Toward Plural Productivities: Critically Reenvisioning Graduate Writing Development across Contexts (2025)

Beyond deficit: graduate student research-writing pedagogies

Teaching in Higher Education, 2014

Graduate writing is receiving increasing attention, particularly in contexts of diverse student bodies and widening access to universities. In many of these contexts, writing is seen as 'a problem' in need of fixing. Often, the problem and the solution are perceived as being solely located in notions of deficit in individuals and not in the broader embedded and sometimes invisible discourse practices. An academic literacies approach shifts the focus from the individual to broader social practices. This research project emerged out of an attempt to develop a graduate research-writing pedagogy from an academic literacies perspective. We present a detailed case study of one Masters' student to illustrate the results of a pedagogy that moved beyond notions of deficit and support. We argue that to be successful research writers, students need to (1) become discourse analysts; (2) develop authorial voice and identity; and (3) acquire critical competence.

Introduction: Graduate Writing Across the Disciplines

2020

This project has been part of our lives for a long time. It began in 2011 when all the editors were working at the Michigan State University (MSU) Writing Center, Trixie Smith as the director and the rest of us as graduate students. Every day we found ourselves grappling with issues and ideas connected to graduate writers through our work at the writing center: working one-to-one with graduate writers, facilitating graduate writing groups, and offering workshops for graduate students, such as our Navigating the Ph.D. workshop series. The work was also personally relevant to most of us since we were graduate students at the time, frequently finding ourselves experiencing imposter syndrome and letting our identities as graduate students consume our lives. Little did we-excepting Trixie, perhaps-know then that our interest in graduate writing would intensify when we became junior faculty and found that we still faced many of the same writing-related concerns that we did as graduate students. Our motivations for developing this edited collection on graduate writing across the disciplines began when we turned from interacting with graduate writers to researching graduate writers and graduate writing. When the Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures department at MSU began an initiative to create research clusters that bring faculty, staff, and students together to engage in conducting academic research and developing publications, we decided that a research cluster focusing on graduate writing would be ideal. We participated in this Graduate Writing Research Cluster for the two years that we were all still at MSU and continued to collaborate when we began moving into faculty positions outside of MSU. Our collaboration culminated in a special issue of Across the Disciplines and this edited collection. What

Review: Learning from the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student Writers edited by Shannon Madden, Michele Eodice, Kirsten T. Edwards, and Alexandria Lockett

Writing Center Journal, 2021

Learning from the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student Writers takes us from narratives to research. I was interested in and looked forward to reading this book, as, over the summer, some graduate students and I read Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School (McKee & Delgado, 2020), and I wanted to see how the books complemented each other. While Degrees of Difference was more personal, more narrative-based, and more interdisciplinary, both books stressed the importance of mentoring. But I am especially excited to bring some of the ideas from Learning from the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student Writers to my Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) campus. Our graduate population at The University of Texas Permian Basin is growing, and we need to offer it more support. The book is divided into three parts with a total of 14 chapters, plus an introduction and an afterword. Part 1: Voices, considers graduate student experiences in five chapters; Part 2: Bridges and Borders consists of two chapters; Rebecca Day Babcock is the William and Ordelle Watts Professor at the University of Texas Permian Basin, where she teaches writing and linguistics and serves as the Freshman English Coordinator and Director of Undergraduate Research. She has authored, co-authored, or edited books and award-winning articles on tutoring, writing centers, disability, and meta-research, as well as recently published her first book not about tutoring, Boom or Bust: Narrative, Life, and Culture from the West Texas Oil Patch, co-edited with Sheena Stief and Kristen Figgins. Theories and Methods of Writing Center Research, edited with Jo Mackiewicz, won last year's AWAC best edited collection award.

Walking the walk: How Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition doctoral programs prepare their graduate students for intersectional Writing Studies research

2020

Kinship of many kinds has brought me to this moment. My academic kin are numerous, but I will be brief. Ms. Jones and Mr. Arnerich: thank you for helping me love literature, not just books, and believing in my ability as a writer. Dr. Continothank you for making that very first paper bleed red. You helped me learn that our writing, too, must descend to ascend. Thank you, also, for teaching me how much the text matters. That advice has never steered me wrong. Dr. Julianne Smithyour many hours of attention to my words and the doors you opened for me into the Victorian past and the scholarly present have been invaluable. Thank you. The PepStep faculty: Damien, Stella, Carrie B., and Carrie W.thank you for ensuring we learned theory and praxis. It stood me well. To Waves near and far, but especially Catherine, Cassandra and Daniyour support at all hours of the day has been deeply meaningfulfriends for all seasons. To my many undergraduate researchers, you have been pearls without price. The OG crew who collected the website data: Kat, Kynedi, Michelle, and Abbymy gratitude knows no bounds. The citations crew: I see you. Paige and Ixchelyour amazing work at the final hour will not be forgotten. My GGSE valiant last-minute editors-Emily and Tanishathank you for your keen eyes. Without the material help of Khirsten Scott and Lou Maraj in the form of DBLAC, there are whole quarters worth of work that might not have gotten done. Jacqueline Jones Royster and Asao Inoue have, through their presence in the field and the fire that is their scholarship, profoundly shaped this dissertation and me. Thank you, Anne Charity Hudley, for the hours of mentorship. Vilna Bashi-Treitler, you inspire me every day, showing me what it looks like to claim your beauty and be a mom while also producing excellent scholarship. Dorothy Chunyour words about my writing have been a defense against imposter syndrome. Trish Fancher, Ellen O'Connell-Whittet, and Kara Mae Brown, you have all been a wonderful sisterhood of Writing Studies scholars and I am beyond grateful. Karen Lunsfordwhen I walked, pregnant, into your office all those years ago, you saw a woman ready to compose herself into a scholar. Thank you for helping me do just that. After a global pandemic altered many of my plans for completing this dissertation, most especially the structures I relied on for childcare, I found out quickly who my kin are. My neighborhood friends risked exposure to "the virwus," as Finn calls it, because of our bonds of affection and their desire to see me meet this goal. Thank you, Natalee, Else, Kristine, and Katie. Thank you Kim, Lena the birthday twin, and Marianne. Thank you Cheryl, for the peaceful retreat of your little farm in the middle of the suburbs. My in-laws watched my son for long afternoons and even longer Sundays so I could write. Their belief in me has been unwavering. Thank you Grammie and Grandpa (Joan and Rick). Alex, without your support during my Pepperdine years, I wouldn't have made it this far. My family in New Mexico stepped up, too, opening up their homes to me so I could have a room of my own. Thank you, Cash, for giving up your room. Thank you, Seth, for all your patience with Finn and for sharing your horses with us. Thank you, Anthony, for watching Finn like I watched you when I was seventeen. Thank you, Joe and Yvonne. There aren't enough words. Thank you, Mom. Your indispensable help in the final weeks of writing helped me quilt together this dissertation. Thank you, Dad. Any story I tell is because you taught me how. Thank you, David, for going where I go and staying where I stay, for all the little ways you supported me over the years of pursuing this degree and writing this dissertation. Of course, thank you to the One through whom all is made possible. v VITA OF MICHELLE NICOLE PETTY GRUE

Teaching writing in graduate school

2011

Graduate students are typically expected to know how to write. Those who write poorly are occasionally penalized, but little in-class attention is given to help students continue to develop and refine their writing skills. More often than not, writing courses at the graduate level are remedial programs designed for international students and others with significant challenges to writing. In this article,we describe theways in whichwe introduced writing into the curriculum of a master’s-level qualitative methods course. We structured the course around a semester-long research project that called for students to work in a team with others to improve both their research and writing. We share the strategies we used to demystify the writing process and encourage improvement, both in the course and beyond.

First Semester: Graduate Students, Teaching Writing, and the Challenge of Middle Ground

2012

The Laborious Reality vs the Imagined Ideal of Graduate Student Instructors of Writing

WPA, 2022

Authors (because Academia's co-author thing isn't working): Ruth Osorio, Allison Hutchison, Sarah Primeau, Molly Ubbesen, and Alexander Champoux-Crowley In fall 2017, the Writing Program Administration Graduate Organization (WPA-GO) Labor Census Task Force surveyed 344 graduate student instructors (GSIs) of writing from across the U.S. about their labor conditions. Our findings highlight the material challenges GSIs face in writing programs: low pay, inconsistent access to healthcare, and little support for health and family life. These labor conditions, we argue, construct an imagined ideal GSI, disproportionately impacting GSIs with marginalized identities.

Everyone Writes: Expanding Writing across the Curriculum to Change a Culture of Writing

Transformations: Change Work across Writing Programs, Pedagogies, and Practices, 2021

Academic Writing at the Graduate Level: Improving the Curriculum through Faculty Collaboration

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2013

This article describes a collaborative self-study undertaken to identify the source of academic writing difficulties among graduate students and find ways to address them. Ten faculty members in a college of education came together to define the problem and to analyze data gleaned from faculty and student surveys, course documents, course assignments, and course assessments. We found discrepancies between faculty and student perceptions about graduate preparation for academic writing and between the espoused and enacted curriculum. Both faculty and students identified problems associated with synthesizing theory and research. We discuss the need for teacher-scholars in today's educational environment, the challenges facing curriculum improvement, and several program-specific measures being undertaken to address identified gaps in academic writing and critical thinking.

Introduction: A Writing Pedagogy of Failure

Sanglap, 2020

The Introduction begins with the consensus that writing pedagogy in India is grappling with its own identity within university ecosystems. It is currently at a stage in Indian higher education that is marked by failures and relentless trials. The Introduction argues that this failure could be productive of forging new pathways best suited for the multilingual nature of the Indian classroom. It emphasizes on writing as a process and not just as a product, and how such process-oriented approach towards writing can make use of lived or peripheral languages in the process of producing the final product in Standard English prose. It pays close attention to some of recent proposals of the National Education Policy 2020 in this regard. The Introduction is also consistent with the existing literature on writing pedagogy based on care. However, it is cautious in treading this path of care as it notes that care must move beyond the discourse of ‘sickness’ and ‘remedy’ for those who lack proficiency in English. Instead, it proposes that these centres could emerge as an emancipatory antidote to a collective sickness of putting pen to paper: a struggle shared by all, regardless of socio-economic statuses. In the final section, the Introduction proposes a pedagogy that can be built through a commitment to affirmative action policies in private universities. Through references to Ambedkar’s statements during the debates on linguistic states and Hany Babu M.T. 's proposal on bilingual education, it contends that English could be an equidistant language from all the other languages in the classroom and live a life of objective reasoning in that space. It also contends that we must imagine the multidisciplinary writing centre as a space that is equidistant from specific disciplinary regimes of writing and knowledge production to make the project of the writing centre truly emancipatory.