As a specialist in rhetoric and composition and technical writing, I have taught numerous writing courses, including basic writing, first-year composition, advanced composition and rhetorical theory, business writing, technical writing, editing, computers and writing, and graduate seminars and workshops in the teaching of composition and writing center theory and practice. My interest in writing extends to writing program administration. I have directed a university writing center as well as a peer mentoring program through which advanced undergraduates assisted first-year composition students as they developed their writing. I have also directed a professional writing and rhetoric program that offered an undergraduate minor and a master’s degree in professional writing.

My scholarship grows out of my teaching and administrative interests. I have presented at numerous professional conferences and published peer-refereed articles in journals such as Composition Forum, English Journal, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Writing Center Journal. My scholarly work is eclectic, but what holds this work together is my firm belief that scholarship should spring naturally from day-to-day language practices. For this reason, my research highlights everyday discourses both within and beyond the classroom. I have published theory-based pedagogy articles for the composition classroom as well as studies of public environmental debates and workplace technical and professional writing practices. Finally, I have worked as a technical proofreader, editor, and writer in corporate, government, and university environments to gain workplace experience that I hope to bring back to the writing classroom.

Selected Publications

“Online Teaching Opportunities for Technical Communicators.” Intercom May 2008: 24-26.

“From Classroom to Workplace: Ten Rules for New Technical Communication Graduates.” Intercom April 2007: 22-24.

“Gender 101: Helping Students Become Aware of Stereotypes of Gender and Language.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 31.2 (2003): 131-143.

“Words So Strong: Maxine Hong Kingston’s ‘No Name Woman’ Introduces Students to the Power of Words.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 46.6 (2003): 482-490.

“The Stylish Semicolon: Teaching Punctuation as Rhetorical Choice.” English Journal 92.3 (2003): 66-72.

“Already Experts: Showing Students How Much They Know about Writing and Reading Arguments,” with Edna Soto. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45.8 (2002): 674-682.

“Domestic, Virtuous Women: Examining Women’s Place in a Public Environmental Debate along Louisiana’s Cancer Corridor.” Technical Communication Quarterly 10.4 (2001): 365-387.

“Removable Feasts: The Writing Center as Carnival.” Composition Forum 12.1 (2001): 41-58.

“The Writing Center as 'Purified Space': Competing Discourses and the Dangers of Definition.” The Writing Center Journal 17.2 (1997): 111-122.

Courses Taught

• English Composition
• Business Writing
• Technical Writing
• Rhetorical Theory
• Seminar in Teaching Writing

Office: LA 258-E
Office Phone: 282-2411
petiange@isu.edu