Beth Richards

Title: Director, Rhetoric and Professional Writing

Degrees earned and school:
B. A. English, Agnes Scott College
M.A., English, Georgia State University

Year you came to the University of Hartford: 1995

Courses taught at UH:
Reading and Writing I and II (RPW 110 and 111)
Reading and Writing I First Year Interest Group (FIG), with ES 143 Engineering and Design
Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing (RPW 215W)
Introduction to Effective Business and Management Communication (RPW 211W)
Critical Literacy (RPW 245W)
Collaborative Writing in the Workplace (RPW 316W)
The Rhetoric of Certainty (HON 384)
Technology as a Human Affair (AUCT 150)
Online Writing: Theory and Practice (RPW 390)

Research interests: Writing feedback cycles in corporations; adult learners and self-diagnosis of writing issues; reading skills; writing instruction for technical experts

Relevant publications: Richards, B., Keshawarz, M. S., and Alnajjar, H. “Analysis and Revision of the ‘English for Engineers’ Program at Herat University, Western Afghanistan.” American Society for Engineering Education National Conference and Exposition, Austin, Texas, June 2009.

Keshawarz, M. S., Alnajjar, H., Richards, B., and Sofizada, A. H. “Modernizing Engineering Education at Herat University: A Partnership Between University of Hartford and Herat University.” American Society for Engineering Education National Conference and Exposition, Austin, Texas, June 2009.

Birch, J., Woaczyna-Birch, K., Richards, B., Jaramillo, P., Adrezin, R., and Angle, A. “Integrating Professional Skills in the 21st Century.” International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Boston, MA, November 2008.

Klonowski, E., Richards, B. and Tempel, P. “Galileo to Gates: Human Reactions to Science and Technology.” Chapter 8 in Reading Our Histories, Understanding Our Cultures: A Sequenced Approach to Thinking, Reading, and Writing, second edition. Pearson Education, Inc., 2003.

Teaching philosophy: Some writers are born, but most are made by learning a series of interconnected skills. While some writing skills are easily transferable, most writers need deliberate instruction and specific practice in different discourses, audiences, and accepted formats. To build these skills, writers need timely and straightforward feedback that helps them learn to recognize appropriate writing as well as diagnose writing that needs revising. For me, the best part of teaching is that no two students are alike, which allows me to use my skills, experience, and creativity to help students reach their writing goals.

Don Jones

Title: Associate Professor

Degrees earned and school: Ph.D. - University of New Hampshire, M.A. - Drew University, and B.A. - Connecticut College

Year you came to the University of Hartford: 1996

Courses taught at UH: RLC 110. RLC 111, RPW 245, RPW 316, RPW 370, RPW 470, RPW 472

Research interests: Writing process theory, Deweyan pragmatism, postmodern agency, and digital literacy

Relevant publications: Articles in Composition Studies, Rhetoric Review, Journal of Advanced Composition, Pedagogy, and College English

Teaching philosophy: I combine practice and theory in a student-centered yet also teacher-guided pedagogy.

Nels P. Highberg

Title: Assistant Professor and Director of the First-Year Reading and Writing Program

Degrees earned and school: PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago (2003), MA in Comparative Studies from the Ohio State University (1998), MA in Women's Studies from the Ohio State University (1995), and BA in English from the University of Houston (1993)

Year you came to the University of Hartford: 2003

Courses taught at UH: First-year composition, rhetoric and professional writing, and gender studies

Research interests: Composition theory and pedagogy; autobiography and creative nonfiction; film, new media, and visual rhetorics; theories and rhetorics of gender and sexuality; and medical humanities

Relevant publications: Co-editor of Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom and Landmark Essays on Basic Writing (both published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) and articles in Medical Humanities Review and other publications.

Teaching philosophy: Writing functions as a primary method of enacting activity and reflection in my classes. Even though some of my courses are not writing intensive, writing takes a central role in each of my classes because I believe that writing is both something to learn and something one can use to learn. Furthermore, embedded in all of my teaching is a belief that any university education in the United States needs to encourage students to become more engaged participants in our democratic society, which means learning to analyze the numerous discourses that bombard us in our daily lives. In the end, I hope that my courses become spaces where students can practice many of the skills essential to effective writing and critical thinking, encouraging them to analyze, to synthesize, to explain, to conceptualize, and to do much more. And in addition to becoming more proficient in these activities, I hope my classes become one site where students can better comprehend and articulate how their lives relate to the lives of others, a necessary skill for anyone living in a democratic, pluralistic society.