And now to the holy land of Second-Language Writing … Purdue, Indiana

Every academic discipline has its place of origin. For genetics, it’s the Eagle pub in Cambridge, where Watson and Crick allegedly doodled the first double helix over a tepid pint (at least that’s what a plaque on the wall claims). For second-language writing, it’s Purdue University, home of the founding fathers/mothers of the field, and I’ll be making my first pilgrimage there in a few weeks for the Second Language Writing Symposium.

My paper is called “Collaborative Writing in the Preparation of Graduate Writers” (which I now realize is an irritatingly repetitive title), and I’ll be talking about the research I’ve been conducting into the technique known as joint construction with my pre-MBA students at UD. Sorry, at a mid-Atlantic research-intensive public university. PowerPoint and references will be posted here soon.

And in case any readers are still following the gestation of Grammar Choices, it is now at the printers and will be unleashed on the world in September.

Author: Nigel Caplan

Nigel Caplan, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Delaware English Language Institution, as well as a textbook author, consultant, and speaker. Nigel holds a PhD from the University of Delaware, a master's in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor's degree from Cambridge University. He is currently director of Project DELITE, a federal grant providing ESL certification to Delaware teachers. He also brews beer. View all posts by Nigel Caplan