- Department, Office, or School
- Department of English
- Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
- Professor
- emailmmichaud@ric.edu
- phone401-456-8661
- location_onCraig-Lee Hall, 170
I relocated to Rhode Island and joined the Department of English at Rhode Island College in the fall of 2008. Most of the courses I teach are writing courses, all of which focus on helping students develop as writers and thinkers and human beings. I teach across the full range of post-secondary education, from first-year students through graduate students to faculty members. In whatever course I teach, my primary goal is to help students develop positive and constructive writing practices, processes, and identities.
In terms of my research and writing I am more of a fox than a hedgehog, which is to say that my interests range widely and have never been confined to just one area of inquiry. I’ve written about adult learners in higher education and their writerly journeys to a college degree and I’ve written about curricular innovation in professional and digital writing classes. I’ve written just a little about Writing Across the Curriculum and a lot about Donald M. Murray and the community of writers, teachers, and scholars that surrounded him at the University of New Hampshire during the final third of the 20th century. Outside of academic contexts I’ve written about my passions and hobbies, which include raising my children, open water swimming, and playing tennis.
In 2011 I taught my first faculty seminar on writing pedagogy and discovered the joys of working with colleagues on matters of teaching and learning. Since 2012 I’ve chaired our campus Writing Board, where I collaborate with faculty members from across campus to support various writing initiatives and professional development opportunities. My work as a WAC/WID specialist is among the most rewarding in which I participate as a faculty member.
Education
Ph.D., Composition and Rhetoric, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 2007.
Dissertation: IT Managers, Construction Marketers, and Emergency Medical Technicians: Professional Adult Learners in Higher Education (chair, Thomas Newkirk)
M.A.T., English Education, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 1999.
B.A., English, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 1996.
Selected Publications
A Writer Reforms (the Teaching of) Writing: Donald Murray and the Writing Process Movement, 1963–1987 (WAC Clearinghouse, 2023)
“On the Creative Nonfiction of Composition and Rhetoric: An Interview with Lad Tobin.” Composition Forum 43, 2020.
“Composing a Career, From Expressivism to Essayism: A Conversation with Bruce Ballenger.” Composition Forum 41, 2019.
“Negotiating WAW-PW across Diverse Institutional Contexts” (w/Sarah Read) Next Steps: New Directions for/in Writing About Writing, edited by Barb Bird, Doug Downs, Moriah McCracken, Jan Rieman. Utah: Utah State University Press, 2019, pp. 159-171.
“Retrospective: What We Talk About When We Talk About Donald Murray: Revisiting A Writer Teaches Writing at 50.” Composition Forum 40, 2018.
“Hidden in Plain Sight: Findings from a Survey on the Multi-Major Professional Writing Course.” (w/Sarah Read) Technical Communication Quarterly vol. 27, no. 3, 2018, pp. 1-22.
Notes of a Native Son. Intermezzo (spring, 2017).
Courses
ENGL 010 Basic Writing Skills
FYW 150Boost: The Writing Boost
FYW 100 Introduction to Academic Writing
FYW 100Plus: Introduction to Academic Writing Plus
FYW 100Honors: Introduction to Academic Writing Honors
ENGL 230: Workplace Writing
ENGL 231: Multimodal Writing
ENGL 232: Public and Community Writing
ENGL 233: Writing for Health Professions
ENGL 263: Connections (Eating Matters: The Rhetoric of Food)
ENGL 378: Advanced Workshop for Professional Writing
ENGL 379: Rhetoric for Professional Writing
ENGL 460 Seminar in Major Authors and Themes
ENGL 477 Internship in Professional Writing
ENGL 520: Topics in Composition Theory and Rhetoric
FYS100: First Year Seminar
HONR 351: Honors Colloquium
SWRK 580: Professional Writing for Social Workers