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RCL at OSU Marion
Student Image from English 578.02: Hitchcock Homage.
Since the halcyon days of WordPerfect 5.1, the RCL faculty on the Marion campus have explored the potential benefits of using computers to teach writing. Marcia Dickson and Lynda Behan establish the first computer classroom at Marion in 1989. Since 1996, all composition classes and most upper-level English courses have been taught in computer classrooms. More recently, we have also recognized that the shape of writing itself is changing because of the emerging media forms and networking structures associated with digital technology. Today, RCL faculty have purposefully integrated multimodal composing into our curricula in upper- and lower-level courses alike.
For instance, students in Ben McCorkle's basic writing course have studied the impact of blogging on journalistic practices while maintaining their own blogs on local, newsworthy topics of their choosing. Laura Bartlett's 110 classes create audio and photo essays documenting the working lives of college students, and in English 578.02, her film students have created personal video sketches and 3-minute Hitchcock homage films. Many of Catherine Braun's courses include audio composing; students in her basic writing courses, for example, have composed audio ethnographies and audio cultural commentaries. In her recent upper-level course, Digital Media and English Studies, students composed three documentaries: one with images, one with audio, and one using multiple modalities in order to explore the interaction of medium and genre. At OSU Marion, we believe that a student's complete understanding of any rhetorical situation involves an awareness of how images, sound, and the written word all work in concert to create persuasive texts.
One particularly unique feature of Marion's approach to serving composition students is its reliance on self-placement. In consultation with our faculty and advisers, entering freshmen learn about the pros and cons of choosing to enroll in either basic writing or first-year composition courses. Afterwards, they decide which course to take based upon their own assessment of their individual goals and skill level. This program is driven by a philosophy that seeks to empower the students themselves to evaluate their individual needs and to make informed decisions about their educational future.
Marion's Academic Enrichment Center, which houses our campus writing center, is an integral component of the RCL program. Directed by Lynda Behan, Academic Enrichment supports writing throughout the disciplines. Many of our English majors also serve as peer writing tutors in the Center.
One of the initiatives RCL faculty are currently working on is bringing the professional writing minor to the Marion campus. In Spring, 2006, Catherine Braun and English Coordinator Stuart Lishan spoke to the Marion Rotary Club about the internship component of the minor, and many members expressed interest in hosting interns at their places of business. Also, in conjunction with the campus Communications Office and Clear Channel, the RCL faculty have assisted with the launch of an advertising-supported newspaper titled Fin, which features articles written by student interns. Community outreach activities are central to the mission of the Marion campus. Past partnerships have included establishing mentor programs with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, placing tutors in area public schools, and implementing portfolio programs in Ohio public schools through the Early English Composition Program (EECAP).
For more information, please visit our departmental Web site, the design of which was a collaborative class project in one of Catherine Braun's professional writing classes.
