The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist: Making Knowledge Work

Administration and Theory may seem at first incommensurate if not oxymoronic terms. The work of Writing Program Administration, however, overturns that perception, for it demands that theory be integrated within everyday decision-making. The essays in this collection inhabit that space between theory and practice, between "knowing that" and "knowing how" in the high-stakes world of budgetary planning, programmatic development, and curricular innovation.

An excellent companion to Shirley K Rose and Irwin Weiser's first book, The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher (Boynton/Cook, 1999), this new volume foregrounds the intellectual work of WPAs. It is divided into two parts, "Theorizing Our Writing Programs" and "Theorizing Writing Program Administration." The first section explores the local institutional contexts within which WPAs theorize writing programs in conversation with other program participants; the second section analyzes the professional contexts in which WPAs converse with other WPAs. All writing program administrators are sure to find The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist valuable and informative, whether they are directing programs in first-year composition, writing across the curriculum, writing centers, or professional writing.

Shirley K Rose is Associate Professor of English at Purdue University, where she has recently completed a term as Director of Composition. Currently, she serves as Assistant Head of the English Department, mentors teaching assistants in the introductory writing program, and teaches graduate courses in writing program administration. She has published essays in College English, College Composition and Communication, WPA: Writing Program Administration, Journal of Teaching Writing, Rhetoric Review, and Journal of Language and Learning Across the Disciplines.IRWIN WEISER is Professor of English at Purdue University, where he directed the developmental writing program and serves as Director of Composition. Weiser teaches introductory writing, a practicum for new composition teachers, graduate courses in composition research, WAC theory and practice, and writing assessment.