Spring 2016

WRITE TO LEARN,
LEARN TO WRITE
WRITING INTENSIVE CURRICULUM PROGRAM NEWSLETTER

Index
Digital Storytelling in the
Classroom
Sara Moore
Lets Teach, Not Police:
Expanding Our Understanding
of Plagiarism in Efforts to
Combat It
Danah Hashem
Spotlight on Faculty: Emerson
Tad Baker, PhD
Daniel McGuire
Book Review: Understanding
and Creating Digital Texts: An
Activity-Based Approach
Anne Mooney
Writing Vertically: A Photo
Collage of the Conference

Welcome
Welcome to the third issue of Write to
Learn, Learn to Write, the Writing Intensive
Curriculum (WIC) Program newsletter. This
issue continues discussions from the last
issue, specifically on the teaching of digital
writing, and prompts new conversation
about plagiarism and how to prevent it. It
also provides visual highlights of the third
annual Salem State University writing
Tanya K. Rodrigue, PhD
pedagogy conference, Writing Vertically,
which was held this past April.
Speaking back to Danah Hashems fall 2015 article, Teaching
Writing in the 21st Century Classroom, Sara Moore, PhD, in
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, discusses her experience in
assigning digital storytelling in a sociology course for the first time.
Moore argues this assignment invited enthusiasm and fostered a
rich learning and writing experience for her students.
In Lets Teach, Not Police: Expanding Our Understanding of
Plagiarism in Efforts to Combat It, WIC graduate assistant Danah
Hashem reveals the problematic nature of understanding plagiarism
solely in terms of morals and ethics. She argues educators can best
prevent plagiarism in the classroom through embracing a definition
that explains the many reasons as to why students might plagiarize
in their writing. Further, Hashem provides pedagogical suggestions
for helping students effectively work with sources.

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 1

Welcome cont.
The Spotlight on Faculty section features Emerson Tad Baker, PhD, a professor of history who recently
received international acclaim for his archeological work with the Salem witch trials. In an interview
conducted by undergraduate history major, Daniel McGuire, Professor Baker discusses his writing
practices and processes as well as past and future writing projects.
Anne Mooney, an English graduate student, wrote this issues book review on Richard Beach, Chris M.
Anson and Lee-Ann Kastman Breuchs Understanding and Creating Digital Texts: An Activity-Based
Approach.
I hope you enjoy reading this issue of Write to Learn, Learn to Write. If you are interested in writing an
article or book review for the newsletter, please email me at trodrigue@salemstate.edu.
Sincerely,
Tanya K. Rodrigue, PhD, WIC Coordinator and Assistant Professor of English

Write to Learn, Learn to Write is a newly launched newsletter sponsored by the Writing
Intensive Curriculum (WIC) program. It will be published in the fall and spring each academic
year. The newsletter functions as a site for faculty to both acquire and share ideas, insights
and practical experiences about the teaching of writing. In light of this purpose, we are
actively seeking article submissions for upcoming issues on various topics related to writing
pedagogy. Some possible topics are: an effective or challenging student writing activity or
assignment; the process of designing a W-designated course; the benefits and challenges of
teaching a W-designated course; the function and purpose of writing in a field or discipline;
and the role of writing in careers related to a discipline. Articles should be approximately
750-1200 words. Please send ideas, drafts or polished articles to Tanya Rodrigue at
trodrigue@salemstate.edu. All submissions will be considered, yet given space limitations,
not everyone will be asked to further develop their work.

2 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

Sara Moore, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Last year, after nearly ten years of teaching sociology, I found
myself stuck in a rut. Weary of assigning reading response papers,
literature reviews, and research proposals, I began to look for new
ways to engage and evaluate students through writing assignments.
At the same time, as a new faculty member at Salem State who
was intrigued by the universitys new writing curriculum, I chose
to participate in the Writing Intensive Curriculum (WIC) Seminar
program. During this program, I connected with other educators and
resources across disciplines to learn how other faculty engage their
students with multimodal and digital writing. I learned about several
kinds of assignments such as blogs, audio recordings of oral histories,
Pecha Kucha presentations, storyboarding and filmmaking. Hearing
about these creative and engaging assignments helped me to rethink
my own writing assignments.
As a sociologist, I am fascinated by how people tell stories about the
self. In many of the upper-level classes I teach, like Sociology of the
American Family and Medical Sociology, I ask students to conduct
interviews and synthesize interview data with contemporary social
science research. As a longtime fan of National Public Radio programs
like Fresh Air, and initiatives like StoryCorp, I am also interested
in how people talk and listen to one another. Taken together, my
experience in the WIC seminar, my interest in hearing peoples stories
about their lives and my attentiveness to how people communicate
spurred me to explore digital storytelling.

Some Examples of
Multimodal Writing
Projects

PowerPoint Presentations
Posterboard Presentations
Photo Collage
Digital Storytelling
Infographic
Video Projects (such as a
remix or a commercial)
Audio Projects (such as a
radio essay or a podcast)
Blogs
Twitter Essay
Digital Interactive Timeline
Photoessay
Data Visualization
Website

Digital storytelling is a mode of communication that combines

moving and still images, music, spoken word, and/or text to tell a
story in a short film. The process of creating a digital story uses many
of the same skills that are involved in writing a paper: the author must
choose a topic, collect resources, create an outline (storyboard in this
case), and compose content. Digital stories can be used to educate
people about historical moments and pressing social issues, but they
can also be used to explore peoples lived experiences. For me, one of
the most compelling aspects of digital storytelling is that the tradition
circumvents the need for academics, artists, policymakers, and
politicians to interpret and translate peoples stories by encouraging
lay community members to tell their own stories.
continued on page 4

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 3

described their composing process and experience

with the project. For the reflection, I encouraged
students to think about what drew them to their
topic, the most challenging aspects of creating their
digital story, how the process of creating a digital
story was similar to and/or different from writing
a research paper, and how creating their digital
story influenced their thinking about the topic they
explored.

Ultimately, digital stories should create both an

intellectual and an emotional connection between
the audience and author-narrator.

While most of the students were excited about

this assignment, many felt anxious about using
unfamiliar digital storytelling software. To address
their concerns, I asked Marc Boots-Ebenfield,
Director of the Center for Teaching Innovation, to
guide the students through a digital storytelling
workshop. Marc walked the students through the
process of using PhotoStory3 to produce their
digital stories, and introduced them to other
software possibilities like Microsoft Movie Maker
and iMovie for Mac. In addition, I dedicated
two class periods to brainstorming topics and
potential interviewees, and to developing students
interviewing skills. The students also met outside
of class to support one another in storyboarding
and film production. By the end of the semester,
they had created thoughtful, engaging and moving
digital stories on a range of topics, including obesity
and body positivity, childhood asthma, elder care
and end-of-life decisions, addiction, blindness, and
learning disabilities. In their reflections, students
reported that the assignment helped them to more
clearly understand how peoples lived experiences
are shaped within social contexts. They also
expressed excitement and pride at having mastered
a new technology and having discovered a new way
to communicate.

Last fall, I asked students in my Medical Sociology

class to create digital stories that included the
elements described above. I prompted them to
choose a topic of interest; identify and interview
contributors to their digital story; choose
appropriate media for their goals and purposes;
and produce a five-seven minute video that would
be presented and discussed in class. Students
grades for this assignment were based on the film
they produced and a short reflection paper that

This semester, I am teaching our departments brand

new course, Public Sociology. The course introduces
students to the core concepts, assumptions, and
strategies employed by public sociologists, with
an emphasis on how sociologists write for various
publics and across multiple genres. In addition to
writing blog posts and op-eds, students will create
digital stories that tie personal narratives to social
change. Given the many challenges facing our
global village, like institutional racism, curtailed

According to StoryCenter, one of the foremost

digital storytelling centers in the United States,
digital stories contain several important elements:

A point of view that establishes the perspective

of the author-narrator
A dramatic question that engages the audience
and is answered by the end of the story
Emotional content that connects the
audience to the story by eliciting feelings like
compassion, joy, or even anger
A narrating voice that personalizes the story by
tying the audience to the author-narrator
Meaningful music that supports the tone of the
story
Economy of content that uses just enough
images, text and narration so as not to
overwhelm the viewer
Pacing that moves the story forward, but
lingers on important issues where appropriate

4 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

reproductive rights, and global health crises, I am

eager to see how students use digital storytelling
to promote social change.
There is one more significant benefit of using
digital storytelling in the classroom. In the last
edition of Write to Learn, Learn to Write, Danah
Hashem described the importance of 21st century
literacies, which focus on engagement with new
and ever-changing technologies to enhance
students communication skills. Digital storytelling
promotes 21st century literacies by encouraging
students digital, global, technology, visual, and
information literacy. It allows students to explore
and express stories through images, music, and
spoken word, and to examine the significance of
socio-historical context in listening to stories of
the self. Finally, digital storytelling encourages
students to think about and participate in
multimodal communication while working toward
understanding, compassion and social justice, a
hallmark of a liberal arts education.

Lets Teach, Not Police: Expanding our Understanding

of Plagiarism in Efforts to Combat It
By Danah Hashem, MA/MAT in English, WIC Graduate Assistant
For several decades, the topic of
rampant student plagiarism has
been extensively discussed in
scholarship and in public venues
such as newspapers and lectures.
Educators and the media have
likened student plagiarism to an
epidemic, with publications like
The New York Times1 and The Chronicle of Higher
Education2 have been referring to the issue as The
Plague of Plagiarism. While the identification of an
educational issue is important, the sensationalistic
characterization of student plagiarism is not helpful
for educators or students. Rather than engage with
plagiarism as an epidemic, I advocate we engage

with plagiarism for what it isa complex concept

and act with a complicated history. In this article, I
argue educators who have a strong understanding
of the complexities of plagiarism and employ
pedagogical practices that help students work
effectively with sources will have more success in
combatting plagiarism in the classroom.
The problem of plagiarism begins and arguably
ends with attempts to nail down a definition.
Merriam-Websters dictionary defines it as the act
of using another persons words or ideas without
giving credit to that person.3 This short, simplistic
definition fundamentally frames plagiarism in
continued on page 6

Christopher F. Schuetze, Germanys Plague of Plagiarism, New York Times, March 12, 2013,
www.rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com//2013/03/12/germanys-plague-of-plagiarism.
2
Allan Metcalf, A Plague of Plagiarism, The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 16, 2016,
www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/02/16/the-plague-of-plagiarism.
3
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, plagiarism, Merriam-Webster English Dictionary, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism.
1

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 5

terms of morality. The understanding of plagiarism

as borrowing or stealing peoples work has
given way to troubling identity markers that
position students as cheaters or thieves and
teachers as justice-promoting police or plagiarism
busters.4 Rebecca Moore Howard, a writing
studies professor at Syracuse University, argues,
by thinking of plagiarism as a unitary act we
risk categorizing all of our students as criminals.5
Identifying students as criminals is not only
demoralizing and harmful, it is also inaccurate. In
The Elements of Teaching Writing, Keith Hjortshoj
and Katherine Gottshalk, both retired professors
from Cornell University, claim plagiarism does
not always correspond with integrity among
the students from their teaching experiences,
they recount many instances in which ethical and
motivated students plagiarize in their writing.6
Their experiences suggest shortcomings in
framing inaccurate source use as an issue centered
solely around ethics.

Its not that simple! Courtesy of Creative Commons

In efforts to provide a more complex
understanding of plagiarism, Howard, in
Plagiarisms, Authorship, and the Academic Death
Penalty, points us back to notions of authorship
that existed prior to the modern era, during which
the concept of an individual creator of original
work did not exist.7 According to dominant
beliefs prior to the modern era, knowledge is
accumulated and writing is collaborative; ideageneration, invention and writing are all informed
by and build on the work of others. Over time,
this understanding of authorship shifted and
changed in various contexts. In the 18th century,
the invention of the printing press established
writing as a profession and financially motivated

endeavor. With that, copyright laws were birthed

and using others work without attribution was
considered plagiarisma criminal act. The
academy has historically embraced this notion
of source use, attribution, and plagiarism amidst
divergent conceptualizations of plagiarism in other
cultures and countries, and on the Internet (which
has drastically disrupted traditional notions of the
individual author).
Taking into account the complexity of plagiarism
and its history, researchers, educators, and
organizations have taken on the task of developing
a more nuanced and flexible definition of
plagiarism for the academy. Plagiarism can be
understood more meaningfully as a diverse array
of types of source misuse, varying with regard to a
students intent, comprehension abilities, citation
knowledge, and ethical choices. Hjortshoj and
Gottschalk reflect on the varieties of plagiarism
observed in their own teaching experiences stating,
the offenses most colleges include in the loose
category of plagiarism vary from deliberate theft
and fraud to minor cases of close paraphrase and
faulty reference.8 By considering various reasons
as to why students plagiarize, plagiarism can be
constructed as a more complex and multifaceted
obstacle to education than it has been in the past.
In embracing a more nuanced understanding of
plagiarism, it is important to consider the various
factors that may prompt students to plagiarize.
Below I have identified several reasons, although I
acknowledge that this list is not comprehensive:

Gillian Silverman, Its a Bird, Its a Plane, Its Plagiarism Buster! Newsweek 140, no. 3 (2002): 12.
Rebecca Moore Howard, Forget About Policing Plagiarism. Just Teach, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 16, 2001,
www.chronicle.com/article/Forget-About-Policing/2792.
6
Keith Hjortshoj and Katherine Gottshalk, The Elements of Teaching Writing (MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2004), 118.
7
Rebecca Moore Howard, Plagiarisms, Authorship, and the Academic Death Penalty, College English 57, no. 7 (1995): 789-90.
8
Hjortshoj and Gottshalk, 118.
4
5

6 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

A General Lack of Ability: For a motivated

student who wants to succeed in an
assignment, but who does not have the skills
to do so, it may be easy to either intentionally
or unintentionally rely too heavily or incorrectly
on outside sources. Underdeveloped, or
developing, skills in reading, summarizing,
establishing voice, and understanding
citation practices can all contribute to student
plagiarism.9

Facilitating a writing process that occurs over

time. Instructors can incorporate pre-writing
activities, multiple drafts, and opportunities
for feedback and revision into an assignment.
Such scaffolding prevents students from
writing papers at the last minute. It also
provides student with an opportunity to work
more closely and for a longer period of time
with sources and their source-based writing,
minimizing the possibility of plagiarism.12

Cultural or Language Difference: American

school systems and U.S. academics have a very
specific understanding of what is appropriate
and necessary for source attribution. This
understanding is not objective and is not shared
around the globe.10

Teaching critical reading and writing practices.

Paraphrase and summary activities can help
students more meaningfully interact with texts.
Students who have strong comprehension
abilities are less likely to work with sources on
the sentence level, which has been strongly
linked to plagiarism.13

Time Constraints: In the competitive and hectic

atmosphere in which the modern student
operates, the Council of Writing Program
Administrators points out that students may
make time-management or planning errors and
believe they have no choice but to plagiarize
in order to meet important deadlines.11

Designing unique, non-generic assignments.

Assignments that are commonly used or
formulaic may invite stock or plagiarized
responses.14

Teaching appropriate source use. Activities

that ask students to identify different kinds of
plagiarism is helpful to equip them with an
understanding of what plagiarism is and looks
like.

While I acknowledge that blatant, intentional

plagiarism does indeed occur and demands
response, I believe it is important to acknowledge
student writers whom authentically struggle with
the ethics and complexities of citing sources in a
digital, globalized world.
In addition to thinking about the possible reasons
why students plagiarize, educators need to
consider how their pedagogy can proactively
combat plagiarism. The following is a list of some
ideas and strategies educators can use to prevent
student plagiarism.

These strategies are intended to help educators

teach rather than police. However, in order
for these ideas to be effective, they have to
be implemented within a disciplinary context.
Different disciplines have their own expectations
for source use and understandings of paraphrase,
quotations, summary, and citations. It is up
to educators to instruct their students on the
complexities of source use within their disciplines;
continued on page 8

WPA, Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices, The Council of Writing Program Administrators, January 2003,
http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf.
10
Hjortshoj and Gottshalk, 119.
11
WPA.
12
Ibid.
13
Rebecca Moore Howard, Tanya K. Rodrigue, and Tricia C. Serviss, Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences, Writing and Pedagogy 2, no.
2 (2010): 177-192.
14
WPA
9

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 7

as well as remain sensitive to the variety of reasons

why students plagiarize. By tackling the problem
of plagiarism directly, but with respect and openmindedness, we can begin to address one of the
major struggles in the teaching and learning of
writing.
Bibliography
Hjortshoj, Keith and Katherine Gottshalk. The
Elements of Teaching Writing. MA: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2004.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. Forget About Policing
Plagiarism. Just Teach. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. November 16, 2001. www.chronicle.
com/article/Forget-About-Policing/2792.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. Plagiarisms, Authorship,
and the Academic Death Penalty. College English
57, no. 7 (1995): 788-806.
Howard, Rebecca Moore, Tanya K. Rodrigue, and
Tricia C. Serviss. Writing from Sources, Writing
from Sentences. Writing and Pedagogy 2, no. 2
(2010): 177-192.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. plagiarism.

Merriam-Webster English Dictionary. www.
merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism.
Metcalf, Allan. A Plague of Plagiarism. The
Chronicle of Higher Education. February 16, 2016.
www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/02/16/
the-plague-of-plagiarism.
Schuetze, Christopher F. Germanys Plague of
Plagiarism. New York Times. March 12, 2013.
www.rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com//2013/03/12/
germanys-plague-of-plagiarism.
Silverman, Gillian. Its a Bird, Its a Plane, Its
Plagiarism Buster! Newsweek 140, no. 3 (2002):
12.
WPA. Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The
WPA Statement on Best Practices. The Council
of Writing Program Administrators. January 2003.
http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.
pdf.

Twelve Faculty Complete the WIC Seminar

Program and Participate in Salem States Third
Annual Writing Pedagogy Conference, Writing
Vertically
The third cohort completed the WIC Seminar program this year. The program is designed to support
instructors teaching the W-II and W-III courses in the new general education curriculum. All WIC
participants participated in seven seminars on writing-related topics and presented at the third
annual writing pedagogy conference, Writing Vertically, in April. Participants include: Cami Condie
(childhood ed and care department), Peg Dillon(communications), Hannah Fraley (nursing), Jason
Gillis (SMS), Mohammad Jahanbakht (business), Anne Noonan (psychology), Kristin Pangallo
(chemistry and physics), Forrest Rodgers (criminal justice), Dennis Rosemartin (education), Amy
Smith (theatre and speech communication), Jane Theriault (psychology), and Keja Valens (English).
Congratulations!

8 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

BOOK REVIEW

Understanding and Creating Digital Texts:

An Activity-Based Approach
By: Anne Mooney, MA/MAT in English
With their book, Understanding and Creating
Digital Texts: An Activity-Based Approach, Richard
Beach, Chris M. Anson, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch,
and Thomas Reynolds have assembled a collection
of digital tools and resources that will be useful
across the disciplines in secondary and higher
education. The authors present possible ways that
digital tools and resources can be incorporated into
the classroom and enhance existing curricula.
The first chapter justifies the use of digital tools in
the classroom by introducing six skills necessary
in the 21st century, such as making connections
between digital texts and people, and adopting
alternative modes of communication.1 Based on
these skills and the Common Core State Standards,
the second and third chapters provide in-depth
explanations for why teachers should utilize these
digital tools in their classrooms. For example,
text-to-speech tools are effective when working
with students with disabilities, while translation
tools can be helpful for English Language Learners.

Understanding and Creating Digital Texts is an

informative resource for teachers in any discipline,
one that I would highly recommend. However, I
would suggest purchasing the e-version of this
book, rather than print, in order to more easily
access its many useful links. The most valuable
takeaways are its practical and detailed accounts of
how digital tools can be used in the classroom.
Bibliography
Beach, Richard, Chris M. Anson, Lee-Ann Kastman
Breuch, and Thomas Reynolds. Understanding and
Creating Digital Texts: An Activity-Based Approach.
New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014.

Chapters four through twelve explore various

digital resources and tools, describing how they
can advance reading and writing instruction. For
instance, students may find value in using mapping
tools like MindMeister in the pre-writing stage. By
mapping, students can visually make connections
between and among ideas, resulting in more
cohesive writing. Additionally, Diigo is a tool that
enables students to more fully engage with their
digital readings by allowing them to save and
annotate online resources.

Richard Beach and others, Understanding and Creating Digital Texts: An Activity-Based Approach (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
2014), 3.
1

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 9

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

His Story: Conversations with History

Professor Emerson Tad Baker
by Daniel McGuire, undergraduate History major
Paper was strewn about his desk. Hardcovers and
paperbacks lined the shelves above our heads.
This was more than a professors office it was a
sanctuary for places and people long forgotten.
Textual permanence proved sacred in this
sanctuary. Books emblazoned with Emerson Baker
earned proper prominence on the shelves. With
four books and counting, Professor Baker is well on
his way to becoming as permanent as his subjects.
I interviewed him about his writings, findings and
scholastic endurance. Here is our conversation:
DM: When you sit down and write, what is your
first goal?

DM: How does your discipline (historical

archeology) play to the public? Do you feel the
need to tailor your writing to fit a popular crowd?
EB: People dont generally like reading footnotes
if theyre trying to enjoy a narrative. But history is
just that a story! Even so, I could never imagine
writing a book without annotations and indexes.
They necessitate and validate what I write, and
I would be foolish not to include them. Im not
writing pop-history. I write for the public, even if
the subject matter isnt always popular. They are
always the best audience.
DM: What is your subject matter?

EB: Im convinced we dont have all the answers.

Historical archeology provides the best method
for stringing together what we know into a cogent
picture. That part, for me, is beyond engaging. I
labor over data long before pen touches paper. I try
to filter all of the jargon into something readable
and then I re-write, and re-write. My primary goal
is always to tell the best story possible with the
best information at hand.
DM: When did writing become more than an
academic necessity?
EB: Well, when I was completing my monograph
Clarke and Lake Company: The Historical
Archeology of a Seventeenth-Century Maine
Settlement, I already knew what and when I
wanted to study. Maines rich history provided me
with everything I needed for a lifetime of obsessive
work. I always enjoyed writing, but the monograph
was when my passion and prose truly came
together.

10 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

EB: Ive always been fascinated by witchcraft and

its influence on 17th-century America. Working in
Salem gives me more material than I could ever
want. We are always finding out new things about
this old seafaring community. Immense interest in
the Witch City peddled inaccuracies about the
trials and their era: my goal is to right those wrongs
and replace them with facts. The past can be a little
dry, so I fill my speaking engagements and writing
with excitement and inquiries anyone can enjoy.
Mirthless retreads of played-out points are boring.
Who wants to read that? Archeology is dynamic
and exciting the writing should reflect this action,
not stop it.

DM: Who are your influences?

EB: I studied under James Axtell pursing my PhD
at William and Mary. He opened up new worlds
to me. His lessons are ever-present in my work. I
subscribe to the French Annales School of study,
and many of its founding principles find ways into
my writing. I also love Francis Parkman, author
of The Oregon Trail he was one of the great
American historians and is still a joy to read.

Emerson Tad Baker is a professor of history and

has been teaching at Salem State University for 22
years. Most recently, he has taught Introduction to
Archaeology (HST 301), Architectural History (HST
332), Topics in US History: Salem Witch Trials (HST
360), and Seminar in Early American History (HST
800). His most recent publications include: A Storm
of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American
Experience (2015) and The Devil of Great Island:
Witchcraft & Conflict in Early New England (2007).

DM: Whats next for Emerson Baker?

EB: As an archeologist, the older the better. Part of
my job is to imagine myself living in the past. What
better way than to brew 17th-century beer? Im
currently working on a short book about brewing
recipes and their impact on early America. It should
be fun!

Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter | 11

The third annual writing

pedagogy conference,
Writing Vertically, was
held Tuesday, April 12

Participants from the Writing Intensive Curriculum

(WIC) Seminar program and First-Year Writing
professional development program presented
posters on various topics related to the teaching
of writing. Professor Matthew Davis from
University of Massachusetts Boston delivered
the keynote address entitled: Past, Present, and
Future: Thinking Multimodally across Disciplines.
Alexandria Peary, associate professor and firstyear writing coordinator, and Tanya Rodrigue,
assistant professor and WIC coordinator cofacilitated the conference.

1 // Assistant Professor Roopika Risam of English discusses

the various ways she uses Twitter to teach writing.

2 // Assistant professor of criminal justice Forrest Rodgers

presents his research project on student response to
video feedback on their writing. The goal of his research
is to determine the effectiveness of video feedback in
comparison to traditional written feedback on papers and
assignments.
3 // Presenters and conference-goers have exciting
conversations about writing assessment, instructor
feedback and digital writing.

4 // New assistant professor of management Mohammad

Jahanbakht showcases his interesting work with digital
writing in his business and marketing courses. Students
collaboratively compose videos that are used for teaching
and learning tools in future classes.
5 // Assistant professor of chemistry Kristin Pangallo
discusses the various assignments she uses to help
students build citation knowledge, voice and formality,
and learn other conventions related to scientific writing
and data presentation. These activities prepare chemistry
majors for composing their first laboratory reports.

5
12 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016