memoir as a literacy narrative. When read as such, the book subverts Eurocentric imperialist paradigms and destabilizes the literacy myth. Yousafzai accomplishes this by performing “little” narratives of literacy that, together, promote literacy as a collective, universal achievement situated in a cultural ecology of literacy. She thus sidesteps questions of individual achievement and avoids falling prey to commodification claims. Malala’s story opens up new possibilities for sharing stories of literacy by offering multiple pathways to understand literacy and identity both locally and globally.

System, 2018

In response to the widely acknowledged challenge of instructor expertise in multimodal compositio... more In response to the widely acknowledged challenge of instructor expertise in multimodal composition (MC) teaching, our article discusses a pedagogical approach called distributed collaboration (DC)dan approach that facilitates collaboration among specialists with varied expertise (e.g., new media specialists, software specialists, community members, local professionals, student teams) in an effort to provide L1 and L2 writers with the support required to deepen their multimodal literacies, develop communicative expertise, and enhance the quality of their multimodal texts. To illustrate the ways that students' multimodal writing knowledge, English language learning, and multimodal texts might be improved through distributed collaboration, our article profiles a graduate-level course in which student writers were tasked with composing multimodal texts for an on-campus program. In sharing our findings, we hope to provide instructors of English language teaching (ELT) and L1 composition with a generative pedagogical approach for harnessing writers' full potential in MC projects.

Literacy in Composition Studies, 2017

Much of the research on literacy sponsorship positions students as “sponsored” rather than “spons... more Much of the research on literacy sponsorship positions students as “sponsored” rather than “sponsor,” which promotes a view of sponsorship as a one-way, fixed endeavor. In this essay, I consider how, in the context of service-learning, students might sponsor literacy and how this literacy sponsorship has the potential to be reciprocal. I highlight a semester-long course project that aimed to develop a variety of literacies in students. Results show that students supported, enabled, and sponsored the literacies of the clients with whom they worked. Findings also reveal that this literacy sponsorship was reciprocated by the clients, which indicates that, at least in service-learning settings, literacy sponsorship functions as a dynamic, reciprocal process where both parties learn and grow through their relationship with each other. This research is significant because it brings students into the discussion on literacy sponsorship and shows how individuals can seize the literacy resources offered to meet their own goals, motivations, and needs.

Computers and Composition, Sep 2016

This essay considers the question of transfer in relation to processes of remediation. In particu... more This essay considers the question of transfer in relation to processes of remediation. In particular, we explore the interrelationships between transfer and new media in multiliteracy center contexts. Drawing on a case study of an undergraduate student named Sophie, we offer a multidimensional approach called adaptive remediation that helps composers develop meta-awareness about how they might use and reshape prior composing knowledge and available semiotic resources in ways to suit media affordances and their rhetorical objectives in processes of remediation. Specifically, we propose four dimensions of adaptive remediation, including charting, inventorying, coordinating, and literacy linking. Our hope is that adaptive remediation will prepare multiliteracy center directors and consultants to help students transfer knowledge across media and, in the process, make rhetorically sound decisions about how to adapt and reuse literacies, skills, and ideas in a variety of contexts. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Rhetoric Review, 2016

This essay examines four disciplinary challenges that faculty from broad, diverse disciplines suc... more This essay examines four disciplinary challenges that faculty from broad, diverse disciplines such as rhetoric and composition encounter during tenure, promotion, and reappointment (TP&R) and highlights the arguments and rhetorical strategies that can be utilized to demonstrate scholarly worth and significance.

Computers and Composition, 2015

Because of the vast changes to the communication landscape over the last two decades, along with ... more Because of the vast changes to the communication landscape over the last two decades, along with the influence of emerging technologies on students’ writing practices, empirical studies that describe students’ experiences in multimodal composing are required to determine how the goals and practices of composition teaching might be better supported and reimagined. In response to this exigency, this article presents findings from an empirical study of graduate and undergraduate writers’ multimodal composing processes. Findings from focus group interviews and written reflections show that students’ attempts to draw on their print-based rhetorical knowledge while composing multimodally worked well when they perceived print-based and multimodal composing tasks as similar, but they faced significant difficulties when they perceived the need to adapt their print-based composing knowledge to suit new or unfamiliar aspects of multimodal composing. Specifically, students found it difficult to conceptualize an audience and negotiate the multiple semiotic resources afforded by multimodal composing. In an effort to mitigate such challenges, we provide two conceptual frameworks that help students move more fluidly between print-based and multimodal composing. These pedagogical approaches enable writing specialists to better support students’ efforts to engage successfully in multimodal composition tasks.

Computers and Composition, 2015

This essay outlines the concept of “distributed invention” (DI), an idea stemming from our experi... more This essay outlines the concept of “distributed invention” (DI), an idea stemming from our experiences at the Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC) when we roomed together and worked on projects “after dark” late into the night. Specifically,we argue that proximal composing, or composing near another person, helps facilitate distributed invention, which we define as a process involving two or more people engaging in idea-generating activities together and where, through negotiation, ideas become mutually appropriated. We describe how DI developed during DMAC and we outline the principles of DI. We also explain how we applied DI to our teaching, our department, and our institution after returning home. We conclude with recommendations for how teachers can implement DI principles into their classrooms. Our findings are significant for understanding possibilities of invention, feedback, and collaboration in print and digital composing environments and in structuring student learning.

Composition Studies, 2015

The literacy narrative assignment is popular with composition instructors because of the reflecti... more The literacy narrative assignment is popular with composition instructors because of the reflection it encourages in students. Previously, scholars have claimed that students demonstrate reflection in literacy narratives when they critique dominant ideologies. Largely absent, however, is research on what other elements might indicate reflection and thus inspire “instructor
uptake,” defined here as a positive response by an instructor to regard some part of the text as reflection. This essay therefore seeks to discover the core composition features that stimulate instructor uptake by examining what elements instructors identify as reflection in student literacy narratives. Think-aloud protocols were conducted with seven instructors and findings showed that three elements generate instructor uptake: analytical moves of cause-effect and evaluation (69%); vivid, metaphoric language (20%); and ideological critiques (11%). Findings also revealed that when instructors observed ideological critiques as reflection, they were more apt
to amplify the reflection for students. These data underscore the need for revamping our literacy narrative pedagogies to more adequately emphasize critical analysis and evaluation rather than ideological critique. By clarifying what composition instructors mean by reflection, we can design equitable writing assignments, begin to defend against our own biases, and foster more democratic classrooms.

Composition Forum, 2013

A multiliteracies pedagogy has renewed our interest in materiality, or how the physical text inte... more A multiliteracies pedagogy has renewed our interest in materiality, or how the physical text interacts with the author’s choices and the context to contribute to the message, yet little attention has been paid to materiality in analog texts, such as the scrapbook, even though this medium contains affordances (capabilities and limitations) that encourage active engagement with the materiality of composition. This essay demonstrates the pedagogical value of the scrapbook for how it encourages student composers to select, appropriate, and redesign external cover materials to communicate the message inside the book and how it emphasizes the haptic sense (touch). In short, the scrapbook assignment is pedagogically important because it teaches students the concept of affordances and demonstrates to them how materiality impacts design, composition, and rhetorical choices; it also provides a low-tech, low-stakes entry into multimodal composing and reflexivity on the rhetorical decision-making process.

Technical Communication Quarterly, Jul 2013

This study investigates the usability of print and online video instructions for computer tasks. ... more This study investigates the usability of print and online video instructions for computer tasks. Usability tests, comprehension tests, and questionnaires were collected from participants, and 4 areas of usability were analyzed: effectiveness, retention, satisfaction, and preference. Findings show marginal differences between the 2 mediums, except in terms of user satisfaction and instruction length. This research helps technical communicators better understand the affordances, or potentials and limitations, of print and video instructions.

Basic Writing e-Journal, 2013

Alexander, Powell and Green explore what traditional, nontraditional, and basic writing students ... more Alexander, Powell and Green explore what traditional, nontraditional, and basic writing students view as the affordances, or potentials and limitations, of multimodal composition. These affordances include the potentials of layering, implicit persuasion, audience awareness, creativity, and affective appeals, and the limitation of a lack of a clear thesis. In conclusion, the authors offer pedagogical considerations for instructors who assign multimodal composition in their classrooms.

College Composition and Communication, 2011

This article examines the “master” and “little” cultural narratives students perform in literacy ... more This article examines the “master” and “little” cultural narratives students perform in literacy narratives. Results show that students incorporate the literacy-equals-success master narrative most often, yet they also include in little narratives figures such as the hero, victim, and child prodigy. I consider how these findings can improve instruction on this topic and conclude with pedagogical recommendations.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Jan 1, 2011

The authors describe two pedagogical strategies—rhetorical sentence combining and rhetorical patt... more The authors describe two pedagogical strategies—rhetorical sentence combining and rhetorical pattern practice—that blend once-popular teaching techniques with rhetorical decision making. A literature review identified studies that associated linguistic and rhetorical knowledge with success in engineering writing; this information was used to create exercises teaching technical communication students to write Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) reports. Two pilot studies report promising results: Preliminary findings suggest that students who were taught this method wrote essays that were perceived as significantly higher in quality than those written by students in a control section. At the same time, however, the pilot studies point to some challenges and shortcomings of exercise-oriented pedagogies.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Jan 1, 2005

When mixed-gendered student teams collaborate on technical writing tasks, a single male often eme... more When mixed-gendered student teams collaborate on technical writing tasks, a single male often emerges as the group computer expert. The effects of this trend on perceptions of workload are unknown. This article reports the results of a study in which 12 mixed-gendered teams answered questionnaires on the division and perceptions of labor in their teams. Detailed case studies of four teams supplement the questionnaires. Findings suggest that computer work was highly visible, highly valued, and dominated by men. By contrast, writing was less visible and selectively recognized. Some men were credited with strong writing skills even though they did not produce writing for the project. Moreover, some students explicitly leveraged their computer expertise to avoid writing; furthermore, these computer experts rarely shared technical expertise with others in the context of the team project.

Computers and Composition Online, 2004

This digital video essay argues that college composition courses need to consider the multiple li... more This digital video essay argues that college composition courses need to consider the multiple literacies that 21st Century students will bring to our classrooms. This essay uses one case study to argue that these children create interactive, intertextual, and creative texts that allow them to merge their personal literacy practices with those taught in school. I end by theorizing how these current literacy practices might impact composition classrooms of the future.

Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 2023

In this article, we discuss how participating in a writing group during and after the COVID-19 pa... more In this article, we discuss how participating in a writing group during and after the COVID-19 pandemic helped us reimagine what scholarly productivity means for us as writing center professionals (WCPs). Drawing on our experiences in an online writing group for almost three years with WCPs from four different institutions, we identify three themes that emerged across our experiences: (1) writing center work as scholarly and intellectual; (2) professionalization and mentoring; and (3) social support. Identifying these themes made visible for us a broader notion of scholarly productivity. It also helped us think more strategically about the complex and layered work we do as WCPs as we consistently juggle competing work demands. We hope this article can help WCPs not only re-conceive what it means to be productive as writing center scholars but also to integrate a broad range of scholarly work more fully into what they are already doing.

Computers and Composition, 2023

The literacy-as-success myth is prevalent in print-based literacy narratives but how students rel... more The literacy-as-success myth is prevalent in print-based literacy narratives but how students relate to this dominant myth in modes beyond print is still unknown. To learn more about how students characterize literacy in a non-print-based mode, I analyzed 170 audio literacy narratives (ALNs) from students who uploaded their essay to the Digital Archives of Literacy. Findings show that students ignore the literacy-as-success myth and instead offer a capacious view of literacy as an ongoing, fluid process of experimentation, communal connection, and play. Students promote literacy not as an end point but rather as a place to invent and reinvent oneself and to rethink previously held definitions of literacy. They also utilize creative and innovative composing approaches that not only expand the literacy narrative genre but also facilitate reimagination of their literate lives. Ultimately, audio literacy narratives provide a valuable means to disrupting the literacy myth and promoting a more expansive understanding of literacy development that breeds curiosity, creativity, and invention. As a result, it is an important assignment in writing classrooms. 1 See Faris et al. (2022) for a list of reasons to assign sound projects in classrooms.

College English, 2022

This essay examines the social byproducts of a faculty writing program for women associate profes... more This essay examines the social byproducts of a faculty writing program for women associate professors. Drawing on three years of survey and observation data, we highlight how investment mentoring, cross-university networking, and social support function as valuable benefits and essential elements of a faculty write-on-site group whose goal is increasing the number of women at the rank of full professor. We argue that cultivating supportive networks like a write-on-site group can help women faculty maintain active research agendas while also mobilizing them to reshape academic institutions into more equitable, supportive, and cohesive places.

Composition Studies, 2020

In this article, we discuss the three-year process of redesigning our writing major at Baylor Uni... more In this article, we discuss the three-year process of redesigning our writing major at Baylor University. In tracing our process, we discuss the decisions we made with regard to the redesign of our major and contextualize our decision-making process in relation to existing scholarship on the writing major. Additionally, we highlight the range of sources we examined in our efforts to understand how the various dimensions of each context might influence the redesign process. Finally, we distill key insights from our redesign process and provide practical guidance for writing scholars who plan to undertake similar redesign efforts. Through this essay, we aim to provide writing scholars with an approach for navigating-in thought and in practice the complex processes of decision-making and research central to (re) designing a writing major. On the whole, we hope our article will be a useful tool for helping others in their major-building efforts and serve as one possible response to an exigent and perennial question in writing major (re) design: How is a writing major developed or redesigned?

College Composition and Communication, 2020

Women continue to be underrepresented at the highest academic rank of full professor. Studies sho... more Women continue to be underrepresented at the highest academic rank of full professor. Studies show that once women earn tenure, they are inundated with teaching, service, and administrative responsibilities, which take time away from research and publication-the primary criteria for promotion. We believe that rhetoric and writing studies (RWS) faculty are uniquely situated to confront this challenge because of our disciplinary expertise, our experience administering writing programs, and our interest in equity. With the goal to increase the number of women full professors at our university, we created a year-long writing program for women associate professors. Based on results from this pilot study, we argue that RWS faculty can use their expertise to decrease the disparity at the highest academic rank and make the university more diverse and equitable. Moreover, we believe that RWS scholars can use their disciplinary expertise to address a range of other institutional and systemic challenges. The WFWP [Women's Faculty Writing Program] helped me set aside time, strategize how to achieve more writing time, and grasp the larger structural implications of the status of women faculty at Baylor University. The idea that I could set my time and largely keep it for writing was wonderful. I was accustomed to squeezing in writing when I could as opposed to

College English, 2019

In this essay, I analyze Malala Yousafzai’s memoir as a literacy narrative. When read as such, t... more In this essay, I analyze Malala Yousafzai’s memoir as a literacy narrative. When read as such, the book subverts Eurocentric imperialist paradigms and destabilizes the literacy myth. Yousafzai accomplishes this by performing “little” narratives of literacy that, together, promote literacy as a collective, universal achievement situated in a cultural ecology of literacy. She thus sidesteps questions of individual achievement and avoids falling prey to commodification claims. Malala’s story opens up new possibilities for sharing stories of literacy by offering multiple pathways to understand literacy and identity both locally and globally.

System, 2018

In response to the widely acknowledged challenge of instructor expertise in multimodal compositio... more In response to the widely acknowledged challenge of instructor expertise in multimodal composition (MC) teaching, our article discusses a pedagogical approach called distributed collaboration (DC)dan approach that facilitates collaboration among specialists with varied expertise (e.g., new media specialists, software specialists, community members, local professionals, student teams) in an effort to provide L1 and L2 writers with the support required to deepen their multimodal literacies, develop communicative expertise, and enhance the quality of their multimodal texts. To illustrate the ways that students' multimodal writing knowledge, English language learning, and multimodal texts might be improved through distributed collaboration, our article profiles a graduate-level course in which student writers were tasked with composing multimodal texts for an on-campus program. In sharing our findings, we hope to provide instructors of English language teaching (ELT) and L1 composition with a generative pedagogical approach for harnessing writers' full potential in MC projects.

Literacy in Composition Studies, 2017

Much of the research on literacy sponsorship positions students as “sponsored” rather than “spons... more Much of the research on literacy sponsorship positions students as “sponsored” rather than “sponsor,” which promotes a view of sponsorship as a one-way, fixed endeavor. In this essay, I consider how, in the context of service-learning, students might sponsor literacy and how this literacy sponsorship has the potential to be reciprocal. I highlight a semester-long course project that aimed to develop a variety of literacies in students. Results show that students supported, enabled, and sponsored the literacies of the clients with whom they worked. Findings also reveal that this literacy sponsorship was reciprocated by the clients, which indicates that, at least in service-learning settings, literacy sponsorship functions as a dynamic, reciprocal process where both parties learn and grow through their relationship with each other. This research is significant because it brings students into the discussion on literacy sponsorship and shows how individuals can seize the literacy resources offered to meet their own goals, motivations, and needs.

Computers and Composition, Sep 2016

This essay considers the question of transfer in relation to processes of remediation. In particu... more This essay considers the question of transfer in relation to processes of remediation. In particular, we explore the interrelationships between transfer and new media in multiliteracy center contexts. Drawing on a case study of an undergraduate student named Sophie, we offer a multidimensional approach called adaptive remediation that helps composers develop meta-awareness about how they might use and reshape prior composing knowledge and available semiotic resources in ways to suit media affordances and their rhetorical objectives in processes of remediation. Specifically, we propose four dimensions of adaptive remediation, including charting, inventorying, coordinating, and literacy linking. Our hope is that adaptive remediation will prepare multiliteracy center directors and consultants to help students transfer knowledge across media and, in the process, make rhetorically sound decisions about how to adapt and reuse literacies, skills, and ideas in a variety of contexts. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Rhetoric Review, 2016

This essay examines four disciplinary challenges that faculty from broad, diverse disciplines suc... more This essay examines four disciplinary challenges that faculty from broad, diverse disciplines such as rhetoric and composition encounter during tenure, promotion, and reappointment (TP&R) and highlights the arguments and rhetorical strategies that can be utilized to demonstrate scholarly worth and significance.

Computers and Composition, 2015

Because of the vast changes to the communication landscape over the last two decades, along with ... more Because of the vast changes to the communication landscape over the last two decades, along with the influence of emerging technologies on students’ writing practices, empirical studies that describe students’ experiences in multimodal composing are required to determine how the goals and practices of composition teaching might be better supported and reimagined. In response to this exigency, this article presents findings from an empirical study of graduate and undergraduate writers’ multimodal composing processes. Findings from focus group interviews and written reflections show that students’ attempts to draw on their print-based rhetorical knowledge while composing multimodally worked well when they perceived print-based and multimodal composing tasks as similar, but they faced significant difficulties when they perceived the need to adapt their print-based composing knowledge to suit new or unfamiliar aspects of multimodal composing. Specifically, students found it difficult to conceptualize an audience and negotiate the multiple semiotic resources afforded by multimodal composing. In an effort to mitigate such challenges, we provide two conceptual frameworks that help students move more fluidly between print-based and multimodal composing. These pedagogical approaches enable writing specialists to better support students’ efforts to engage successfully in multimodal composition tasks.

Computers and Composition, 2015

This essay outlines the concept of “distributed invention” (DI), an idea stemming from our experi... more This essay outlines the concept of “distributed invention” (DI), an idea stemming from our experiences at the Digital Media and Composition Institute (DMAC) when we roomed together and worked on projects “after dark” late into the night. Specifically,we argue that proximal composing, or composing near another person, helps facilitate distributed invention, which we define as a process involving two or more people engaging in idea-generating activities together and where, through negotiation, ideas become mutually appropriated. We describe how DI developed during DMAC and we outline the principles of DI. We also explain how we applied DI to our teaching, our department, and our institution after returning home. We conclude with recommendations for how teachers can implement DI principles into their classrooms. Our findings are significant for understanding possibilities of invention, feedback, and collaboration in print and digital composing environments and in structuring student learning.

Composition Studies, 2015

The literacy narrative assignment is popular with composition instructors because of the reflecti... more The literacy narrative assignment is popular with composition instructors because of the reflection it encourages in students. Previously, scholars have claimed that students demonstrate reflection in literacy narratives when they critique dominant ideologies. Largely absent, however, is research on what other elements might indicate reflection and thus inspire “instructor
uptake,” defined here as a positive response by an instructor to regard some part of the text as reflection. This essay therefore seeks to discover the core composition features that stimulate instructor uptake by examining what elements instructors identify as reflection in student literacy narratives. Think-aloud protocols were conducted with seven instructors and findings showed that three elements generate instructor uptake: analytical moves of cause-effect and evaluation (69%); vivid, metaphoric language (20%); and ideological critiques (11%). Findings also revealed that when instructors observed ideological critiques as reflection, they were more apt
to amplify the reflection for students. These data underscore the need for revamping our literacy narrative pedagogies to more adequately emphasize critical analysis and evaluation rather than ideological critique. By clarifying what composition instructors mean by reflection, we can design equitable writing assignments, begin to defend against our own biases, and foster more democratic classrooms.

Composition Forum, 2013

A multiliteracies pedagogy has renewed our interest in materiality, or how the physical text inte... more A multiliteracies pedagogy has renewed our interest in materiality, or how the physical text interacts with the author’s choices and the context to contribute to the message, yet little attention has been paid to materiality in analog texts, such as the scrapbook, even though this medium contains affordances (capabilities and limitations) that encourage active engagement with the materiality of composition. This essay demonstrates the pedagogical value of the scrapbook for how it encourages student composers to select, appropriate, and redesign external cover materials to communicate the message inside the book and how it emphasizes the haptic sense (touch). In short, the scrapbook assignment is pedagogically important because it teaches students the concept of affordances and demonstrates to them how materiality impacts design, composition, and rhetorical choices; it also provides a low-tech, low-stakes entry into multimodal composing and reflexivity on the rhetorical decision-making process.

Technical Communication Quarterly, Jul 2013

This study investigates the usability of print and online video instructions for computer tasks. ... more This study investigates the usability of print and online video instructions for computer tasks. Usability tests, comprehension tests, and questionnaires were collected from participants, and 4 areas of usability were analyzed: effectiveness, retention, satisfaction, and preference. Findings show marginal differences between the 2 mediums, except in terms of user satisfaction and instruction length. This research helps technical communicators better understand the affordances, or potentials and limitations, of print and video instructions.

Basic Writing e-Journal, 2013

Alexander, Powell and Green explore what traditional, nontraditional, and basic writing students ... more Alexander, Powell and Green explore what traditional, nontraditional, and basic writing students view as the affordances, or potentials and limitations, of multimodal composition. These affordances include the potentials of layering, implicit persuasion, audience awareness, creativity, and affective appeals, and the limitation of a lack of a clear thesis. In conclusion, the authors offer pedagogical considerations for instructors who assign multimodal composition in their classrooms.

College Composition and Communication, 2011

This article examines the “master” and “little” cultural narratives students perform in literacy ... more This article examines the “master” and “little” cultural narratives students perform in literacy narratives. Results show that students incorporate the literacy-equals-success master narrative most often, yet they also include in little narratives figures such as the hero, victim, and child prodigy. I consider how these findings can improve instruction on this topic and conclude with pedagogical recommendations.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Jan 1, 2011

The authors describe two pedagogical strategies—rhetorical sentence combining and rhetorical patt... more The authors describe two pedagogical strategies—rhetorical sentence combining and rhetorical pattern practice—that blend once-popular teaching techniques with rhetorical decision making. A literature review identified studies that associated linguistic and rhetorical knowledge with success in engineering writing; this information was used to create exercises teaching technical communication students to write Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion (IMRaD) reports. Two pilot studies report promising results: Preliminary findings suggest that students who were taught this method wrote essays that were perceived as significantly higher in quality than those written by students in a control section. At the same time, however, the pilot studies point to some challenges and shortcomings of exercise-oriented pedagogies.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Jan 1, 2005

When mixed-gendered student teams collaborate on technical writing tasks, a single male often eme... more When mixed-gendered student teams collaborate on technical writing tasks, a single male often emerges as the group computer expert. The effects of this trend on perceptions of workload are unknown. This article reports the results of a study in which 12 mixed-gendered teams answered questionnaires on the division and perceptions of labor in their teams. Detailed case studies of four teams supplement the questionnaires. Findings suggest that computer work was highly visible, highly valued, and dominated by men. By contrast, writing was less visible and selectively recognized. Some men were credited with strong writing skills even though they did not produce writing for the project. Moreover, some students explicitly leveraged their computer expertise to avoid writing; furthermore, these computer experts rarely shared technical expertise with others in the context of the team project.

Computers and Composition Online, 2004

This digital video essay argues that college composition courses need to consider the multiple li... more This digital video essay argues that college composition courses need to consider the multiple literacies that 21st Century students will bring to our classrooms. This essay uses one case study to argue that these children create interactive, intertextual, and creative texts that allow them to merge their personal literacy practices with those taught in school. I end by theorizing how these current literacy practices might impact composition classrooms of the future.

Multimodal Composition and Writing Transfer, 2023

The Archive as Classroom: Pedagogical Approaches to the DALN, 2020

This chapter offers a model for an undergraduate research (UGR) assignment sequence that utilizes... more This chapter offers a model for an undergraduate research (UGR) assignment sequence that utilizes the DALN to stimulate intellectual inquiry, archival literacy, and interest in scholarly pursuits. I highlight an assignment sequence derived from an upper-level writing course I teach that introduces students to primary research methods and that enables them to engage in scholarly academic research where they can make scholarly contributions—from project design and data collection to coding, analyzing, and writing up findings. In this project, students draft an audio literacy narrative, present with a partner their rhetorical analysis of an artifact, write an exploratory-reflective essay, compose an academic research essay that utilizes literacy narratives in the DALN, draft a conference proposal, and give a poster presentation. By highlighting the DALN’s role in creating undergraduate writing scholars, I aim to show how faculty can use the DALN to promote UGR and stimulate intellectual inquiry while simultaneously adding value to student learning, undergraduate programs, and composition at-large. By highlighting the DALN’s role in creating undergraduate writing scholars, I aim to show how faculty can use primary sources to stimulate intellectual inquiry and promote UGR. I also discuss strengths and limitations of this approach.

Social Writing/Social Media: Publics, Presentations, and Pedagogies, 2017

In this essay, we suggest that digital activism through sites like Instagram employs what we call... more In this essay, we suggest that digital activism through sites like Instagram employs what we call the “intimate screen”—an extension of Kevin Michael DeLuca’s and Jennifer Peeples’ (2002) concept of the public screen—that cultivates a supportive, empathetic public through familiarity. By providing one Instagram page as a case study, this essay suggests one way social media advocacy for children with disabilities can proceed, especially when the goal emphasizes awareness. We propose that digital activism seeking awareness can employ different rhetorical structures than direct political protest. We conclude by making applications from this study to digital activism through Instagram and other social media.

Women, Work, and the Web: How the Web Creates Entrepreneurial Opportunities, 2014

Collaborative Learning and Writing: Essays on Using Small Groups in Teaching English and Composition, 2012

Service-Learning and Writing: Paving the Way for Literacy(ies) through Community Engagement, 2012

Multimodal Composition for the 21st Century: A Resource Book for Teachers, 2007

This essay investigates the function of peer review and revision in audio essays, video essays, a... more This essay investigates the function of peer review and revision in audio essays, video essays, and other multimodal compositions. I examine the practices and give practical strategies for how instructors can implement peer review and revision into writing classes with multimodal composition.

Kairos, 2011

This article highlights how the rhetorical situation of audience, purpose, and context shifts whe... more This article highlights how the rhetorical situation of audience, purpose, and context shifts when students go from composing print-based alphabetic texts to multimodal texts that combine more than one mode and argues that multimodal composition can maximize students’ learning of rhetorical principles.

WPA-CompPile Research Bibliographies, 2022

UMI Number: 3300991 Copyright 2006 by Alexander, Kara Poe All rights reserved.