Teaching Portfolio

As an instructor, my goal is to engage students and give them a worthwhile learning experience. To achieve this, I create a safe, workshop environment where collaboration between all stakeholders is welcomed and practiced. I want students to be actively involved, comfortable expressing their ideas, willing to experiment with writing, and to develop a rapport and respect with one another, with me, and with the written word. You can read my full teaching philosophy here, which will open a PDF. I have taught writing, rhetoric, and literature courses at the undergraduate and graduate level; the syllabi below are examples of my teaching in all three disciplines.   

Sample Syllabi
Texas A&M University-Central Texas
ENGL 4311: Rhetorical History [PDF]
  • Introduces students to the foundations of rhetorical thought
  • Examines how classic rhetorical theory can be applied to modern texts
ENGL 4312: Rhetorical Criticism [PDF]
  • Introduces students to different ideas of rhetorical criticism
  • Topics discussed includes Neo-Aristotelian criticism, Pentadic Criticism, Genre Criticism, and more. 
ENGL 5330: Rhetoric of New Media (Graduate Course) [PDF]
  • Examines competing theories for understanding New Media in an effort to help students (a) understand the field of new media and (b) use new media theory to cogently analyze text(s)
  • Theorists discussed include McCluhan, Baudrillard, Manovich, Haraway, and more. 
ENGL 5386: Computer Mediated Composition (Graduate Course) [PDF]
  • Explores notions of 21st century writing, paying particular attention to digital and multimodal composition
  • Particular attention is given to teaching these text-types
Millikin University
IN 150: Critical Writing, Reading, and Research I [PDF]
  • This course is designed to develop students as critical writers, readers, and researchers.
  • The course emphasizes the importance of writing for specific audiences. 
EN 200: Writing and Analyzing Games [PDF]
  • This course introduces students to writing for games, while also looking at lenses to study games.
  • Topics discussed include writing pitches, writing rules, game design, and gaming theory. 
EN 200: Graphic Text [PDF]
  • This course introduces students to multimodal composition. Students create a variety of multimodal compositions, including a graphic narrative, a hybrid essay, a webtext, and a wikibook.  
  • This course oscillates between theory (visual rhetoric) and production (multimodal composition).
EN 335: International Graphic Novels [PDF]
  • This course introduces students to an array of graphic novels originally published in different countries. 
  • Course material focuses on how form and function of graphic narrative differs from country to country