FYC.USF.

EDU

FYC @ USF

MAY 2012

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION PROGRAMS OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER

FYC@USF wins CCCC Program of Excellence award

from the Mentoring Report

This year, the First Year Composition program received the prestigious CCCC Writing Program Certicate of Excellence, awarded by the most prominent conference in the eld of Rhetoric and Composition. We are the rst writing program in Florida to receive this award. In the award letter, the award committee pointed specically to our innovative My Reviewers tool that allows for faculty and students to see feedback across time. Additionally, the committee found that our assignments are wellsequenced across the courses and the structured; common syllabi still allow room for instructor choice.

Rhetoric in Action day

Under the direction of Susan Taylor, the Celebrate Student Success committee has held several events and activities throughout the semester. During Student Success Week, instructors once again handed out awards to students for various accomplishments such as excellent peer review contributions, class participation, and best blog/vlog (see pictures here). Per the suggestion of Angela Eward-Mangione, on March 22, 1101 students from Mike Russ 1101 classes presented their Remediation projects in the library; Lacie Meiers students served as their primary audience (pictures from this event can be viewed here).

Continue to page 2.

BULLITZER PRIZE WINNERS Page 3

AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Page 3

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MID-SEMESTER SURVEY RESULTS HIGHLIGHTS Page4

Rhetoric in Action Day: Going out with an argument

TEACHER FEATURE
Name: Michael Ruso Status: MFA in Fiction From: Tampa, FL Inspirations: My ction is inspired by the human relationship with the natural world (the Florida landscape in particular and its representation in literature) and the meaning of friendship, family, and empathy. Teaching Philosophy: Dr. Runge introduced me to contemplative pedagogy and now I'm hooked. I plan to use it in the ction class I'm teaching in the fall. I also think great writers are great readers and so I often recommend books to my comp students based on their major and their interests. Fun Fact: In 2007, I completed an end-to-end "thru-hike" of the Appalachian Trail, a journey of six months and 2,174 miles. Beginning in November 2008, a friend and I paddled the entire coastline of Florida in kayaks, a journey of ve months and 1500 miles. We were the rst people to paddle Florida's entire coast from west to east.

by Katherine McGee
Celebrate Student Success

Future Goals: To complete

and publish the ten or so novels and memoirs I have in the works, and to ride a bicycle from Cairo to Cape Town, South Africa.

(Continued from page 1) Once again, we published a student-written newsletter full of articles about the students experiences and accomplishments. The committee has also taken charge of the Bullitzer competition. Finally, we held our annual Rhetoric in Action Day on April 25, where over 170 students presented their nal 1102 projects. Instructors who had students present and/or helped organize and run the event include: Ellie Bieze, Jason Carabelli, Cassie Childs, Zac Dixon, Angela Eward-Mangione, Jessica Eberhard, Danielle Farrar, Rondrea Mathis, and Susan Taylor. Others who helped out include: Kristen Gay, Katherine McGee, Lacie Meier, and Jimmy Suarez. Students presented on a wide variety of projects such as installing more air pumps for bicycles on campus, motorcycle helmet safety, cultural property, the rights of transgender students, empathizing with and helping the homeless, and reducing ones carbon footprint. The students got really excited about their projects and enjoyed sharing them with everyone who stopped by (pictures from this event can be viewed on the committees Facebook page). The committee would like to thank everyone who made the trek over to the Marshall Center that day as well as all of the instructors who go out of their way to enable, encourage, and acknowledge student success throughout the semester. We would also like to thank Dr. Moxley and Dr. Donnelly for all of their support.
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FYC Staff/Instructor Accomplishments

Publications
Books Vieregge, Quentin, Kyle Stedman, Taylor Mitchell, and Joe Moxley. Agency in the Age of Peer Production. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, in press. Articles Langbehn, Karen, Megan McIntyre, and Joseph Moxley. "The Value-Add: ReMediating Writing Program Assessment." InDigital Writing Assessment and Evaluation. Eds. Heidi Mckee and Danielle DeVoss. Richards, Daniel. Digitizing Dewey: Blogging an Ethic of Community.Computers and CompositionOnline. Special Issue: Ethics in a Digital Age. Fall 2011. n. pag. Web 1 March 2012. Richards, Daniel. In-Class Peer Review. Writing Commons. March 2012. Web. 27 March 2012. Stedman, Kyle and Wendi Sierra. Ode to Sparklepony: Gamication in Action. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric,Technology and Pedagogy 16.2 (2012): n.pag. Web. 1 March 2012. Yirinec, Jennifer. Analyzing Evidence. Writing Commons. March 2012. Web. 27 March 2012.

Awards
Provost Teaching Awards Recognition: Daniel Richards Commendation: Megan McIntyre and Laura Hennessey English Department Awards Mentoring Coordinator Megan McIntyre received the Joseph Bentley Teaching Fellowship. Summer Collaborator and textbook editor Jennifer Yirinec received the Dorothy Newman Linton Award for Academic Promise. Community Manager Daniel Richards received the Alma Bryant Award for Outstanding Graduate Student. Mentor (and former Mentoring Coordinator) Jessica McKee received the Carolyn L. Cooley Award in American Literature. Jason Carabelli received the Estelle J. Zbar Award for Teaching & Academic Excellence in English.

Conferences
Angeli, Anna. What Do Our Students Need? Striking a Balance Between Nanny and Nurturer. Florida College English Association Conference. Melbourne, FL. October 2011. Cutlip, Lauren. Getting Students to Connect with Writing Through Jouissance: Blogging Via Facebook Notes. English Graduate Student Association. Tampa, Fl. April 2011. McIntyre. Megan. "Writing in the Writing Classroom: Why the Writing Center Offers Composition Important Models of How to Encourage Agency and Aid Prociency." Conference on College Composition and Communication. Atlanta, Georgia. April 2011. Richards, Daniel. Blogging Dewey: Pragmatism and the Creation of Social Action OnlineCommunities. Computers and Writing Conference. Ann Arbor, MI. May 2011. Shuman, Mike. My Reviewers. Computers and Writing Conference. Raleigh, NC. May 2012. Taylor, Susan. Vlogging, Service Learning and the Composition Classroom: How New Media Expression and Community Engagement Benet the Writing Classroom. Far West Popular Culture Association. Palace Station, Las Vegas, NV. February 2012.

Bullitzer Winners
Spring 2012

Sarah Kasprow
"Budweiser: Clydesdale (9/11 Tribute) (full text)

Project 3 Submission Deadline:

Corey Stein
"The Benets of Homeschooling" (full text)
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Nominate your students today!

May 10th.

Mid-Semester Survey Results: Highlights

by Dan Richards
Community Manager

FYC Research
by Susan Taylor
Celebrate Student Success

My Reviewers 66% of students found the feedback they received on My Reviewers either VERY HELPFUL or HELPFUL. 45% of students (top response) spend an average of 30 minutes reviewing the feedback they get from the instructor on My Reviewers. Selected comments about what they would change about My Reviewers: When the site is working, it is a great tool. It is often very slow. It would be great if there was a highlighter option to catch local issues in papers. Less technical faults. Update the webpage layout. I think that the My Reviewers process works very well, the only thing that I would change is actually the website its self can be very difcult to navigate. I often nd that the log in can take a long time and sometimes it fails to upload my draft. For it to be easier to understand. The tabs on it can be a little confusing and I never remember which one to pick. Library Only 26% of students received some sort of library instruction (on location or in classroom). 65% of the students who did receive instruction agreed that it helped them nd sources from FYC assignments. Writing Center 64% of all students NEVER go to the Writing Center.

Number of Respondents: 518 Date of Report: 21 April 2012 Writing on the same topic 61% of students think that writing on the same topic throughout the semester is more benecial in terms of composing a nal, longer research essay. One-on-one time with teachers 50% of students nd it VERY BENEFICIAL 84% nd it at least BENEFICIAL Tech requirements for online sections 42% of students found them NOT AT ALL CHALLENGING 21% of student found them CHALLENGING Composing methods for online sections 37% (highest response) found the traditional essay format the most difcult composing method, followed by vlogging (31%). Blogging was the least challenging at 11%. Time spent outside class 56% of students spend 3-5 hours on composition courses each week. 24% spend 1-2 hours. Rigor of FYC Only 5% of students found the courses to be VERY RIGOROUS. Most students (54%) found the courses to be SOMEWHAT RIGOROUS. Teacher feedback Only 5% of students DISAGREE or STRONGLY DISAGREE that instructors provided them with the feedback they need to help improve as writers.

SUSAN TAYLOR WORKED LAST SEMESTER WITH 1102 STUDENTS ON RESEARCHING VLOGGING AND SERVICE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM

How does vlogging as a 21st century literacy work together with service learning as an enrichment experience as tools for the composition classroom? Vlogging provides a meaningful digital transmission of ideas, and using such technology in the classroom can provide an interesting way to connect with students. Scholars across the disciplines agree that service learning can improve grades and develop social responsibility; in my course, students also had the opportunity to develop their understanding of rhetorical concepts and appeals and broaden their understanding of rhetorics place in our daily lives. This article reports on the results of a qualitative study of vlogging and service learning at the University of South Florida. With this research, I hope to demonstrate the utility of vlogging in an FYC curriculum. This research extends Jennifer Bowies (2012) work with podcasting in Rhetorical Roots and Media Future: How Podcasting Fits into the Computers and Writing Classroom. It also substantiates the acknowledged connection between digital approaches to the classroom and engaged learning via service.

Writing Center: Accomplishment Highlights

by Kate Pantelides and Dan Richards

The Writing Center is an integral part of the teaching of writing on USF campus. As such, it is important that we stay informed about the state and accomplishments of the Writing Center. Below are a series of accomplishment highlights, as noted by coordinator Kate Pantelides. I. Increased Budget Allotment: An infusion of funds from the Provost brought our weekly tutoring hours to 230 contact hours. Including administration, our weekly contact hour total is 290/week. Although we remain 100% booked throughout the semester. This personnel addition has kept the wait for appointments under 2 days. Students and staff are appreciative. Honored by SWCA: Assistant Writing Center Coordinators Trisina Dickerson and Jared White were selected for the prestigious SWCA Graduate Tutor of the Year and Professional Tutor of the Year awards. This is an unprecedented achievement for the center to have 2 winners.

FROM THE LIB

News and Notes from Lily, our Library Liaison

II.

III. Opened Writing Center annex: This expansion allows students a quiet space to develop their work after a writing center consultation. It also provides space for ten writing consultations to be conducted simultaneously. IV. Expanded Partnerships with Undergraduate Research V. Integrated Learning Commons calendar and workshops

Some news that will affect instructors doing research in the summer and beginning of fall: The print journal collection will be unavailable due to the new STEM learning lab that is being built on the 2nd oor. In fact, all of the second oor except for Tutoring and Learning and Undergraduate Research will be closed during this construction period, which is expected to be completed on August 23rd.
FROM THE EDITOR

Appointments Semester
Fall 2011
Spring 2012


# of Students 853
1173


# of Visits 1969 1857

As your Community Manager, my responsibility is to en sure the maintenance and im provement of FYCs web presence. This includes the overseeing of the main FYC site and all the various su b-sites; the production of videos that represent our program; assisting FYC instructors with all the ir technological needs; and being an integral part of all the committees that work tirelessly to maintain and improve our status as a top-notch, progressive FYC prog ram.

FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION
Dr. Joseph Moxley, Director of Composition Dr. Dianne Donnelly, Assoc. Composition Dir. Location: CPR 304

FYC @ USF
MAY 2012

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Department of English 4202 East Fowler Avenue, CPR 107 Tampa, FL 33620

The editor of this newsletter is Daniel Richards, a doctoral candidate in rhetoric and composition. If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions for future newsletter, please email Dan at drichar3@mail.usf.edu