Monthly Archives: September 2026

Student Blogs

Fully Trained in the Autopsy

I look back at all my english classes with a deep fondness and a load of appreciation. Those years were, one, extremely formative to me as a writer and, two, extremely formative to me as a person. Still, there’s a concern that grows a little larger every time read a new pedagogical essay:

The way my teachers approached the english curriculum, as I shared briefly last class, each varied in style and consideration. Looking back with what I know now (as a student who has done a lot of reading and has taken a billion english classes) there are a lot of things from that time that just don’t make much sense.

Take the amount of time devoted to the teaching and developing the writing process as just one example. Why?!? For so long?! Was I limited to hamburger style essays?!!? Why only in my first semester of undergrad was I taught that… no, that’s actually not the formula you should use to write your rhetorical essay…?

I have to agree with Murray, teachers are taught to direct students to be “fully trained in the autopsy.” You read something, you analyze it, and then—with a rubric full of requirements you must follow—you write about it. But that doesn’t necessarily work for (or benefit) everyone. And not everyone knows how—or even wants—to break out of that approach to the writing process.

A big part of that unwillingness or inability to break through is simply because students don’t think they’re allowed and students are trained in such a way that sometimes it doesn’t even appear as a possibility. That’s exactly why hooks was such a joy to read! The time she spent as a primary and secondary student navigating a segregated American educational system, to when she found herself in a complete mental crisis by her tenure acceptance is a true testament of the importance of “radical pedagogy’ in an educators approach to teaching and a students love for education.

I don’t know. The whole thing has surprisingly fascinated me.

“the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy”

For my work at college steps, I’m tasked with joining one of my students to their English Composition class every week. I’m there, sitting on the sidelines, simply for support. Yet, I often find myself transfixed by the class & I’ll tell you why:

The professor is great. He speaks very openly about his own experiences and prompts students to do the same during any and all stages of their writing process. I think he’s done a (really) good job in creating a space/classroom environment where every student feels heard and cared for. I mean, students participate eagerly and those who don’t raise their hands are always prompted to do so (never with any negative pressure). Students are comfortable sharing their own personal stories, they ask questions without fear or judgment, and spend the hour and fifteen minutes with eyes on him, really listening. Some of them update the professor—openly, perfectly comfortable with classmates providing their input— on their days or an ongoing situation in their lives. It feels as though a lot of them, and I don’t think I’m wrong, are happy to be in class.

That’s rare.

By doing as he does (successfully engaging freshman, first semester students in a writing class (!!!) and doing it passionately), this professor (Professor Woods is his name) is proactively transgressing the boundaries of what we’re told academia is supposed to be.

I wonder if he’s read hooks?

Which leads me to wonder the possibility of this kind of framework being applied in all classrooms. I know the likelihood of significant pedagogical changes starting tomorrow, next month, a year, or even years from now is somewhat improbable (but never impossible!), but I’m happy to know a room full of so many educators are reading these texts. I’m happy to have read it and feel moved. & I’m happy to put this knowledge in my pocket to carry with me wherever life takes me.

P.S. He did this thing today where he introduced the class to the compare & contrast essay but prompted them to compare the U.S. educational system to the ones of the world’s highest ranking educational systems (for example, China). I thought this was interesting because he opened up why this may be the case for discussion which in turn prompted students to think about pedagogy through both perspectives (as a learner and as an educator).

Adamari 9/24/2026

Student Blogs

the one in which i forget (and rediscover) common sense

I must admit: when initially looking at the titles of our readings this week, I was under the impression that their content would not mesh. It was not like the pairing was an issue to me; I had faith that there was a reason we were reading them now. It was just a small act of noticing. Perhaps I had this idea that the teaching of craft would stay focused on just that—craft—and that the idea of liberation and social justice in the classroom were separate issues. I cannot tell you why I thought that. In hindsight, I was wrong.

First, though, I would like to examine Murray’s idea of the writing process as “discovery through language”. For most of my life, I was under the impression that we should only write what we know. It was advice I had heard both online and in creative writing classrooms—how could you write about what you don’t know? Oddly enough, the time I learned to do the opposite lines up with the time I really began to learn how to write. In a class with my mentor, Edi Giunta (there will be no shortage of her appearances in my blog posts, I apologize in advance), I was told to write what I don’t know. It was an idea I struggled with at first. It feels shameful to have to admit you don’t know something. For a while, I resisted this advice, and came into class with the idea that I knew what I wanted to write about, and that I would not stray from it. I told myself that I had been wanting to tell that story for so long, and I would tell it, memoir best practices be damned. In reality, that piece of writing had already been turned over in my head over and over again. The narrative was set in stone, so to say. I now know I had to dip into the unknown to be able to come back and tell the story as faithfully as I could.

annotations from murray

Even in non-academic writing, the process of discovery is irreplaceable. While reading, I was reminded that the course titles for English 101 and 102 at NJCU were not just titled something along the lines of “English Composition”, but rather “Critical Reading and Writing”—emphasis on the critical. I look back on those classrooms now and see Murray’s implications of teaching process all throughout them. I think about the ways I’ve encouraged my students to just write—to not worry about the assignment, to just get their thoughts on paper. The way I’ve been taught to let them grapple with not knowing. To not jump in and try to guide them a certain way. To, as Murray so eloquently puts it, just shut up. It is beautiful when it works.

However, I am cognizant that this ideal practice might not be realistic—at least, not yet, and maybe not for a long time. While reading bell hooks, I thought about the kinds of students and classmates I had. On one end, I think about my high school classmates. Many of my classmates, including myself, were the top achievers during our middle and elementary school years. Many of them came from families who could afford to put money into education and extracurriculars. If we committed ourselves to education, we were all but guaranteed placements in Ivy Leagues and prestigious internships. School was a chance at power. This, however, meant a suffocating school environment. Advanced placement was expected, not exceptional. If you were not staying after school for extra classes or resume-ready extracurriculars, you were falling behind. You did not, could not, think of school as a place where it was safe to discover.

On the other end of the spectrum are the peers I had in undergraduate. I think it is safe to say that college was also their chance at power, albeit of a different kind. If my high school classmates had the privilege of time to dedicate to their studies, in college, time was a resource often stretched too thin. I am cognizant of the fact that NJCU was seen as a “safety school” to many. Most of our students attended because it was cheap, or the school was nearby. Our demographic is very different from the kinds of people I knew in high school. I had many students who believed they had to conform to the traditional path: go to college, get a degree, get a high paying job. However, many of these students also faced additional outside pressures. They were the breadwinners of their family. They had siblings or parents to tend to. They were the first to attend college. Because of this, school was just something they had to do. Their focus was the degree at the end of it all. I had many conversations with students who wished they could take the time to sit down and do the kind of learning that would help them, but more often than not, schoolwork—and discovery through writing—was last on their list of priorities.

these are real stories i fear

In class, we talked about new writing technologies—generative artificial intelligence. Generative AI allows learners to skip the process, the most liberating part of education, in favor of the product. What is so disappointing is that I can see students from both ends of the spectrum falling victim to this. When you have been told your entire life that you must go to school to better your social standing rather than to learn, it is easy to justify cutting out the parts of the journey that don’t seem to support that goal. The unfamiliar is scary. Why should I risk being vulnerable when I can just plug in a prompt into AI and go? It gives me my time back. It ensures I turn something in rather than nothing. It is safe.

me and ai in bell hooks

In an ideal world, everyone has experienced the joy that I’ve been able to experience in the classroom. Everyone has the resources to go to school for the love of learning, rather than out of necessity. Everyone is free of pressure, free of fear of vulnerability. At the beginning of my reflection, I wrote about my initial confusion about the two articles. I now assume I must have known somewhere in my subconscious how they were connected: through the idea that the ability to deeply pursue the craft of writing is intrinsically tied to the state of the human being.

Student Blogs

Reflection of 9/10/26

I enjoyed what we covered in class today. Dr. Zamora had us do free writing for five minutes. That was engaging, as well as relaxing. It felt good to hear other students thoughts as we group shared our free writing.

We looked at some pictures and had to pick one picture that stood out to us, and relate its meaning to our thoughts of the picture. I chose the pottery wheel because it took me back to my undergraduate years where it all started. I remembered taking pottery as an elective. Out of all of my rigorous classes, pottery was relaxing. Feeling the cool, wet mud between my fingers. It gave me a minute to slow down my everyday stress, and enjoy it without the pressure from my other classes, especially since I was seven months pregnant with my first child.

My mind was blown away at some of the reactions that other students discussed about the picture they chose to talk about. Everyone had different stories to tell. That was amazing.

Dr. Zamora handed each of us a piece of construction paper. We had to fold it into four. Then we had to draw a small bullseye circle about the size of a dime in the middle of the paper. We had to write about four different topics in those four boxes and group share.

This entire lesson, the free writing, the pictures, the bullseye writing was absolutely amazing. It allowed us to form a small community together, and shared our personal feelings. I wonder what Dr. Zamora has planned for us next week.

Student Blogs

Rhetoric and Composition

Upon reading Janice M. Lauer’s Rhetoric and Composition, I found her research on different fields of writing interesting. She mentions the emergence of Rhetoric and Composition developed within English Studies in the 1960’s.

A lot of research went into the development of writing and teaching of composition over several decades.

At the beginning of the article, she talks about the study and teaching of different types of writing that educators should use to help students become better writers, or more effective writers.

Her research covers various areas of English Writing Studies within English Studies. Some of her research includes Writing and Teaching Strategies, Assessments, Differentiated Learning, Writing and Teaching Writing, Pedagogy and Audience. These are just a few of her research methods. There are more.

Her research helped shape what English Writing Studies is today. It helped develop new strategies that educators can use to enhance their teaching. For example: Writing Across the Curriculum. This helps students who struggle with their writing to strengthen their writing skills and become more effective writers.

As I read this article, I found myself engaged with how Lauer broke down the different approaches to writing. She breaks down the study on Rhetoric and Composition as being both exciting and challenging. She writes about the study and teaching of many types of writing in different contexts. Civic, Workplace, Academic, and Cross Culture. This was enlightening to me, because I am a former Science Teacher. I taught English Language Arts for one year. I am new to this area of teaching. As I read Lauer’s article, it helped me connect writing instructions from a different perspective. Science and English Language Arts writing have similarities to the writing approach. They both require writing strategies.

Two different approaches that stood out to me go hand and hand with teaching both Science and English Language Arts are: Interdisciplinary teaching and pedagogy. These stood out to me because of my years of teaching Science and my new experience with teaching ELA.

As I taught Science, I helped students conduct investigations, research, form conclusions, and apply the scientific method. It all required writing. Lauer’s article helped me think deeper into teaching ELA by using a similar approach to teaching students writing in science and now digging even deeper and learning how to engage students with their writing.

I am feeling very good about how this article connects to my English Writing Studies. It is helping me think about my teaching approach and thinking of other ways I can improve my instructional teaching methods. It also helped me focus on how I can challenge differentiated instructional learning to meet all needs of my students.

The way I see it, if I use these teaching approaches, I believe I can provide a better learning experience for my students through engagement practices that would create a better learning environment for all students, allowing them to feel supported by inspiring them to have successful outcomes in their writing.

Even though I am new to this, I think transitioning from Science to English Language Arts will be a smooth experience. Reading Lauer’s article was an eye-opening experience for me and a real wake-up call about how to teach students to become better writers. It made me think differently about students writing and how I can better support them as they learn to develop better writing skills.

Lauer’s article helped me look at teaching in a different light. Returning to graduate school while learning different aspects of teaching, is going to help me become an ever better educator. I am learning new perspectives and strategies that can help students become successful writers.

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Remembering How We Learned to Write

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The early ground we have covered in “Writing Theory & Practice” class helps us lays an important foundation for our continuing discussion throughout the course of our semester together. To remember how you were taught to write (vs, how you actually learned to write) is an important reflection for us to establish as we move through writing theory & writing practice. I enjoyed our class conversation.

The free writing exercises that asked you to “mine your memory” for those formative writing moments yielded very revealing responses.  And in many ways, some shared themes emerged.  How were you taught to write? Some of you remember formulaic approaches, writing “rules”, and emphasis on structure.  Some of you also described the feeling of being “boxed in” in school, or being forced into mandatory or standardized approaches, and general feeling of being uninspired as a result.  But some of you has magical moments connected to your imagination as well. A special sense of self discovery definitely came through in your personal accounts to the second question. How did you learn to write? This response was definitely more connected to when you started to feel a sense of freedom. Writing can be a touchstone for knowing oneself a little bit better.  When you thought more deeply about how you REALLY learned to write, stories of “coming into voice” or empowerment pointed to certain transformation -experiences of more authentic and personal expression. In some accounts peer engagement was a key factor. With some of you, the transformation to a more “writerly self” happened due to certain self-driven interest, and particular individual passion.

Our class slides: 

Remembering your resources

I am glad we took a moment to think about the academic resources at your fingertips. The Kean University Learning Commons (better known as the library) is a treasure trove of support – offering daily workshops, special spaces for writing and studying, and of course a knowledgable staff who are there to guide you on your information and learning quests. Please remember to “lean in” and explore the Learning Commons – in person, and online. I look forward to spending a bit of time over there with you in November.

Janice Lauer’s Rhetoric & Composition: An overview of the field

I am glad we started our reading series with Janice Lauer’s overview of the field of Writing Studies, so we could apprehend some of the shifts in emphasis and approach over the years. Please take a look at the notes that reflect some of the main threads of Lauer’s argument. As we proceed with class and consider strategies for “becoming a writer” – we can also consider the moment we find ourselves in now, and what is at stake in theorizing the art and craft of writing.

Rhetoric and writing are at the heart of how the world is shaped, and in many ways they are the critical engine fueling our perceptions of what is possible.  We must grapple with the fact that rhetoric in civic discourse is now, more than ever, an amplified influence due to omnipresent new technologies for writing.  And so we must take our analysis beyond just individual concerns (skills and voice) and also consider implications in the social context (power and the shaping of ideologies & systems of thought). We most certainly engage in these conversations together over the course of the semester.

Your to-do list:

Please read:

Blog #3 (a reflection on the above readings) due by 9/24.

Enjoy it!

Student Blogs

RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION AND LITTLE ME

This week’s reading prompted me to reflect on my own communication style specifically, the language and writing methods I employ. It made me consider how I integrate the art of persuasion or rhetoric with the practical process of crafting texts, known as composition.


Through the lens of rhetoric, I was able to examine how the messages I convey in my frequent leadership roles can leverage logic, emotion, and sometimes even credibility to persuade audiences and coordinate collective action. As I read, I kept thinking about how symbols and language can persuade, shape meaning, and coordinate social action.

Reading about composition reminded me primarily of my current job, which involves writing numerous case notes for my superiors to review later. It particularly brought to mind the practical process I use to draft documents or texts tailored to a specific audience, a discipline centered on a structured writing process that includes planning, invention, drafting, revision, and finalization to ensure effective communication in professional settings.

I appreciate that the author portrays invention not merely as an innate talent, but as an art grounded in inquiry strategies and cognitive frameworks. She also views composition as a multifaceted discipline that is enriched by crossing the boundaries of other fields such as psychology, philosophy, and linguistics.

Student Blogs

Rhetoric… Composition… English Studies

I find it shocking we fared so far from incorporating, or even acknowledging, rhetoric. Mainly because it was such a prevalent discussion topic during my time as an undergrad. How could it be that those lessons I had on rhetoric—so influential to my to my writing today—weren’t regularly discussed in classrooms pre-1960s?

It makes me think back to my elementary school experience. The work, or what I mainly remember of the work, was focused mainly on not writing run-on sentences, getting the distinction between there, their, and they’re right, and using correct punctuation. I don’t remember practicing prewriting-writing-rewriting beyond using an outline and reading out loud. And, as discussed in the chapter, high school’s english classes only really ever focus on the literature end of what we know as english studies (writing and lit).

Now, to move the lens a little, I wanted to talk about prewriting. Prewriting has alwaaysss been an interesting part of the writing process for me. Not only because there are so many ways to approach it, but because for so long (K-12) the concept of prewriting was encompassed solely on the process of outlining. So… that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it isn’t exactly a good way to get students to acknowledge the power in effectively using language to get a point across. Not addressing it, and all the ways it may be approached, limits writers from finding their voice (which is so detrimental to their quality of expression in any discipline: creative, historical, research, etc.).

And to go even further, secondary education doesn’t really pin down students purpose as more than something to appease a teacher’s expectations. Most of my undergrad I worked towards rewiring my brain to stop writing for my professor and to start writing for my intended audience. And most of that is hard to do when you’re writing an outline that you’ve very conscious hits all the expectations written on an assignment sheet.

…

It’s funny how something so impactful to someone’s writing identity could have been put on the sidelines for that long. Look at what we uncovered (in vast disciplines and modes) when we focused less on the mechanics of our writing and focused more on rhetoric.

Adamari 9/17/2026

Student Blogs

Rhetoric and the Engfish

So this week’s read was quite the mixed bag, Dear Reader. On one hand, it was really enlightening because it was so relevant to my career field. On the other hand, it was painful because it was so relevant to my career field.

Now it goes without saying that there are a lot of issues with the way that we teach, because I want to be as broad as humanly possible, English. Despite the fact that this piece was written in 2006, it aged startlingly well. While there would have been no possible way for McComiskey to have known the absolutely earth shattering, pedagogically shifting, classroom breaking, shifts that we would face in the forms of: the rise of social media, the fall in media literacy, and the utter monstrosity that is Artificial Intelligence. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

There were a couple things that definitely stood out to me.

Issue #1: Teachers don’t know the content

While, I do think that it is pretty funny that they say it so bluntly, there is a really depressing truth to it. In all of the classes I have taken, both while I was majoring in education and my alt route courses, they never really focused on rhetoric. If I am being completely honest, those classes only really focused on lesson plans and Danielson. It is expected/implied that we will learn rhetoric in our content specific class, it rarely happens like that. It’s one of those things that sounds really good on paper or at a board meeting but it doesn’t happen like that in life.

Education majors are still people.

If it is easier to pass a children’s lit class than a rhetoric class, 9 times out of 10 *Not actual statistics* the educator to be will take the easier class. I have coworkers that never needed to study rhetoric, despite its relevance to the curriculum.

It’s a sad truth of the profession; due to complacency, many teachers can’t provide the instruction they should.

Issue #2: Grammatical correctness and grades

So I’m going to expose myself a bit. I used to be one of those “Erm actually…” grammar police people. Now, I did it because I was a know-it-all brat; however, now that I’m a teacher, I see the real time impact of enforcing grammatical correctness.

I’ve had plenty of students who can convey their thoughts and ideas verbally. They don’t care about following norms. They don’t care about punctuation (mainly because they aren’t writing). They don’t care about any of that.

The only thing that matters is getting their point across.

One of my best/most verbal students was one of my lowest scoring students. While she struggled with certain aspects of writing, she could convey her thought like no joke. She would also pick up on themes and ideas unlike anybody else’s business.

I think that by focusing on grammatical correctness, we deter students from interacting with not only the text, but also with their classmates.

There is also the issue of grades.

I hate grades, and I hate grading. Point blank, period.

Whenever I give an assignment that will be graded, students will do whatever they can to find the straightest path to 100. They don’t feel a need to go above and beyond. They don’t think outside the rubric. They just check boxes. The amount of times I’ve heard, “Mr. Martin, I wrote [X] words but my story isn’t done, what do I do?”

What do you mean, what do you do?

Keep writing.

But it is easier to squeeze blood from a stone, than to get a student to complete more work than the rubric asks.

And, again, one of my best students, pretty regularly, scored low. A lot of students, had they been in her spot, would have just given up on themselves. Why put in effort if I am only going to fail?

Again, I hate grades.

Both of these also tie into academic writing, which clashes with the student’s normal voice.

Issue #3: Engfish

That is all.

Until next time, Dear Reader.

Student Blogs

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

Hi everyone,
My name is Itana, but my friends call me Love. I am in my second semester as a master’s student in Communication Studies. I also earned my bachelor’s degree at Kean University in 2024.

Four things I love most are praying, spending time with my family, especially my one-year-old son. I also love books and music. My family is the center of my life; I truly view them as a blessing and cherish every moment we share, always looking for ways to create new memories.

I currently work as a refugee case manager, a role that brings me great joy because I can help people in need, especially in the times we are living through. Every day, I do at least one thing to make someone else’s life a little easier, and that makes me feel useful and lifts my spirits.

I am also a singer. I have been making music for as long as I can remember. My genre is jazz, but I also love gospel music. I was part of a church worship team for six years, until I no longer enjoyed doing it. Now, I leave that role to people who are passionate about it.

I have always loved books. When I was younger, especially when I was a teenager, they were my refuge. Whenever things weren’t going well, I could always find an interesting book to escape into and forget my problems for a while. And that is what often inspired me to write myself.

Student Blogs

My brain after reading Lauer: Enlightened

Photo Credit: Pixabay/Gerd Altmann

Rhetoric & Composition by Janice M. Lauer made me realize that, although I had taken classes that explored rhetoric studies and pedagogy, it wasn’t until this article that I gained a deeper understanding of the foundations of rhetoric and its impact on English and writing studies. Rhetoric became an evolving disciplinary study in the 1960s that broadened pedagogy for writing scholars, teachers, and students. Lauer emphasizes that over the past thirty years, “rhetoric and composition” has become a full-fledged discipline within English Studies (Lauer, “Composition”). According to Lauer, composition was once considered only a teaching practice, and contingent faculty typically taught writing. Over the following decades of the 1960s, rhetoric and composition saw an explosion of theory-building (Lauer, “Composition”). Before rhetoric became a full-fledged study, it seems to me that writing and English teachers had a monotonous and limited way of teaching writing because that was what they had learned in the past. Before the emergence of rhetoric, students and writers were limited to their own ideas and could not explore their writing processes. The emergence of rhetoric opened the door to new theories and features of writing that impacted not only an academic field across the country, but also created social change.

One key factor I reflected on in this article is that it outlines the foundations of rhetorical theory and its influence not only academically but socially as well. Rhetoric was overseen in the past because the study of composition was prioritized. With its metamorphosis into a full-fledged study, scholars were able to see the relevance of rhetoric in communication and social circumstances. According to Lauer, rhetoric didn’t become a field of study because universities suddenly established it overnight, but because struggling professors needed it. There was no academic foundation for scholars to teach writing before. Professors lacked research in the field of writing because its origin—rhetoric—had been set aside until a group of scholars interested in written discourse paved the way for rhetoric to emerge in universities.

Through Lauer’s article, I’m able to acknowledge the importance of recognizing rhetoric as an interdisciplinary, multimodal, and transformational study because no single field could fully explain or compare to how writing works, as it’s intertwined with many other fields. Rhetoric comes from Western studies (the time of the ancient Greeks), crossing the fields of anthropology, history, and philosophy. Since its emergence in writing studies in the 1960s, rhetoric has crossed with many other fields such as linguistics, psychology, sociology, literary studies, and, prominently, has developed new cognitive theories of writing.  For instance, Lauer mentions the development of a cognitive model of writing designed by Linda Flower and John Hayes based on experienced writers. The model consisted of writing features that were goal-directed to reshape the writer’s cognitive process. The study of rhetoric reshaped the writing and cognitive processes of writers and scholars in ways that allowed them to find new pedagogical methods.

Another key point in the article is rhetoric’s social impact outside the classroom. The study of this field extended beyond academic institutions because there was a growing focus on technological writing when computers emerged. Rhetoric and composition influenced theorists to study the relationship between technology and writing (Lauer). One of my biggest takeaways is that rhetoric becoming its own independent field was one of the first milestones for writers to be seen as thinkers rather than just students. Writers gained the freedom to explore their writing processes through new research. I feel that students experienced a sense of freedom in writing to diverse audiences once rhetoric was implemented as a study because they were no longer limited to directing their papers to just one audience (teachers).

I could say much more about what struck me in Lauer’s article, but I would end up writing twenty pages. What I want to emphasize is that only writers can truly feel and understand the impact of rhetoric in our writing. We can say that through writing, we can explore tone, style, genre, and direct our work to specific audiences. Because of rhetoric’s emergence, we can choose to study writing and have access to a plethora of research from scholars who devoted themselves to studying rhetoric and composition. And for that, I am forever grateful. 

My thoughts on the highlights emerging from our first two classes are that I feel at home here. I feel rooted in this community because we are all so alike yet so uniquely and beautifully different. We all share a passion for writing, and we have transformed our life experiences into insight. Since the first class, I have felt it was a safe space, and I genuinely enjoy coming. I love the writing exercises, and I feel we can truly express our thoughts here through writing. So everyone, thank you for being a lovely class, and thank you to Dr. Zamora for making it a great one ❤