William Least Heat~Moon (2008) writes, “A genuine road book should open unknown realms in its words as it does in its miles. If you leave a journey exactly who you were before you departed, the trip has been much wasted, even if it’s just down to the quiky mart” (p. 10). Though written about travel books, I see this statement to be true of my academic and of my approach to research and scholarship. Each opportunity I have had to teach and to play other roles has left me in a different place and with a different perspective. I view each class or appointment as a chance to build, learn, and study life in the academic world. I enjoy participating in the greater scholarly community and conducting both formal and informal research projects.

This has not always been the case. I used to try and stay away from what I thought was research. I did my best to avoid anything that didn’t take place in the classroom or writing center. That is until I realized that what I was doing in the classroom and in the writing center was a form of research. When I asked students what worked and what didn’t work, that was research. When I started to survey students and instructors that interacted with the writing center in order to improve it, that was research. When I was asked to investigate how other universities assessed student writing and to interpret surveys I helped to design regarding the classes at UNK, that definitely was research. It wasn’t until I was surprised by a pattern I noticed between the tutors, they way they were often taught, and the perceptions of the people they tutored that I realized the questions I "just asked" were a form of research. 

Since then I have been more formally involved in the scholarly community. I never dreamed that I would come to value research opportunities as much as I value my time in the classroom, but it’s true. I have developed a research agenda that centers on writing assessment, teaching, and technology in the classroom and writing center. This research agenda combines with the understanding that writing, teaching, writing assessment, and knowledge in general are all very contextual and represent a balance of social influence and individual perception and histories. This agenda has particularly come together in my dissertation which seeks to investigate the influence that localized yet standardized writing assessment practices have on the classroom of a novice teacher.

Throughout these electronic pages you will see the products that represent the playground that makes up my academic career. Represented are some of the presentations, publications, and experiences and the difference I hope to make. As I seek to let no journey be wasted, I see research and scholarly opportunities everywhere —even at the hockey games I love to attend.