Teaching English in the Two-Year College
30 articlesMarch 2025
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Guest Editors’ Introduction: Restarting the Conversation: Why We Need a Special Issue on Two-Year College Writing Centers ↗
Abstract
The editors of this special issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College highlight the lack of scholarship on two-year college writing centers despite their widespread presence. Systemic barriers are in place at most two-year colleges, including heavy workloads, lack of institutional support for research, and limited incentives for two-year-college writing center staff to publish. The issue features new research showcasing the unique challenges and innovations in two-year college writing centers. The editors hope this issue sparks an ongoing conversation around the important and distinctive work happening in two-year college writing centers
May 2024
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Abstract
In the fall of 2018, the First-Year Composition program at North Central Texas College (NCTC) initiated what informally became known as the Textbook Project. Our goal was to provide our community college students with innovative, imaginative, and inspiring classroom experiences that paralleled the high-impact opportunities their peers were afforded at four-year universities. The Textbook Project encompassed five key features: an NCTC-specific textbook, a campus-wide common read, resources for faculty and students in our college’s LMS, a college-wide lecture series, and funding for faculty professional development. Five years later, the project’s emphasis on continuity through collaboration has revitalized the department through faculty engagement and increased student success.
March 2022
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Abstract
This TETYC symposium centers anti-ableist action across two-year college institutional contexts, including the writing classroom (Olivas), writing centers (Van Dyke and Lovett), a Writing Across the Curriculum Program (Rousculp), and basic writing (Naomi Bernstein). Taken together, these authors offer insights into establishing anti-ableist practices in two-year college English studies with careful attention to multiple marginalized identities.
September 2021
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Abstract
Using weekly Writing Accountability Groups in intro-level writing courses provides benefits for both instructors and students without taking up synchronous class time.
September 2020
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Feature: Bringing the Community to the Classroom: Using Campus-Wide Collaborations to Foster Belonging for Dual Enrollment Students ↗
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This article describes the experience of three professors teaching dual enrollment BTECH Early College High School students at Queensborough Community College, and our incorporation of departmental and campus-wide collaborative learning experiences as an intervention for student success and engagement. We present our collaborative approach to course design, culminating in the Upstanders Project, a multimodal research-based writing assignment incorporating on-campus cultural and learning resources. We argue that this approach led to an immersive learning experience for dual enrollment students that strengthened their ties to the college community.
March 2018
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Abstract
YouTube video innovations should be more widely developed and implemented because they uniquely meet the needs of today’s diverse learners.
December 2016
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Abstract
Applied Pedagogies: Strategies for Online Writing Instruction, edited by Daniel Ruefman and Abigail G. Scheg. Boulder: UP of Colorado for Utah State UP, 2016. Print. Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction, edited by Beth L. Hewett and Kevin Eric DePew. Fort Collins: WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press, 2015. Print. A Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Practices for Online Writing Instruction (OWI) by the CCCC Committee on Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction. Conference on College Composition and Communication. Mar. 2013. Web.
September 2016
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This article describes a statewide integrated developmental and first-year writing program that uses multiple measures placement data about college readiness to inform curriculum and faculty development.
May 2015
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This article describes the key features of the WAC program at the Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences in Cincinnati. the author won a Diana Hacker Award.
December 2014
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This article addresses the current nationwide emphasis on job-readiness programs by (1) pointing to the “utility” of studying creative writing and (2) outlining a plan for including engagement strategies in the construction of a two-year creative writing degree.
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Abstract
Reviewed are: Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters by Robert Pinsky; reviewed by Rob Wallace Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms by W. Norton Grubb with Robert Gabriner; reviewed by Keith Kroll Rhetorical Strategies and Genre Conventions in Literary Studies: Teaching and Writing in the Disciplines by Laura Wilder; reviewed by Abigail Montgomery
December 2013
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Abstract
Reviewed are: Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing, by Peter Elbow, Reviewed by Patrick Sullivan, and by Annie Del Principe and Holly Hassel, with a Response from Peter Elbow From Form to Meaning: Freshman Composition and the Long Sixties, 1957–1974, by David Flitalicing, Reviewed by Chris Warnick Agency in the Age of Peer Production, by Quentin D. Vieregge, Kyle D. Stedman, Taylor Joy Mitchell, and Joseph M. Moxley, Reviewed by Sean Barnette Agents of Integration: Understanding Transfer as a Rhetorical Act, by Rebecca S. Nowacek, Reviewed by Deanna Mascle How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One, by Stanley Fish; Several Short Sentences about Writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg, Reviewed by Peter Wayne Moe
September 2011
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From Rigidity to Freedom: An English Department’s Journey in Rethinking How We Teach and Assess Writing ↗
Abstract
This essay chronicles an English department overhauling its rubric design, curriculum, and portfolio in order to emphasize a wider range of “real-world” writing.
March 2010
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“Who Will Be the Inventors? Why Not Us?” Multimodal Compositions in the Two-Year College Classroom ↗
Abstract
This essay illustrates why compositionists should conceive of multimodal writing assignments as having wide-ranging and forward-thinking parameters, in order to invite the greatest possible range of student responses; it also suggests the directions we should take when evaluating such work.
September 2009
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Abstract
Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers, Edited by Peter Vandenberg, Sue Hum, and Jennifer Clary-Lemon, reviewed by Jeffrey Klausman Writing-Intensive: Becoming W-Faculty in a New Writing Curriculum, by Wendy Strachan, reviewed by Abigail L. Montgomery Writing Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching, Edited by Joy Reid, reviewed by Todd Ruecker
May 2009
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Abstract
Working with and learning from veterans reveals a wide range of inclusive opportunities that composition instructors might use to facilitate transformations of service-related experiences into effective compositions.
December 2008
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An Analysis of the National TYCA Research Initiative Survey Section IV: Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing Centers in Two-Year College English Programs ↗
Abstract
This analysis of the Writing Across the Curriculum section of the TYCA national survey of writing programs covers Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing in the Disciplines programs and initiatives, as well as writing centers and the overall satisfaction with two-year institutions’ integration of Writing Across the Curriculum.
May 2008
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Abstract
This essay aims to explore the widely varying terminology associated with a typical classroom activity, peer review.
September 2007
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In light of research on diversity learning and teaching, an introductory course on cinematic depictions of African Americans taught at a predominately white, rural university campus leads students to see the impact of history and Hollywood on their own local and statewide communities.
May 2006
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Abstract
One way to teach the research paper is by first discussing sampling, the musical practice of using other artists’ work. By studying the lyrics of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, a widely known hip-hop sampler, students gain an understanding of quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing sources.
March 2001
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Abstract
Reflects on the author's long, demanding, and rewarding career as a teacher and administrator in community colleges. Describes how she found herself an advocate of change in the profession in the 1970s, the differences she sensed and thrived upon in the community college experience, and how flexibility was the key to successfully teaching the wide array of community college students.
December 2000
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Abstract
Notes that students can begin to learn that literature is not a dead art with no relevance to them by studying works that provide a wider context that will allow readers a new sense of the cultural milieu in which texts are written and read in conjunction with the ones in their course anthologies.
March 2000
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Shows how letter writing can motivate basic writers. Describes how the author began teaching his first remedial writing class with a class-wide engagement in letter writing. Discusses how the class developed an active, collaborative, engaged, and inclusive spirit as students learned to put expression first and polishing later.
May 1999
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Abstract
Describes the Writing Center at Johnson County Community College as an institution that implements democratic ideals in its staffing and teaching; and where all voices are heard, encouraged, and validated. Describes three things necessary to achieve a writing center with a democratic nature: a peer-tutor program including formal tutor training; financial support from the college; and college-wide support.
March 1999
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Shares freshman-composition students’ stories about portfolio assessment (interviewing students at length three times during the semester), to examine ways students understand portfolios, how portfolios work, and why sometimes they do not. Suggests concerns relevant to implementing department-wide competency portfolios. Argues that community colleges may be better situated than large universities to reap the benefits of portfolios.
December 1998
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Offers four brief descriptions of research and class assignments that incorporate use of the World Wide Web, including resume writing and the Web; team research projects; "hunts" for local Web sites to introduce the World Wide Web; and using the Web to get updates or confirm accuracy.
February 1998
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Argues that zines (short for "fanzines": small, cheaply produced sheets on a wide range of topics) interest many college students and offer composition classes a number of opportunities. Discusses obtaining zines, using them in the composition classroom, how students respond to zines, producing zines, and how it all comes together.
December 1997
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Abstract
The Research Paper and the World Wide Web, by Dawn Rodrigues; Assessment of Writing: Politics, Policies, Practices, ed. by Edward M. White, William D. Lutz, and Sandra Kamusikiri; Teaching the Argument in Writing, by Richard Fulkerson; Poets’ Fall, by Jon Conlon.
February 1996
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An English instructor and a science instructor collaborate to inject real-world experience into an introductory content classroom.
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Abstract
Stories of how two-year colleges transform lives must be told more widely.