FEATURED AUTHOR
Jo Mackiewicz
I’m a professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication at Iowa State University. In 2017, I published The Aboutness of Writing Center Talk, and in 2018, I published Writing Center Talk over Time: A Mixed-Method Study, which won the IWCA Outstanding Book Award for 2019. With Isabelle Thompson, I’ve published a number of articles about writing center discourse, as well as the book Talk about Writing: The Tutoring Strategies of Experienced Writing Center Tutors.
Subjects: English Language & Linguistics
Biography
I am a professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication at Iowa State University. I got my PhD in applied linguistics from Georgetown University. My dissertation focused on politeness in the talk of writing center tutors working with student writers. After graduation, my research focused on technical communication, including document design. But around 2013, working with Isabelle Thompson at Auburn University, I returned to analysis of writing center discourse. Isabelle and I published a number of articles on the discourse of writing center tutors and student writers, including Talk about Writing: The Tutoring Strategies of Experienced Writing Center Tutors, which is now in its second edition.In 2017, I published The Aboutness of Writing Center Talk: A Corpus-Driven and Discourse Analysis. This was my first book-length foray into corpus-driven analysis. In 2018, I published Writing Center Talk over Time: A Mixed-Method Study, which won the IWCA Outstanding Book Award for 2019. And in 2019, with Rebecca Babcock, I published Theories and Methods of Writing Center Studies: A Practice Guide. We think this edited collection will be an excellent resource for writing center researchers, particularly novice researchers and researchers looking to employ a unfamiliar theory or method.
I've recently returned to technical communication; I have finished a manuscript of a book titled Welding Technical Communication: Teaching and Learning Embodied Knowledge. It analyzes the discourse and the gestures of welding teachers and students.
Education
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PhD, Georgetown University, Applied Linguistics
MA, University of Minnesota Duluth, English Studies
BS, University of Wisconsin-Superior, English
(in progress) AA, Des Moines Area Community College, Welding
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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writing center talk; politeness; technical and professional communication; writing in the disciplines
Personal Interests
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road cycling (on a Trek and two Bianchis); welding (I'm working on my AA degree); cross-country skiing; learning French (I'm in my fourth year of study)
Books
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