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".. Ìýthe art of speaking and writing well ..."

CU Boulder PhD Candidate Allison Rowland has given some thought to teaching effective rhetoric. ÌýÂ鶹ÒùÔº nominated RowlandÌýfor an ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award last year for her teaching of an upper division writing class with the topic ofÌýthe War on Terror. ÌýSheÌýassigned her students to read a wide range of opinion pieces about the War on Terror. ÌýThen, Rowland spent class time at the beginning of the semester teachingÌýstudents how to create their own blogs on and write blog posts inÌýresponse to their readings. ÌýSheÌýshowed her students purposeful layout designs and readable fonts to encourage themÌýto make their ownÌýblogs visually appealing. ÌýRowland also challenged her students to do more than just write summaries of their readingsÌýbut to also consider their larger online audience:

I didn't want to be their only audience ... When you have students createÌýblogs, it opens up more conversationsÌýabout audience ... When students see how many people see their writing, it is easier to encourage students to think about voice when they realize other people might read their blogs ... It makes youÌýthink about audience, voice, appealing to people, what will keep people reading ... It makes writing better knowing others will see it ...ÌýThe quality of their writing on a digital public forum like weblogs is so much better than if they were just submitting an assignment to me as the instructor.

Rowland encouraged her students to ask themselves, "'What kind of writing keeps the reader reading? ... How should my writing change, depending on the audience?'"

RowlandÌýwants her class to help students, "Make broader connections to the real world," and she believes that incorporating technological mediumsÌýinto teaching is critical for that purpose: "We have to teach this ... across digitally mediated platforms." ÌýRowlandÌýsees the blogs that her students create in her class as writing samples that theyÌýcan show to potential employers to demonstrate their proficiency with technology. ÌýShe said that one student has already told her, "'This blog got me my job.'" ÌýIn nominating Rowland for the 2013 ASSETT Teaching with Technology Award, one student wrote that Rowland:

... [gave] us a vast opportunity for publishing, countless followers and readership, and an opportunity to expand our horizons in writing. ÌýI've never experienced a class that was so eye opening in appeal to the real world. Ìý[Rowland's]Ìýprowess in the forefront of modern technology for writing was breathtaking.

"I've benefited from excellent training at CU," says Rowland, and she creditsÌýhow much the CU Lead Graduate Teacher Program taught her about teaching. ÌýRowland strives to keep her classes interactive--with small group activities or independent freewriting periodsÌýinterspersed with PowerPoint slides.

Rowland is finishing her PhD in the Communications DepartmentÌýat CU Boulder. ÌýSheÌýhas accepted a Visiting Assistant ProfessorÌýposition at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York this fall. ÌýRowlandÌýplans to continue, "... experimenting with ... a range of digital platforms," in her teaching.