Advocates the use of word processing equipment to assume routine English department typing chores such as preparing faculty vitae, responding to job applicants, and preparing scholarly articles. (DF)

Notes that the hopeful threads binding Herman Melville's book "The Confidence-Man" also weave a valuable lesson for literature PhDs considering their career options. Suggests that the values crucial to a teacher or scholar are also crucial to those who work outside the university: willingness to entertain other points of view and an…

Considers how decisions about curriculum, hiring, and institutional policies have changed due to increasing regulatory, legal, and financial pressures conflicting with ever-magnifying and multiplying sense of need. Identifies three dominant models of institutional governance--models that represent different emphases and that, for the purposes of…

Discusses mission statements from various English departments. Finds that the most successful mission statements move credibly and convincingly between three kinds of rhetoric, using the specialized rhetoric of disciplinary insiders, the rhetoric of academic inquiry that can function across disciplines, and the general public rhetoric that serves…

Discusses the challenges of teaching English at two-year colleges, devising new methods of teaching composition and literature to reluctant writers and readers. Suggests that much of the important intellectual work from two-year colleges has been produced in the form of textbooks, and is also shown in curriculum development, interdisciplinary…

Offers the opinions of faculty, lecturers, and graduate teaching associates on the use of electronic technology in the teaching of English. Suggests that most faculty members are receptive to considering new ways of enhancing teaching, and that the faculty needs training for this new responsibility. (CR)