Where do I go from here?

This last year has been an amazing experience for me. I always wondered if I would enjoy teaching because in other jobs I've ended up in some sort of leadership or teaching role and I always enjoyed it. When I coached gymnastics, there was nothing more rewarding to me than seeing one of my "kids" finally get something we had been working on. I just enjoyed the looks on their faces when this happened. It turns out that I love teaching and that I know without a doubt I want to get a Ph.D. so that I can learn more and teach what I have learned to others.

All semester (and year) long I've been trying to figure out what my pedagogy is and how I want to apply it. Well, I am still trying to figure that out. I came into teaching with a pretty good background in technical writing, and a love for technical writing (yes, I know, I'm strange) but now my focus is shifting. I had no desire to study Composition and Rhetoric and only did so because I had to for my GTA position, but it turns out that I actually like Comp/Rhet. I think Comp/Rhet and Tech Writing have more similarities than I originally thought but also more similarities than others may think. I think I mentioned this in one of my other posts, but it is still important. I have recently heard comments from people that "put down" technical/professional writing and make it sound as though it is completely different than other types of writing, but I don't really think that is the case. Yes technical/professional writing classes focus on the audience and are concerned with the product and writing for places outside of school, but why shouldn't it? In fact, why don't other areas of writing focus on writing outside of the academic realm? Most of our students aren't going to be in school as long as we are, so shouldn't we prepare them to think for themselves and write in a variety of different ways, both academic and non-academic? I recently read an article by Elbow and the gist of it is not that Academic Discourse is bad and shouldn't be taught, but students should be taught the process because every possible convention for every possible product cannot be taught in the Composition classroom - the process of observation must also be taught. I see a connection here with Comp/Rhet and Tech Writing.

When I pursue my Ph.D. I hope to find a program where I can learn more about Comp/Rhet and still keep my passion for Technical Writing; I want to find a way to combine the two (if that is possible). Now I have to figure out how to apply things from both these fields in my classroom. I cannot just forget my passion for Technical Writing but most of all, I want to empower my students to think for themselves and hopefully find joy and understand the importance of writing, all aspects of writing.