[In]visible writing programs: The infrastructure of graduate writing across and within the disciplines

Laurie A Pinkert, Purdue University

Abstract

In U.S. higher education, writing often emerges as a topic of conversation and research. At the undergraduate level, conversations about writing have often culminated in the development of courses specific to student needs or the integration of writing instruction into already-existent credit-bearing courses. These models for engaging writing through curricular design have been well documented in studies of first year composition programs, writing across the curriculum initiatives, and writing in the disciplines courses. At the graduate level, however, curricular support for writing is not well-documented and is rarely studied. This dissertation responds to the lack of visible infrastructure to support writers at the graduate level in two ways. First, it interrogates the framework through which we typically identify courses as writing courses (and, in turn, programs as writing programs) to ask how an infrastructural approach might not only make visible the writing support that is already in place but also offer a way for new programs to emerge. Second, it reports the results of a survey of graduate faculty, staff, and students across disciplines at a selected institution and across institutions within the field of rhetoric and composition.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Sullivan, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Pedagogy

COinS