My sincerest hope is that I am able to share my love of reading, writing, and critical thinking with my students in a way that is accessible yet challenging. Writing can be intimidating for some students and it is my goal to make academic writing manageable for students so they can find their voice and share their ideas. In my classroom, I strive to highlight the fact that academic writing often builds off of the skills students already have, even if they don’t realize it. Although I want new writers to enjoy writing and feel uninhibited, I also want to challenge my students to think beyond the five paragraph essay and to find new and more effective ways to communicate their thoughts. This can often be difficult as it forces them to use their skills in ways they may not be comfortable with yet. By giving my students the opportunity to take risks, make mistakes, and try again, it is my hope that they will stretch themselves beyond what they thought was possible at the beginning of the semester.

In order to help them reach the goals of GSW as well as their own goals for their writing, I provide students with examples ranging from published work to the essays of fellow students. I find that when students are comfortable pointing out the successes and failures of other writers’ work, they are better able to identify their own successes and failures. Although I model various techniques for students to use as they are researching, pre-writing, drafting, and revising, I do this only to help them as they develop their own processes. I realize that different techniques work for different students so I try to offer a range of options as well as encourage them to think of their own methods of writing. The only thing I ask is that they try everything at least once so that they can find the techniques that work best for them. Ultimately, I want my students to know that their voice matters and that finding and using that voice can be fun, demanding, risky, liberating, and rewarding.  

Kellie Sharp
ksharp@bgsu.edu

Instructors A -- C

Instructors D -- L

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Dr. Cynthia Mahaffey

Robert Lowe McManus

Scott Obernesser

Mitch Raney

Matt Rome

Amy Rybak

Dan Rzicznek

Amanda McGuire Rzicznek

Christof Scheele

Michael Schulz

Kellie Sharp

Dr. Elizabeth Vogtsberger

Ann Westrick

Jason Zeh

Elizabeth Zemanski

Dr. Angela Zimmann

Jessica Zinz