UCF Department of Writing and Rhetoric

08/11/2026

Welcome to DWR, Xaria Arthur and Emma Weis! Both are recent graduates of our Master's program and will be serving as Visiting Instructors this upcoming year ✨️ We're so excited to have you!

07/22/2026

Mr. Zidane Williamson presented his Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) project, "The Rhetoric of Intelligence: Nature, Nurture, and the Construction of Cognitive Authority " at the UCF Summer Research Showcase. His project analyzed 24 authoritative sources within the medical (genetics), educational, and psychiatry disciplines to identify how rhetoric was used in these scholarly discussions to define, justify, or challenge methods of measuring intelligence.

Zidane is a Writing & Rhetoric minor who hopes to go on to study neuroscience. This project allowed him to see how rhetoric is leveraged in scientific research and research discussions relevant to a neuroscience area he's interested in, intelligence.

Dr. Cicchino served as his summer research mentor and was very proud and grateful to connect with him on this project.

07/21/2026

New book drop 💅 Congratulations to Dr. Wheeler and colleagues on their open-access book as part of the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric series!! https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/swr/disability/

Disability, Access, and the Teaching of Writing
Edited by the Disability, Access, and the Teaching of Writing Collective (Stephanie K. Wheeler, Tracy Ann Morse, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Molly E. Ubbesen, Craig A. Meyer, Elizabeth Brewer, Lauren Obermark, Bre Garrett, and Dev K. Bose)

This edited collection addresses the nexus of disability studies and writing studies for readers unfamiliar with DS while also speaking to current scholars, teachers, and activists. It explores significant developments in the field over the previous two decades and addresses the need for accessibility in the teaching of writing and for building a culture of access beyond institutional accommodations.

Edited by the Disability, Access, and the Teaching of Writing Collective Stephanie K. Wheeler, Tracy Ann Morse, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Molly E. Ubbesen, Craig A. Meyer, Elizabeth Brewer, Lauren Obermark, Bre Garrett, and Dev K. Bose Copy edited by Sam Maloney and Kurt Austin. Designed by Mike Palmqu...

07/01/2026

06/25/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Shane Wood on his latest book!

In On Response: Raciolinguistic Justice and Responding to Student Writing, Shane A. Wood and Emily K. Suh provide a theoretical and pedagogical framework for understanding response as a raciolinguistically just practice. Wood and Suh describe how raciolinguistics and response can bring together writing studies, literacy studies, and developmental literacy, and they explain how raciolinguistic justice extends antiracist writing assessment practices, critical language awareness, and culturally sustaining pedagogies.

You can find the book at

By Shane A. Wood and Emily K. Suh Copy edited by Samantha Maloney. Designed by Mike Palmquist. In On Response: Raciolinguistic Justice and Responding to Student Writing, Shane A. Wood and Emily K. Suh provide a theoretical and pedagogical framework for understanding response as a raciolinguistically...

06/16/2026

Writing and Rhetoric major, Kayden Peets, started an essay in ENC3453 Writing About Health and Medicine with Professor Baker and continued editing her work in ENG3833 Marketing Your Writing with Professor Holic and has resulted in her first publication!

Kayden had this to say to Professor Baker, "I want to say thank you so much for all that you taught me in Writing in Health and Medicine and for giving me the opportunity to make this story come to life. You and your career are a big inspiration to me that I can do both medicine and writing. The essay has gone through many rounds of revisions from when I first turned it in for the assignment, and I'm really proud of the final product."

Check out the essay in Issue 6 of The Calendula Review, starting on page 24:

06/03/2026

DWR Assistant Professor, Dr. Joel Schneier, presented a paper along with fellow co-authors at the Earli SIG Writing Conference in Winterthur, Switzerland yesterday! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

05/20/2026

DWR two-time alumnus, Mekenzie McElroy, turned her MA non thesis into her very first journal article publication! We're so proud of you and all the work you're doing, Mekenzie! Check out the article here:

Faculty attitudes and teaching practices significantly influence how students understand and engage with writing centers. This project uses oral history interviews with three first-year composition instructors to explore how their experiences, knowledge, and attitudes inform the ways they incorporat...

05/08/2026

Congratulations to Matthew Bryan, Amy Cicchino, Kara Taczak, and Meghan Velez, all of whom have pieces in the latest issue of Computers and Composition! You can find all of these pieces and the rest of Volume 80 here:

04/20/2026

McKenna Slaughter, ⁠Nghi Chau, and UCF University Writing Center - UWC Director, Amy Cicchino were invited to join the Create.Share.Engage podcast to talk about ePortfolios in our writing center. McKenna and Nghi did an amazing job sharing their experience as ePortfolio creators and tutors who support ePortfolios in our center and our online writing groups. ✨✨

You can listen to the podcast episode here: https://podcast.mahara.org/2018360/episodes/18913570