Showcase of Teacher Writing
Composition instructors write about places on the Miami University Campus.
Fay T.F. Chang
“US or them:” Creating Diversity within MacMillan Hall and without
I begin and proceed in this writing exercise with a keen awareness of who I am and where I speak from. Being an international student new to the campus signifies me as a “Double Other” reinforcing an ethnographical vision, regulated by national and racial differences. Thus, it becomes particularly crucial to launch my career as a student, a teacher, and a writer in U.S. academia by engaging actively in cross-racial relationships and bridging the gap between different cultural backgrounds and a more unified school experience. When being asked to conduct an ethnographic writing of a place on campus, I choose to write a place that immediately “constructs” and “marks” my identity as an international student.
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Jose de la Garza
Our Paths
Relocation troubles the homesick soul. There is such a permanent taste to moving, going somewhere new. Resistant to change, he often compares the present to the past, and torments his inability to accept the place and time that now surround him, craving and coveting the place and time that is gone, no longer his, and out of reach. He points at it on a map. There. Not here, but there. Not north. Not green. Not here. Forced to be a nomad, he wanders his new home—it’s so weird to call it home. He seeks the places that tell him they are familiar, but they lie. Home is not stale chips and store-bought salsa. Wait, now it is. His time and place have been purchased, and he is now lost at home.
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Rachel Seiler
Sidewalk Closed
Sitting in a spacious, well-lit classroom in Bachelor Hall, I can stare out the open window on a beautiful August morning and listen to the sounds of Oxford, Ohio. Across the street, the bells of Pulley Tower chime “Over the Rainbow” in sweet, melodic tones that dull out the sounds of light traffic below. The red brick buildings, the perfectly-manicured landscape, the flowers in bloom, the aged-trees swaying to the rhythm of the bells in a light breeze: it is no wonder Miami University’s campus is considered “one of the most beautiful in America.”
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Composition teachers write about what writing—and teaching writing—means to them.
Karen Mitchell
The Big Red Book
"Math books. Second grade. Big, red ones. Numbers so large they can only fit a few problems on each page. Thin, newsprint pages, off-white with chunks of bark still in them. “Karen,” in black crayon (pre-marker days) written in the upper right hand corner of the red paper cover which, in today’s world, would have been titled Math for Complete and Total Idiots. It’s the biggest book in my desk. All the other stuff, including wadded-up pieces of blue lined paper with dashes in the middle, fit over, under, and around it."
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Joseph Patrick Squance
A Textbook Comparison Between Two Cultures
"Some students in this culture blame the professors for choosing the most expensive learning tool they could find. Others blame the bookstores, which generally mark their products up by as much as 40%. But most blame the publishers themselves, accusing them of purposefully and malevolently fleecing a helpless market of consumers who have no choice but to buy their product."
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Gina Patterson
Office Space: Perceptions of the Personalized Door
"An imposing cardstock sign reads: 'Enter at your own risk.' Another cluttered with clippings from various newspapers play on the sir name, Floyd: 'Dirty DJ Floyd, Every Wednesday Night,' next to album covers of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Down the hall a tenure-track professor’s door displays professional black-and-white photos of Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., Tina Turner. Cattycorner is a graduate student office littered with bumper stickers which read: 'Hot Tom’s Tomato’s' and 'Drink a Pepper: Dr. Pepper.' Still, another door is left bare except for two 2x4 yellow pieces of paper denoting the office hours of graduate English instructors. What do these varying displays of cultural artifacts mean? For whom are these displayed? What is the purpose behind the office door persona and does this reflect the actual persona of the instructor? Finally, what does such a personal exhibit imply about the institution of teaching?"
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How to Submit
We welcome submissions for this page from composition instructors. Pieces can be short or up to 1000 words. Please double-space and send as an attachment. Include name, address, e-address, affiliation. Provide a one- or two-sentence context and identify the class you teach.
By submitting you automatically grant us a one-time-only permission to publish on this site. Authors retain copyright. Send as a Word document to composition@muohio.edu