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Profile for Virginia Crank

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Virginia Crank

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Professor
English
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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Virginia Crank Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Professor

English

Specialty area(s)

Rhetoric and Writing Studies; Writing Pedagogy; First-year Writing; Writing Center

Current courses at UWL

Fall 2024: ENG 100: College Writing Workshop; ENG 299: Writing Tutor Practicum.

Education

B.A. in English with secondary certification, Oakland City College, Oakland City, IN
M.A. coursework in English, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
M.A. in English, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
Ph.D. in English with Rhetoric and Composition focus, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL

Career

Teaching history

Dr. Crank taught as Instructional Academic Staff at Peru State College in Peru, NE in the Fall 1995 semester. She taught at Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, MO, as a Visiting Assistant Professor, in the spring 1996 semester. She then taught as a tenure-track professor at Rock Valley College in Rockford, IL, from 1996-2001 before coming to UW-La Crosse in Fall 2001. Dr. Crank's teaching experiences at UWL include freshman and upper-level writing courses, General Education literature courses, upper-level English education courses, and upper-level rhetoric and composition courses.

Professional history

Dr. Crank has been the Director of the UWL Writing Center since 2008. From 2011-2020, she also served as the Chair of the UW-System English Placement Test Development Committee. Dr. Crank has served as a manuscript reviewer for Teaching English in the Two-year College, the Wisconsin English Journal, and Teaching/Writing. She has also scored AP English Lit exams and served as a mentor for dual-credit college composition.

Research and publishing

"Tradeoffs, not Takeovers: A Learning Center/Writing Center Collaboration for Tutor Training." in Writing Centers and Learning Commons, eds. Steven J. Corbett, Teagan E. Decker, and Maria L. Soriano Young. University Press of Colorado, 2023.

"Re-Imagining the First Year as Catalyst for First-Year Writing Program Curricular Change" Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (February 2019) (with Sara Heaser and Darci Thoune).

"Thinking Like a Writer: Inquiry, Genre, and Revision." Writing and Pedagogy (Spring 2014).

“Negotiating Expectations: Preserving Theoretical Research-Based Writing Pedagogy in the Field." Co-authored with Margaret Finders and Erika Kramer. Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education. (Winter/Spring 2013).

“From High School to College: Developing Writing Skills in the Disciplines.” The WAC
Journal (Nov. 2012).

“When Process (Theory) Becomes (Consumer) Product: How the Six Traits Fails
Teachers.” The Wisconsin English Journal 52.2 (Sept. 2010): 45-53.

“’Doing Disney’ Fosters Media Literacy in Freshmen.” Academic Exchange
Quarterly 9.3 (Fall 2005).

“Asynchronous Electronic Peer Response in a Hybrid Basic Writing Classroom.”
Teaching Developmental Writing: Background Readings, 2nd Ed. Ed. Susan
Naomi Bernstein. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

“Electronic Peer Response in a Hybrid Basic Writing Classroom.” Teaching
English in the Two-Year College, 30.2 (December 2002): 145-155.

“Chasing Objectivity: How Grading Rubrics Can Provide Consistency and
Context.” Journal of Teaching Writing 17.1-2 (Winter 1999): 56-73.

“The Best of Both Worlds: Asynchronous Learning as a Bridge to Online
Education.” Instructional Telecommunications Council Newsletter,
Sept. 2000. (Co-authored with Erin Fisher and Ann Carter)

“Using Writing Conferences to Encourage Creativity and Diversity.”
Proceedings of the Nebraska Teaching Improvement Council,
Faculty College, 1996.

“Review of Hearing Ourselves Think.” Dialogue 2.1 (Spring 1995):
76-79.

Kudos

published

Virginia Crank, English, authored the chapter "Tradeoffs, not Takeovers: A Learning Center/Writing Center Collaboration for Tutor Training" in Writing Centers and Learning Commons: Staying Centered While Sharing Common Ground published on Feb. 22 by University Press of Colorado/Utah State University Press. The chapter describes UWL's collaborative tutor-training course taught by tutor supervisors from English, Communication Studies, Mathematics, Biology and Chemistry.

Submitted on: Feb. 24, 2023

presented

Virginia Crank, English, presented "Failure/Forgiveness, or What if I Didn't Learn Anything from the Pandemic?" at the Marquette Writing Innovation Symposium on Feb. 4 in Milwaukee, WI. The theme for the conference was "Writing it Out," and her presentation explored how teachers are coping with personal and professional failures during pandemic teaching.

Submitted on: Feb. 24, 2022

published

Virginia Crank, Sara Heaser and Darci Thoune, all English, co-authored the article "Re-Imagining the First Year as Catalyst for First-Year Writing Program Curricular Change" in "Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" published on Feb. 4, 2019 by Indiana University. This article is part of a special issue on Re-Imagining the First Year. UWL, along with 43 other schools nationwide, participated in the RFY initiative 2016-2018. http://www.aascu.org/RFY/

Submitted on: Feb. 12, 2019

presented

Virginia Crank, Sara Heaser and Darci Thoune, all English, presented "From Outcome to Assessment: Designing Aligned Writing Prompts" at the Writing Innovation Symposium on Feb. 7, 2019 in Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI.

Submitted on: Feb. 7, 2019

presented

Virginia Crank, Sara Heaser and Darci Thoune, all English, presented "Integrating ‘Re-Imagining The First Year’ Principles To Innovate First-Year Writing Program Curriculum" at Marquette University Writing Innovation Symposium on Feb. 2, 2018 in Milwaukee, WI.

Submitted on: Feb. 19, 2018