Wini Wood, cont'd
Chapter 1: A Passion for Language
Or: Wini's Resume (sort of)
Educational Background
In my intellectual life, I enjoy thinking about language from a variety of
perspectives. I began academic life with an undergraduate major in English
education, and then did lots of graduate work in linguistics (M.A. from the University of Iowa, where I did a thesis on the phonology of Old English,
and doctoral study at the University of Illinois, where I worked on the
tonal structures of Bantu languages and did a fair bit of work in
syntactic/semantic theory). During those years, I began to shape my teaching skills by
teaching English as a Second Language; I learned about the structures of many
languages, and I learned about second language acquisition, both in theory and in
practice.
My graduate career was interrupted when I accepted a job
as director of Project Genesis of the Ossabaw Island Project, Ossabaw Island,
Georgia. There, mingling with painters, poets, and fiction writers, I became interested
in the literary production of language, and when I left Ossabaw, I left behind linguistics and became a teacher of
writing. Since then, my interest in language has been increasingly focused
on the larger structures of language: how writers learn to write, the
functions language plays in shaping communities and in producing
knowledge, how writers and speakers use language rhetorically to produce
action and knowledge in the world.
Teaching Interests
Teaching is the heart and soul of my intellectual life, and every course I teach is a
writing course. I am particularly interested in film (especially classic Hollywood film,
American film history, and feminist film theory) and often incorporate film topics
into my courses. I have taught writing courses structured around the following
topics: multicultural literature, detective fiction, American film, women in film, language and technology.
See the web page on "Strong Women in Film" that my class put together last year!
In addition, I help faculty at Wellesley learn to teach writing courses and to
use writing effectively in their other teaching. I supervise TAs in an
independent-study tutorial course in writing. And I oversee the
computer-writing classrooms at Wellesley.
See our "Writing at Wellesley" web page for more information on these activities
In my spare time, I am completing yet another graduate degree, this time in rhetoric and
composition at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.
Research Interests
My research interests at the moment are shaped by my job directing an
interdisciplinary writing program. In particular, I am working on:
- WAC (Writing-Across-the-Curriculum)
- I am currently examining the differing forms of writing in
different disciplines. I am interested in three questions: 1) how can writing be used
as a tool of learning within a discipline, 2) what do students need to know in order
to write well within that discipline, and 3) how do teachers' prior experiences of
writing instruction influence their current teaching of writing?
- Language and Technology
- I am exploring the ways writing and the production of knowledge
change as technology changes, with a special interest in gender and
technology. I have given frequent conference presentations and
workshops on the pedagogical issues that arise in a computer writing
classroom; see my brief description of our changing pedagogy, "Network
Expands Writing Students' Reach."
- Wini Wood wwood@wellesley.edu
- Writing Program
- Date Created: July 15, 1996
- Last Modified: September 10, 1996
- Expires: July 1, 1997