Category: writing

Hitler’s Rhetoric, A Rejection Report (August 2024)

This check-in is a report on a certain kind of failure--specifically, a failure to find a trade publisher for Hitler's Rhetoric. If you've been following along at home, you're no doubt aware that at the very end of November 2023, I sent my book pitch around to about 20 agents. I had interest from a … Continue reading Hitler’s Rhetoric, A Rejection Report (August 2024) →

Hitler’s Rhetoric, A Progress Report (Dec. 2022)

While I don't generally consider myself someone who appreciates the mathematical arts to the same degree I appreciate the linguistic ones, I nevertheless tend to take a significant amount of comfort in quantifying progress on nebulous and/or extended projects. This is a quick quantification of some of the progress I've made on the book I'm … Continue reading Hitler’s Rhetoric, A Progress Report (Dec. 2022) →

Fall 2021: ENGL 259 – Tentative Reading List

WeekDateTopics, Readings, Assignments, Deadlines1Aug. 24Introduction to the course / Literacy narrative(s)   Read: Sherman Alexie Nancy Sommers2Aug. 31The Parameters of the Task at Hand   Read: Ball and Loewe* Chapter: “America is Facing a Literacy Crisis” (Jacob Babb) Chapter: “First-Year Composition Prepares Students for Academic Writing” (Tyler Branson) Chapter: “You Can Learn to Write in … Continue reading Fall 2021: ENGL 259 – Tentative Reading List →

What an Academic Book Review Does

Despite having a reputation for being an easy introduction to scholarly writing, book reviews in academic journals are a fairly-specialized genre. Their reputation for being easy comes from the fact that they're generally pretty short, so it's easy to juggle the relatively smaller number of demands than you'd have in an article or book chapter. … Continue reading What an Academic Book Review Does →

I Will Tell You Everything I Know in 1,000 Words or Fewer

As I prepare to give a talk at an upcoming conference, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, I'm stuck by a complication in the task that lies ahead me. The talk I'm giving is about public intellectualism and the push among academics to do more public-facing, publicly-consumable work. It's about making what academics know … Continue reading I Will Tell You Everything I Know in 1,000 Words or Fewer →

‘Remediation’ in the United States: A Brief History

‘Remediation’ in the United States: A Brief History San José State University Academic Retreat February 11, 2016 My area of research is the history of writing instruction in American higher education. More specifically, I study the functions that writing instruction plays in institutions of higher education. The organizers of today's event invited me to talk … Continue reading ‘Remediation’ in the United States: A Brief History →

Why College Writing Matters

“Why College Writing Matters”Ryan SkinnellUNT Writing Program OrientationAugust 20, 2014Those of you who know me, and especially those of you who have taken my classes, know that I am pretty cynical about composition. My invitation to talk today about “Why College Writing Matters” may therefore seem like the height of irony. But obviously I don’t … Continue reading Why College Writing Matters →

The End of Books

I just finished reading an article by Urusula Le Guin in Harpers about the precipitous decline of book reading over the past few years. Le Guin, herself a novelist, is not particularly worried about the decline of book reading. (She notes, for example, that the polls surveying people's reading only accepted "literary" works as valid. … Continue reading The End of Books →