Alternative Faculty Biographies

Our department is currently creating bios for our website. As you know, Gentle Reader, audience and purpose are very important in crafting a piece of writing. Here is what I originally wrote thinking of the audience of potential students with the purpose of inviting them to join our club. However, I had misjudged both audience and purpose, so I had to revise, which I was happy to do. Here is the version with the new audience and purpose: Currently published bio.

Here is my original one. What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

First Bio Attempt

My B.A. Is from the Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, in Anthropology. I studied ethnography and languages, and I spent my freshman year in Mexico and my sophomore year in France, in addition to skiing in Breckenridge. I spent the next seven years getting a Masters degree in language pedagogy and a doctorate in educational linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. In 1991, I came to Raymond Walters and worked as an academic tutor in the Writing Center while I also taught anthropology at Northern Kentucky University. In 1993 I came to RWC as a full time faculty member, and I teach composition and literature for the English Department. I also serve in faculty development for the college, working with faculty to improve teaching and learning both online and face to face. Study abroad is an area of interest for me both in supporting students to participate and in researching innovative ways to help faculty and students to benefit most from international experience. Part of supporting students’ international experience, is helping students from other countries who come to the United States. I volunteer every week teaching English as a Second Language at the Scarlet Oaks campus, and I sit on the advisory board for the ESOL/ABEL program. For a less formal outline of my teaching philosophy, please listen to Guy Clark’s song “Picasso’s Mandolin.”