October 12, 2008
UGLC, on Flickr.

UGLC, on Flickr.

Curriculum Design and Consulting

Strategic Redesign and Implementation of UTEP Workplace Writing Curriculum

In the fall of 2007, I redesigned and piloted comprehensive curricular changes to our program’s extant Workplace Writing curriculum based upon three core competencies:

  • The inclusion of disciplinary content and theories of rhetoric and professional communication that address Spinuzzi’s (2006) contention that knowledge workers need to become, first and foremost, strong rhetors
  • The cultivation of rhetorical dispositions and a proclivity for undergraduate research and dissemination
  • The alignment with a redesigned Technical Writing curriculum, and the planned development of a vertical curriculum for our forthcoming undergraduate Rhetoric and Writing Studies major

The programmatic adoption of the redesigned Workplace Writing and Organizational Communication curriculum began during the Fall of 2008, and includes the following ongoing activities:

  • Organizing and leading workshops for PhD faculty, Assistant Instructors, and adjunct faculty on curricular philosophy and pedagogical implementation
  • Providing mentoring to instructors teaching the course for the first time

Writing Curriculum Consultant, College of Business Administration

Earlier this year, I developed and wrote The 2008 College of Business Administration Writing Initiative, a report that detailed strategic opportunities for incorporating complex and targeted writing experiences within the core College of Business curriculum.

As a paid consultant in this role, I worked directly with Dr. Robert Nachtmann, Dean of the College of Business Administration, and Dr. Steve Johnson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

The report served as the initial component of a larger grant project designed to incorporate more concrete and effectual writing experiences into the College of Business core curriculum.

My report offered concrete, strategic writing assignments and assessments designed to amplify and draw upon disciplinary knowledge in COBA content areas such as Finance, Accounting, Management, Marketing, and Business Law.

I continue to work on the implementation and assessment of this project, with the collaboration of Dr. Kate Mangelsdorf, Rhetoric and Writing Studies.  During the Spring of 2009, the first three sections to synergistically incorporate the ethos of both projects will be offered to COBA students, and will include a linkage between Workplace Writing and Organizational Communication and BUSN 3301.

Nirvana, on Flickr.

Nirvana, on Flickr.

Developing the Undergraduate Major in Rhetoric and Writing Studies

A Recruiting White Paper for Academic Programs

Hydrants, on Flickr.

Hydrants, on Flickr.

Selected Conference Presentations

Imploding the (Inter) Text

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: media digital)

Please view full screen by clicking the easel in the lower right corner!

Theorizing Recursion: A Multi-disciplinary Approach

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: writing heuristics)

Agency, Invention, and Sympatric Design Platforms

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: agency invention)

Flickr, Photosynth, And Strange Loops

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: flickr photosynth)

Racial Projects/Spatial Projects: Exploring Agency and Subjectivity through GIS Mapping Technologies

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: racial formation)

Carousel on Flickr.

Carousel on Flickr.

Some (Helpful) Links

To share research and ideas about things like knowledge work, knowledge and content management, rhetorical theory, visual rhetorics, social media, professional and technical communication, writing studies, and the like, please consider joining me on Twitter. 

While I sometimes exchange comments on the vagaries of life with others on this site, I use Twitter primarily as a powerful, dynamic, and agile research tool. For an example of how Twitter can be used to swiftly and seamlessly aggregate and disseminate organizational knowledge work, please see the wonderful daily efforts of Peter West.

To share peer-reviewed academic research articles, books, and general ideas, please consider joining Mendeley.

I have a blog, too.

For more information about the doctoral program in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, please see the RWS@UTEP website, which contains a great many further links of interest to those studying in a variety of areas.

To see more photos like the ones found on this site, please visit my photostream on Flickr.

And please feel free to bookmark this site on delicious.

Socks, on Flickr.

Socks, on Flickr.

About this Site

This is the homepage of Brian J. McNely, doctoral candidate, researcher, and Assistant Director of the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Program at the University of Texas at El Paso.  This site highlights my research, teaching, and academic consulting experience; for permissions or more information about any of the ideas or media found on this site, please do not hesitate to contact me at bjmcnely@miners.utep.edu.

This site was created primarily on an ASUS Eee PC 900 running Xandros Linux with a 16G solid state hard drive, using (almost)* entirely free web-based development and sharing tools.  The fairly basic manipulation of a common tumblr theme, simple domain mapping, and tracking via Google Analytics allows this site to serve as an example of how social networking applications can be easily adapted for a variety of needs.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own, and can be accessed, dowloaded, and shared via Flickr.

*The primary domain registry was not free, but inexpensively obtained at godaddy.