"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"( E.M. Forester - 1927)
I am Professor of English and Director of the Composition Program in the department of English, Technical Communication and Media Arts here at SPSU. I earned my Ph.D. and M.A. from Florida State University in English with areas of concentration in Rhetoric and Composition and African-American Literature and My B.A. degree in Communication. My classes include: Composition, African-American Literature, American Literature, Rhetorical Theory and Practice, Small Group Communication, Article and Essay Workshop, Project Portfolio and Honors Capstone courses. My teaching philosophy encourages dynamic learning and focuses on students' powers to create their own knowledge through language and various “acts of composition.”
I teach my communication courses from a rhetorical perspective in which we learn to balance and negotiate complex rhetorical situations. Rather than teaching writing or communication as a series of skills and formats I present it as an analytic process that requires shifting skills and language. Instead of forms of discourse, I encourage students to examine their own intentions, audiences, subjects and contexts.