Dr. Christine Tulley Presents on Collaboration to Rhetoric & Writing Program

Dr. Christine Tulley, Professor of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Findlay and alumni of the BGSU Rhetoric & Writing Ph.D. Program, gave a presentation and workshop on April 5th titled, "Effective Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition through Collaboration."

She was introduced by Soha Youssef, President of RSBS, and Dr. Sue Carter Wood, Rhetoric & Writing Ph.D. Program Director, as well as Lauren Salisbury, current graduate student in the Rhetoric & Writing Ph.D. program and graduate of the M.A. in Rhetoric and Writing Program at the University of Findlay. In her engaging presentation, Dr. Tulley discussed how doctoral programs help to create connections and networks for the future, reflecting on her own connections she made while completing her doctoral degree at BGSU. Dr. Tulley also shared insights on collaboration from her new book, How Writing Faculty Write (Utah State University Press, Forthcoming Fall 2017), in which she interviewed fifteen prolific writing faculty. As Dr. Tulley expressed, "Collaboration is important for our identity as a field." Her workshop allowed participants time to reflect on their own writing strategies and develop immediate writing and networking goals.

Dr Tulley's new book, How Writing Faculty Write (Utah State University Press, Forthcoming Fall 2017), provides a revealing window into how fifteen prolific writing faculty start with an idea, draft and organize a manuscript, and pursue a project through to publication. Unlike typical academic productivity guides that advocate writing from 30 minutes to two hours a day, How Writing Faculty Write illustrates in detail how time constrained writing faculty have learned to write consistently in brief open moments of the workday while avoiding writer’s block. Due to knowledge of rhetoric and composition as a discipline, productive writing faculty adopt attitudes that not only increase chances of publication success, but also cultivate sustainable writing habits over the course of a faculty career. These attitudes result in ten strategies writing faculty use to begin the writing process, complete the written product, and reinforce habits to enhance scholarly productivity.

Useful for a variety of venues from doctoral graduate publication courses within rhetoric and writing to faculty writing groups to faculty development centers across disciplines, How Writing Faculty Write offers innovative yet workable strategies for emerging and established faculty writers. Drafting process tips that organize writing from the start, key rhetorical choices to increase a manuscript’s chance for publication, and effective project planning and time management are applicable across disciplines and useful for all faculty and faculty developers interested in creating a culture of faculty writing on campus.

This event was sponsored by Rhetoric Society of the Black Swamp (RSBS), RSA, Lester & Susan Barber Classroom and Staff Enrichment Fund, and BGSU Rhetoric & Writing Ph.D. program. RSBS received the RSA Special Event Award for a proposed spring speaker. With the 21st Century Englishes Conference theme of collaboration, RSBS saw this as an opportunity to prepare for that theme and start conversations on collaboration.