The So What of So in Writing Center Talk

Even small, taken-for- granted words can have a strong influence on the pedagogical effect of a writing conference. In this study, we examined how experienced and trained writing center tutors’ use of the discourse marker so helped them to connect ideas and to manage their conferences with students. We examined the extent to which tutors’ use of six types of so varied according to the English L1 (EL1)/ English L2 (EL2) status of their interlocutor. We studied 26 conferences: 13 involved eight tutors working with 13 EL1 students, and 13 conferences involved eight tutors working with 13 EL2 students. We found that conclusion/ result so occurred most frequently in tutors’ conferences with EL1 and EL2 students and that prompt so was the only type that exhibited a significant difference in frequency of occurrence between the two groups, occurring more frequently in tutors’ talk with EL1 students. We focused our qualitative analysis on prompt so, finding that it served two main purposes. We argue that examining discourse marker so generates implications for tutor training and shows the importance of paying attention to the small, seemingly unimportant words that tutors use

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration

“For this additional burden we had no additional help”: First-year composition and writing program administration at Iowa State from 1869 to 1939

This dissertation is a history of Iowa State University’s composition program from 1869 to 1939, including its origins in the idea of the land-grant college. Unlike many histories of composition and rhetoric, instead of exclusively tracing the rhetorical theories that influenced the composition curricula, this history also investigates the political pressures imposed upon the English department due to Iowa’s land-grant politics, as well as the writing program administrators’ (WPA) adaptations to these external influences. I found repeated examples of the land-grant college mission, which was itself a hotly contested ideal, wielded by various interest groups to either protect or to attack the composition curriculum. External influences, however, did not pour unmitigated into the first-year composition (FYC) program. Emerging from this investigation was the importance the WPA as a mitigator of external influences, including their cultivation of new pedagogies, curricular designs, and faculty labor rights. To accomplish this uncommon historical perspective taking, I developed three methodological heuristics that guided my investigation: (1) centering the institution’s influence on a composition program’s history, (2) observing the program’s changes over time and across administrations, and (3) focusing on WPAs and the transitions between their administrations. These methodologies allow this history to rejoin composition’s larger narratives, especially conversations about how ideologies enter the composition program and the origins of writing program administration