Teaching English in the Two-Year College - Volume 42, Issue 2, 2014

This article addresses the current nationwide emphasis on job-readiness programs by (1) pointing to the “utility” of studying creative writing and (2) outlining a plan for including engagement strategies in the construction of a two-year creative writing degree.

By growing creative writing courses and programs, community colleges can improve retention while also fostering supportive communities of student and faculty writers.

Brandt an Bigalk respond to each other's articles.

Brandt an Bigalk respond to each other's articles.

In an interview conducted at his office at Lorain County Community College, 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist Bruce Weigl discusses writing pedagogy, veterans’ issues, and his experiences as a two-year college student and as a professor and poet.

Five two-year-college writer-teachers from different states (California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Wisconsin) present ways that creative writers can make particular contributions to the important and meaningful work of teaching basic skills composition, particularly at institutions of access, and particularly at this time when that work is so crucial.

In this essay, two poets who have taught language learners in the United States and abroad argue for the use of personal writing, preferably poetry from students’ home cultures, as a bridge to writing in academic genres.

This essay describes an approach to teaching the braided essay, highlighting the rewards and difficulties.

Reviewed are: Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters by Robert Pinsky; reviewed by Rob Wallace Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges: Inside and Outside of Classrooms by W. Norton Grubb with Robert Gabriner; reviewed by Keith Kroll Rhetorical Strategies and Genre Conventions in Literary Studies: Teaching and Writing in the Disciplines by Laura Wilder; reviewed by Abigail Montgomery