At the end of a semester that saw the ground open under our feet, I had the honor of introducing our online celebration site to the Class of 2020.
News
Message to undergraduates at a time of crisis
March 13, 2020 Dear English majors, This is a stressful time for all of us. There’s a lot of uncertainty about how COVID will impact the university and beyond. You will have read announcements from …
50th Anniversary of the Writing Center
Notes delivered on the occasion of the Writing Center’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, Nov. 8, 2019 Dear colleagues, students, Dean Wilcots, friends and supporters of the Writing Center! It is my great pleasure to welcome …
Department Chair
Over the past five years, I have sought out several shared governance and professional development opportunities. After serving as chair of the University Committee (the executive committee of the faculty) I became a fellow in …
A big thank-you to our graduate students
The other day, as I was rearranging the chairs in our conference room for a meeting with our graduate students, I saw a plaque with my name and the year 2017 engraved on the wall. …
Greetings from London
This summer, I had the opportunity to present at ISLE5, the 5th conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, organized by the Survey of English Usage at University College London (right next …
A very special commencement
My view of Camp Randall and speaker David Muire at Commencement! (For more pictures, not mine, follow the link.) I had the honor to be part of the platform party one more time (representing the …
In and out of the classroom
It’s always great to have a speaker visit one’s class or to take one’s class to experience a different learning environment. I took my “English Grammar in Use” class to the Special Collections section of …
7th BICLCE Conference
I had a great time at the 7th Biennial International Conference for the Linguistics of Contemporary English (BICLCE, ruthlessly pronounced “Bicycle”) at the University of Vigo in Spain, where I gave a plenary lecture on …
Eccles Professorship
I am grateful to announce that I have been named the new Mark and Elisabeth Eccles Professor in English. The Eccles family has long supported the mission of the department. Mark Eccles was a Shakespeare scholar …
5th Prescriptivism Conference
Just back from presenting the Grammar Badgers project at the 5th Prescriptivism Conference, hosted by Brigham Young University in Utah from June 22-24, 2017. The conference touched on topics such as the influence of style guides, …
Congrats, Class of 2017!
It was a glorious day for having one’s picture taken in front of Bascom Hall. Congratulations to our fabulous Applied English Linguistics Class of 2017, pictured with incomparable graduate coordinator Robyn Shanahan: Vilcky Wu, Tiffany …
“Grammar Badgers” in the news
Our Grammar Badgers project made it to the UW news today: Grammar Badgers spread language wisdom
“Bad Grammar” student symposium
ELL graduate students in my “Bad Grammar” seminar presented their research (9 posters and 5 talks) in an end-of-term symposium on April 27. Thanks to everyone who came and helped making the day a success!
Introducing “Grammar Badgers”
I am so proud to introduce Grammar Badgers, a website created by graduate students in English Language and Linguistics who took my “Bad Grammar” class this semester. As part of the class, students were tasked with …
Linguistic Lunch Hour with Trini Stickle
It was my great pleasure this week to host Professor Trini Stickle (Western Kentucky University), an alumna of our Ph.D. program in English Language and Linguistics. Trina and I talked about our joint research on …
Published: “Transivitity Patterns Exhibited by Persons with Dementia in Conversation”
My joint work with Trini Stickle (Western Kentucky University) on the grammar of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease has just been published in Applied Linguistics. Trini Stickle graduated from our Ph.D. program in 2015 with a …
Skype discussion with Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
We had a great discussion with Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (Leiden) in our seminar on “Bad Grammar” this week – from preposition stranding to Robert Lowth to Professor Tieken’s usage guides data base to prescriptivism …
Grammar 21 Survey now live!
Please consider taking this online survey on opinions about English grammar. This survey is part of a research project on metalinguistic awareness and has been approved by the IRB. It is not a test and …
Teaching Academy Fellow
I am honored to have been accepted into the Teaching Academy as a fellow. Membership in the Teaching Academy is an honor bestowed on individuals who have demonstrated teaching excellence, are recognized and nominated by their …