Teaching Composition at the Two-Year College: Background Readings

By translating theory and scholarship into concrete classroom practice in thoughtful and successful ways, Teaching Composition at the Two-Year College addresses the unique and specific needs of the two-year college teacher-scholar who teaches composition. While providing an overview of the current state of scholarship related to teaching composition at the two-year college, it also emphasizes classroom-based concerns, with particular attention to the question most important to many teachers: "Scholarship and theory is all well and good, but what do I do in the classroom on Monday?" The collection includes classic or important theoretical essays in the field (many of them written by two-year college practitioners) followed by essays written by two-year college teacher-scholars that suggest how composition scholarship and theory might translate to the distinctive setting of the two-year college.

About the Author :
Patrick Sullivan is an English professor at Manchester Community College, in Manchester, Connecticut, where he has taught writing for almost 30 years. He believes deeply in the mission of the open admissions community college. Sullivan has taught a wide range of basic writing and composition classes, and he has published scholarship in a variety of journals, including "College English, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, CCC, Academe, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Journal of Developmental Education, The Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Innovative Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and English Journal." Sullivan is the co-editor, with Howard Tinberg, of "What is "College-Level" Writing?" (NCTE, 2006) and, with Howard Tinberg and Sheridan Blau, of "What is "College-Level" Writing? Volume 2: Assignments, Readings, and Student Writing Samples" (NCTE, 2010). A new scholarly book about designing writing curriculum, "A New Writing Classroom: Listening, Motivation, and Habits of Mind," was published in 2014 by Utah State University Press. He is currently serving as a member of the Editorial Board of "CCC." In addition to teaching and writing, Sullivan enjoys spending time with his family--his wife, Susan, and his children, Bonnie Rose and Nicholas. Christie Toth is an assistant professor in the University of Utah s Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies, where she teaches writing, rhetoric, and literacy studies courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. She has taught basic and first-year writing at several two-year colleges, most recently Dine College in Crownpoint, New Mexico. Her research interests include the intellectual work and professional identities of two-year college English faculty, tribal college writing instruction, community college students post-transfer writing experiences, writing assessment, and inter-institutional collaborations in writing studies. Her work has appeared in "College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Journal of Basic Writing, Assessing Writing, Writing Program Administration, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College (TETYC)," as well as the edited collection "Class in the Composition Classroom. ""