Abstract
Imagine spending six or more years diligently training in a particular subject to only apply for a job in an unrelated field. Most everything you know will never be used; your education remains for your own edification, locked in a dusty wardrobe of the mind. Add to this a lack of awareness of how to do your new job. This is the picture of the modern-day college composition teacher. Newly printed Ph.D.s (and sometimes Masters) apply for positions for freshmen composition with very little pedagogical training, background, or awareness of the task. For them, composition is a backup plan in the event that their preferred occupation (usually as professor in the humanities) does not pan out. Students in freshmen composition series across the United States end up paying the price for the limited pedagogical preparation that many teachers have had. These students should not have to wait five or ten years before experience teaches these instructors how to be excellent in their craft. This is a silent institutional problem of massive proportions that can—and should—be fixed. This article offers tangible solutions to the issues involved in the lack of pedagogical training of our newly minted Ph.D. students.
Highlights
The Personnel CommitteeSitting in a personnel hiring committee for potential new composition instructors may not seem like the best circumstances for writing epiphanies to occur
This hiring committee was not to be taken lightly, for within the reams of paper lay the trajectories of lives that all happened to crisscross in this one moment in a windowless conference room at the University Writing Program at AnyWhere University
The disjunction between the preparation for research-based jobs and actual composition positions leads to a type of job-hunting multiple personality disorder
Summary
Sitting in a personnel hiring committee for potential new composition instructors may not seem like the best circumstances for writing epiphanies to occur. This was a room for judgement, not creation: a place of verdicts, not the benefit of the doubt. This hiring committee was not to be taken lightly, for within the reams of paper lay the trajectories of lives that all happened to crisscross in this one moment in a windowless conference room at the University Writing Program at AnyWhere University This one just happened to be where I’ve worked as a teacher since 1996.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
