Beth Brunk - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Beth Brunk

Retention, Persistence, and Writing Programs, 2017

This study examines perceptions and implementations of collaboration in digitized learning enviro... more This study examines perceptions and implementations of collaboration in digitized learning environments. Critically engaging the tools we teach with allows us to consider the rhetorical strategies we must employ to create digital social spaces that exhibit and organize ...

Composition Studies, 2018

To Improve the Academy, 2011

at £1 Paso New generations of learnersnecessitate new ways of teaching, and hybrid courses can he... more at £1 Paso New generations of learnersnecessitate new ways of teaching, and hybrid courses can help institutions leverage technologies to improve teaching and learning. The adoption of a new instructional paradigm, however, requires attention to the faculty's ability to create and deliver effective courses. The University of Texas at El Paso has developed the Digital Academy to help faculty interweave online elements with face-to-face teaching. The model is pliable and portable in its application to other universities.

Includes bibliographical references and index.Perspectives on how first-year writing can support ... more Includes bibliographical references and index.Perspectives on how first-year writing can support or hinder students' transitions to college from scholars working in a variety of institutional and geographic contexts and a range of student populations. Contributors present individual and program case studies, surveys of thousands of students, retention data, and policy analysis.--Provided by publisher.Introduction: retention, persistence, and writing: expanding the conversation / Todd Ruecker, Dawn Shepherd, Heidi Estrem, and Beth-Brunk Chavez -- Retention Panopticon: what WPAS should bring to the table in discussions of student success / Rita Malenczyk -- Building collaborative partnerships to support institutional-level retention initiatives in writing programs / Ashley J. Holmes and Cristine Busser -- Big data and writing program retention assessment: what we need to know / Marc Scott -- The imperative of pedagogical and professional development to support the retention of underprepared students at open-access institutions / Joanne Giordano, Holly Hassel, Jennifer Heinert, and Cassandra Phillips -- How student performance in first-year composition predicts retention and overall student success / Nathan Garrett, Matthew Bridgewater, and Bruce Feinstein -- "Life gets in the way": the case of a seventh-year senior / Sara Webb-Sunderhaus -- Absolute hospitality in the writing program / Pegeen Reichert Powell -- Retention, critical pedagogy, and students as agents: eschewing the deficit model / Beth Buyserie, Anna Plemons, and Patricia Freitag Ericsson -- Reconfiguring the writing studio model: examining the impact of the PlusOne Program on student performance and retention / Polina Chemishanova and Robin Snead -- Retention rates of second language writers and basic writers: a comparison within the Stretch Program model / Sarah Elizabeth Snyder -- The kairotic classroom: retention discourse and supplemental instruction in the first year / Sarah E. Harris -- Enhancing alliances and joining initiatives to help students: the story of how we created developmental learning communities at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi / Susan Wolff Murphy and Mark Hartlaub -- Undergraduate mentors as agents of engagement: peer advocates in first-year writing courses / Michael Day, Tawanda Gipson, and Chris Parker -- Afterword / Linda Adler-Kassner

Handbook of Research on Writing and Composing in the Age of MOOCs

Composition Studies, 2012

In this article we address several issues and challenges that the evaluation of writing presents ... more In this article we address several issues and challenges that the evaluation of writing presents individual instructors and composition programs as a whole. We present electronic distributed evaluation, or EDE, as an emerging model for feedback on student writing and describe how it was integrated into our program's course redesign. Because the curriculum and delivery were significantly redesigned, the evaluation of students' work required reconsideration. The redesign opened a space for us to interrogate grading practices at the individual classroom/instructor level, at the programmatic level, and at a more theoretical level.

Teaching English in the Two Year College, Dec 1, 2004

Computers and Composition, 2016

Reporting on survey data from 1,366 students from seven colleges and universities, this article e... more Reporting on survey data from 1,366 students from seven colleges and universities, this article examines the self-reported writing choices of students as they compose different kinds of texts using a wide range of composing technologies, both traditional (i.e., paper, pencils, pens, etc.), and digital (i.e., cell phones, wikis, blogs, etc.). This analysis and discussion is part of the larger Revisualizing Composition study, which examines the writing lives of first-year students across multiple institution types throughout the United States. We focus especially on what appear to be, at first glance, contradictory or confusing results, because these moments of ambiguity in students' use of composing technologies point to shifts or tensions in students' attitudes, beliefs, practices and rhetorical decision-making strategies when writing in the 21 st century. The implications of these ambiguous results suggest paths for continued collaborative research and action. They also, we argue, point to a need to foster students' reflexive, critical, and rhetorical writing-across composing technologies-and to develop updated writing pedagogies that account for students' flexible use of these technologies.

Academic Exchange Quarterly, Sep 22, 2002

Abstract A simple exercise in conceptual mapping of students' writing process can yield surpr... more Abstract A simple exercise in conceptual mapping of students' writing process can yield surprisingly rich results. In this active learning exercise which students find quite pleasurable, students draw steps in their writing process by employing personally expressive symbols, metaphors, and linking devices. These maps help to conceptually integrate the writing process, which is generally experienced as a fragmented activity. Sharing of conceptual maps helps forge community in the classroom as students read and learn from each other's maps. Moreover, maps can serve as a unique form of prewriting to help students make discoveries about themselves as writers and organize that information in preparation for assignments that call for reflection on writing. ********** In The Composing Process of Twelfth Graders, Janet Emig asks, "If there are specifiable elements, moments, and stages in the composing process of students, what are these?" She also wants to know if these elements, moments, and stages can be differentiated and designated. Are they linear, or recursive, or something else? How do they relate to each other? (1-2) Asking a first-year college student these questions would bear some interesting results. Perhaps this is why so many class discussions of the writing process involve a standard list and short description of the four primary stages--invention, drafting, revision, editing--along with the caveat that these are not to follow from "Step 1" to "Step 2," but that it is a recursive process where steps are revisited and repeated. This is certainly a productive place to start as a means of encouraging students to think about their writing processes and for creating a common language in the classroom; however, it can also become quite limiting. When asked, students are hard pressed to reconstruct their own writing processes verbally or in writing, even when they have been advised to pay attention to what they do when they write. Often, they will fall into using the language introduced to them--invention, drafting, revision, and editing--to the point that each student's account of his or her process is a cookie-cutter copy of the next student's; these accounts too often say little about their identities and personalities. Perhaps the problem of providing useful ways for students to articulate their writing process lies in the concept of the process itself. While process-terminology enables students to think about their own processes, it simultaneously reduces every stage of their writing into four categories. Erika Lindemann suggests, "writing involves not just one process but several. Most of them seem to be mental and consequently difficult for researchers to reconstruct" (22). In line with these observations, proponents of post-process theory suggest that no one big theory can possibly define the writing process. In fact, few people follow the same process, nor is one person's process the same twice. Although many post-process theorists laud process-theory for turning its eye to the student rather than the product, they also contend that the result is a formula that has become too rigid and too generic. Barbara Couture argues that "a single model for generating ideas, conducting research, and writing and revising a draft does not capture all the effective ways that human beings solve the problem of acquiring knowledge and communicating it to one another" (41). To remedy this problem, David Russell suggests that we think "beyond process" to "realize that there are many writing processes" and to seek "a progressively wider understanding" of them (88). Student writing experience at James Madison University (JMU) seems to bear out this problem. The Writing Program at JMU is responsible for providing classes in a Writing and Rhetoric minor as well as freshman reading and composition. All first year composition goals and objectives uniformly stress "the understanding of writing as a process, including the practice of invention, arrangement, and revision. …

Written Communication, 2013

This article shares results from a multi-institutional study of the role of writing in college st... more This article shares results from a multi-institutional study of the role of writing in college students’ lives. Using case studies built from a larger population survey along with interviews, diaries, and a daily SMS texting protocol, we found that students report SMS texting, lecture notes, and emails to be the most frequent writing practices in college student experience and that these writing practices are often highly valued by students as well. Our data suggest that college students position these pervasive and important writing practices as coordinative acts that create social alignment. Writing to coordinate people and things is more than an instrumental practice: through this activity, college students not only operate within established social collectives that shape literacy but also actively participate in building relationships that support them. In this regard, our study of writing as it functions in everyday use helps us understand contemporary forms of social interaction.