Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "Grading Has Always Made Writing Better," by Mitchell R. James (@mrjames5527). It's the chapter she wrote in Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: assessment, formative assessment, grading, grading alternatives, summative assessment

Mitchell R. James is a Professor of Composition and Literature at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, OH and is the Managing Editor at Great Lakes Review. You can find Mitch’s latest fiction at Flash Fiction Magazine and Scissors and Spackle, poetry at Peauxdunque Review and Southern Florida Poetry Journal, and scholarship at Journal of Creative Writing Studies. Find more of his work at mitchjamesauthor.com, and follow him on Twitter @mrjames5527 and Facebook @perhupsous. (2020 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "Plagiarism Deserves to be Punished," by Jennifer A. Mott-Smith. It's the chapter she wrote in Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: borrowing, citation, patchwriting, plagiarism, referencing, source use, textual

Jennifer A. Mott-Smith, associate professor of English, has been teaching college writing for over twenty years, so she knows firsthand how scary and confusing students may find plagiarism to be. Working mostly with multilingual writers, she has had the benefit of exposure to other traditions of source use and textual construction. As a scholar, she has been researching plagiarism since 2009. Her book, Teaching Effective Source Use: Classroom Approaches That Work, co-written with Zuzana Tomaš and Ilka Kostka, is being published by University of Michigan Press in 2017. (2017 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Susanmarie Harrington reads the bad idea "Citing Sources is a Basic Skill Learned Early On." It's the chapter she wrote in Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe); the podcast is produced by Kyle Stedman (@kstedman). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: citation, plagiarism, researched writing, working with sources, writing development

Susanmarie Harrington is professor of English and director of Writing in the Disciplines at the University of Vermont. She has taught researched writing for over twenty years, teaching at all levels from first-year students to graduate students. She has collaborated with faculty across the disciplines in workshops and teaching, and she has taught in both urban and rural institutions. Most recently, she has worked with librarians, faculty in the disciplines, and the writing center to promote attention to department-based learning outcomes for students. She has co-edited and co-authored many different types of publications, working with quantitative and qualitative methods. Her variety of writing experiences and working relationships with faculty in many departments inspired her interest in citation and research development. (2017 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "The Traditional Research Paper is Best," by Alexandria Lockett (@MzJaneNova). It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: big data, Boolean logic, data deluge, traditional research paper, web 2.0

Dr. Alexandria L. Lockett is an Assistant Professor of English at Spelman College. She is lead author of Race, Rhetoric, and Research Methods (WAC Clearinghouse, April 2021) and co-editor of  Learning From the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student Writers (Utah State University Press, May 2020). She also publishes about the technological politics of race, surveillance, and access in articles that appeared in Composition Studies, Enculturation, and Praxis, as well as chapters featured in Wikipedia @ 20: An Incomplete Revolution (MIT Press), Humans at Work in the Digital Age (Routledge), Out in the Center (Utah State University Press), and Black Perspectives on Writing Program Administration: From the Margins to the Center (SWR Press). An extended biography is available via her portfolio at: www.alexandrialockett.com. (2021 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "Research Starts with a Thesis Statement," by Emily A. Wierszewski (@ewazoo23). It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: discovery, process, research, thesis, thesis-first research model

Emily Wierszewski has been teaching writing for over ten years, most recently at Seton Hill University outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Her graduate work focused on nonfiction writing, including the study of what makes writing persuasive, as well as how people learn to read and write. As a professor, she’s very interested in how her college students understand and have used the research process before coming to her class, including how their preconceptions about the purpose and process of research impact their attitudes toward and proficiency with college-level inquiry. She recently wrote a book chapter about how comics can help students more effectively engage with research in the writing classroom. Her Twitter handle is @ewazoo23. (2017 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "Research Starts with Answers," by Alison C. Witte (@acwitte82). It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: argument, claim-based writing, classical argument, data-driven writing, research paper, research writing, rhetoric

Alison Witte is the Supplemental Instruction Coordinator at the University of Dayton. She has taught research writing to college students for more than 10 years in courses on research writing, research methods, technical writing, and advanced composition, and she has co-developed curriculum for teaching research writing to international graduate students. Her research interests include student research practices, digital pedagogy, digital pedagogy preparation, and non-classroom writing. Her twitter handle is @acwitte82. (2021 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "The Five-Paragraph Theme Teaches 'Beyond the Test'" by Bruce Bowles, Jr. It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: assessment washback, curriculum, five-paragraph theme, interrater reliability, localized assessment, portfolio assessment, standardized testing, validity

Bruce Bowles Jr. is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of the University Writing Center at Texas A&M University-Central Texas. His research interests focus on how we evaluate and make judgments across multiple contexts, including writing assessment, writing center administration, and political and public discourse. His work has been published in Composition Studies; Journal of Response to Writing; enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture; WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship; and Intraspection: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, and Style. (2020 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "The Five-Paragraph Essay Transmits Knowledge" by Susan Naomi Bernstein and Elizabeth Lowry. It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: academic writing, banking model of education, five-paragraph essay, problem posing, transition to postsecondary education

Susan Naomi Bernstein is an adjunct assistant professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York, and a former co-coordinator of the Stretch Writing Program at Arizona State University–Tempe. Her publications include “Occupy Basic Writing: Pedagogy in the Wake of Austerity” in Nancy Welch and Tony Scott’s collection Composition in the Age of Austerity; "An Unconventional Education: A Letter to Basic Writing Practicum Students” in Journal of Basic Writing 37.1; and "Theory in Practice: Halloween Write-In" co-authored with Ian James, William F. Martin, and Meghan Kelsey in BWe: Basic Writing e-Journal 16.1. She has published four editions of Teaching Developmental Writing with Bedford/St. Martin's and wrote the Bedford Bits blog, Beyond the Basics, from 2011-2019. (2020 bio)

Elizabeth Lowry received her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Arizona State University, where she now holds a lecturer position in rhetoric and composition. Her research interests include public spheres, material culture, and 19th-century women’s rhetorics. Her work has been published in Rhetoric Review, Word and Text, and in edited collections. (2017 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "The Five-Paragraph Essay is Rhetorically Sound" by Quentin Vieregge (@Vieregge). It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: basic writing, current-traditional rhetoric, discursive writing, five-paragraph essay (or theme), prescriptivism

Quentin Vieregge is an associate professor of English at UW-Eau Claire--Barron County. He teaches writing, literature, and film classes. He has co-authored two books: Agency in the Age of Peer Production and The United States Constitution in Film: Part of Our National Culture.  And he has published more generally in the fields of rhetoric & composition and popular culture studies. (2020 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.

Kyle Stedman (@kstedman) reads the bad idea "Popular Culture is Only Useful as a Text for Criticism" by Mark D. Pepper (@MarkDPepper). It's a chapter from Bad Ideas about Writing, which was edited by Cheryl E. Ball (@s2ceball) and Drew M. Loewe (@drewloewe). Don't miss the joke: the author of the chapter is disagreeing with the bad idea stated in the chapter's title.

Keywords: affect, cultural studies, fandom, popular culture, taste studies

Mark D. Pepper is an associate professor of English at Utah Valley University where he teaches courses in composition, technical writing, popular culture, and graphic novels. Much of his research deals with how people use and talk about popular culture in their daily lives to create both personal identity and social belonging. His dissertation looked at how the popularity of texts is created and spread in a digital age of blogs, wikis, and social media. His own pop culture fandom started with comic books as a kid and carries on to a Netflix queue full of television series with far too many seasons to ever reasonably catch up on. (2017 bio)

As always, the theme music is "Parade" by nctrnm, and both the book and podcast are licensed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The full book was published by the West Virginia University Libraries and Digital Publishing Institute; find it online for free at https://textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas.

All ad revenue will be split between the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Computers and Writing Graduate Research Network.