Duke University | Thompson Writing Program: News/Events

A Personal, Historical, and Tagmemic Look at Curricular Assessment through Writing: from Multiple-Choice Bubbles to E-Portfolios

June 24, 10:30 – 11:30
Perkins 217
Refreshments will be served

Please join assessment expert Ed White for this informal discussion, which is open to the public. He will review the developments in portfolios and writing assessment since 1971 - when, as an English department chair, he became involved in writing assessment by accident - through this year, when he designed and consulted on assessment in Duke’s English-Composition MOOC.

Next year, his fifteenth book will be published by Utah State/Colorado State University Press. He is the recipient of many honors, including the 2011 Exemplar award from the Conference of College Composition and Communication. He is now Visiting Scholar at the University of Arizona.

Critical Ink 2013

Critical Ink is an annual conference hosted by the Thompson Writing Program that showcases the writing of Duke first-year students.

Please join us on Friday and Saturday, April 19 and 20, for several activities (full event schedule available here):

Friday, April 19

Poster Sessions, 9:30 - 3:30 in the LSRC Hall of Science (all poster abstracts available here)
Keynote Speech, 5:00 in the East Duke Pink Parlor

Saturday, April 20

Panel Presentations, 11:00 - 5:45 in the East Duke Building

Posters and panels will address student research on a range of topics from the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences.

The keynote speech, titled "Sonic Literacy and the Art of Social Resonance," will be delivered by Dr. Michelle Comstock. Dr. Comstock is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Colorado Denver.

Her talk will make a case for sound, including speech, as a beneficial point of departure for writing and writing instruction. Drawing on student sample sonic memoirs and audio documentaries, as well as recent sound artworks, she will address the following pedagogical and ethical question: Does tuning into the multidimensional process of speaking and listening (“sonic literacy”) actually help make us better communicators and writers?

Words Matter: How Writing Helps Alums Make a Difference

In a new TWP-curated exhibit at Perkins Library, 12 recent Duke graduates explain why writing matters both personally and professionally. The exhibit runs through November 16.

2012 Deliberations

There were many fine submissions for the 2012 issue of Deliberations. Below are the essays that appear in the journal (in no particular order):

Zoe Bulger – “Sociology to Explain the Inexplicable: A Study of Eating Behavior Among the Homeless” (Instructor: Kathleen Millar)

Chelsea Ducille – “Can Music Therapy be used as a supplement or replacement to postoperative pain medications?” (Instructor: Cary Moskovitz)

Connor Gordon – “Vodou and the Global Diaspora” (Instructor: Michael Ennis)

Jeff Campbell – “A Distant Star and a Distant World: Roberto Bolaño and the Post-Modern Utopia” (Instructor: Luis Rosa)

Kate Preston – “Cinematic War: More Truthful Than Your Video Journal” (Instructor: James Berkey)

Christophe Viret – “Publicizing African Voices: Providing a Portal to Africa” (Instructor Ami Shah)

Jingxiao Jin – “Chimpanzees and Sustainable Ecotourism” (Instructor: Stephanie Jeffries)

Marianne Khoury – “Not Forgotten: Illness Narrative through an Alzheimer’s Patient’s Perspective” (Instructor: Denise Comer)

Caroline Lehman – “The Pink Ribbon Culture” (Instructor: Maral Erol)

Lindsey Olivere, Abby Farley, Carl Lawrence – “Foods of the Future: The Advantages of Using Processed Foods in Combating America’s Obesity Epidemic” (Instructor Lee Anne Reilly)