5: First-Year Composition Should Be Skipped, by Paul G. Cook

In a first for this podcast (but not a last), Paul G. Cook (@paulgeecook) reads his own bad idea chapter, "First-Year Composition Should Be Skipped." Seriously, who needs Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) around here anyway (though he butts in as host regardless). Cook's narration is a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe).

Chapter keywords: rhetorical listening, contingent labor, deep learning, dual enrollment, ethics, first-year composition, literacy, rhetoric, writing pedagogy

Paul Cook is Associate Professor of English in the Department of English and Language Studies at Indiana University Kokomo and Director of Writing for the campus. He also serves as President of Faculty Senate and Reviews Editor for the online journal Across the Disciplines. He teaches courses in writing, rhetoric, digital media, and technical editing. Paul earned a BA from Winthrop University, an MA from Auburn University, and a PhD from the Rhetoric/Composition program at the University of South Carolina. His work has appeared in Pedagogy, JAC, Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, Across the Disciplines, Communication Law Review, and others. Most recently, he co-led, along with colleagues Polly Boruff-Jones, Mark Canada, Christina Downey, and Mike Caulfield, AASCU‘s webinar series “Digital Literacy in the Time of Pandemic.” Paul lives in Indianapolis just off the Monon Trail, the subject of one of his current writing projects.

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

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