Rebekah Shultz Colby
PhD in Rhetoric and Writing

Where did you get your undergraduate degree? What was your major? Where did you get your MA and PhD? What were they in? Why did you choose DU?
I received my undergraduate degree in English (with a concentration in poetry) from California State University, San Bernardino. I got my Master's degree in Rhetoric and Composition at the same place. I completed my PhD in Rhetoric and Writing at Bowling Green State University.

I chose to teach at DU because I was excited about starting a new writing program with Doug Hesse. I wanted to support Dougs efforts to continue to professionalize the teaching of rhet/comp and thought this new writing program was at least a step in the right directiona step I would like to see other writing programs make but also continue to evolve.

Describe your writing process.
I guess I have a love/hate relationship with writing. When Im inspired, I love it. When I have a great critical idea, I love unpacking it and playing with its implications. However, I used to think there was something wrong with me because writing was often such a torturous experience. I guess thats why I love composition research and scholarship on the writing process. I found out in graduate school that writing is hard for everyone. Although writing is still difficult for me, I guess knowing that other people struggle with writing helps ease some of the added anxiety that its supposed to be easyespecially for an English major.

My writing process is punctuated with a lot of procrastination. Theres a lot of procrastination involved in getting started. Usually I have to compel myself with guilt or fear to even start writing. I wish I had a better strategy than this, but so far I dont. Then, I start, and the process usually gets easier until I start struggling with a particular idea or the organization doesnt work out like it should or something else messy and unplanned happens with language. Then I stop. I then have to do something fun and removed from academic writing, otherwise I paralyze myself further with anxiety. So, I often end up playing games (World of Warcraft, The Sims 2, FreeCell, Bejeweled) until Ive figured out what Im going to do next. Then I start writing again.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
I love that writing has so much potential for creation. Entire worlds can come into existence within the written page. World-changing ideas can be articulated and then widely circulated. Through writing, ideas live and breathe. With this mammoth amount of potential, comes a lot of power and responsibility (not to quote Spiderman or anything).

Briefly, how would you describe your teaching philosophy?
I want students to become rhetorically savvy, especially since, because of globalization and rapid technological change, we live in a radically changing textual world. I know jobs will change. I know writing demands will continue to change. I want students to know how to adapt to this world. And, of course, to help them adapt, I want them to become critical thinkers. I want them to know how to think critically about the ideas they come across in their reading. However, I also want them to think critically about how writing shapes these ideas. I want them to be able to read news reports critically and not think that whatever rhetoric the president spouts must be the absolute truth. I want them to question what gets portrayed in the media and why. I also want them to have this same critical eye as they read scientific scholarship. I want them to realize that, through writing and research methodologies, humans construct scientific knowledge (with flaws and biases)and that it is not a commandment from God. Lastly, I want them to apply this same critical eye to their own writing. I want them to be able to figure out how to analyze different genres so that they can, through writing, use these different genres to appeal to multiple audiences as needed most effectively.

What drew you to become a writing teacher?
I guess I have this whole writing conversion narrative. Ive always loved (and feared) writing. In high school, I had a teacher who basically made me feel like I could never write in college. She was never happy with my drafts. My drafts usually bled red ink. If I saw the dreaded words See Me scrawled at the end of my essay, I knew I was in for a particularly torturous one-on-one session with her in which she would make me acutely aware of my many failings as a writer. Although I struggled and fought hard for my A, by the end of the course, I had spent so much time drafting, researching, worrying, crying, and, most of all, revising that I just decided I would stay away from writing in college at all costs. However, after I realized I was an even more miserable dental hygienist who loathed sharp instruments and the mouth in general, I decided to give writing one more shot. Even if I was a terrible writer, I didnt completely loath it. I still love it even as I fear it. And amazingly, I didnt do so poorly in my English classes, and I actually enjoyed writing most of my assignments.

I think tutoring at Cal State San Bernardino really showed me that I could teach writing. I loved helping writers who were often as frustrated with their writing as I had been and easing some of that fear and anxiety. Its great seeing the light bulb go on in students eyes and seeing them leave with a smile on their facesor at least look visibly relieved.

As a teacher, I strive for similar goals. I want to challenge students with their writing, but I also dont want them to feel overwhelmed or feel like its an impossible task they will never be good enough at. My students usually end up revising quite a bit. But I always want them to feel like this is just par for the courseI expect this of everyone and that revision doesnt mean they are failures at writing. I also want to make them feel like they are perfectly capable of revision. If they dont feel this way, I will be there to help them until they do.

What do you enjoy most about teaching writing?
What I enjoy most about teaching writing is when students are struggling with their writing, but they work hard to overcome these obstacles. I always tell my students that I expect them to work hard, but I also expect that from myself as well. I will work just as hard at helping them as they do in drafting and revising. So, I always feel a great sense of victory when I work hard with a student, and the student works just as hard or harder, and, as a result, he/she makes tremendous strides in his/her writing.

What are your hobbies and outside interests, or guilty pleasures?
Ive been in love with reading since before I could read. Ive been in love with playing computer games ever since my father brought home an Apple IIe in 1983. I was seven. He would play games, fighting pirates in the Caribbean or finding lost Elven cities and slaying dragons along the way, and I would help.

My favorite computer games usually involve gripping narratives in which, like reading, I actually come to care about the characters. I love Baldurs Gate. In the game, you are on a quest basically to find your own identity as well as to slay the evil elf Irenicus who wants to take over the world. You find characters along the way that can join your adventuring party, and they all have subplots that change the overall narrative of the game depending on who you pick. Theres betrayal, intrigue, and, of course, hubris. I also love the Gabriel Knight seriesa series of mysteries better (I think) than Dan Brown. You investigate a voodoo cult in New Orleans, solve the mystery of the Knights Templar (of course) in the south of France, and uncover a hidden pack of werewolves in Germany. The game intertwines historical fact and fantasy. In one of the games, the alpha werewolf was complex enough as a character that I was mad I had to kill him at the end. And, of course, The Longest Journey series contains the best adventure games ever made. Youre a character living in the future, but you find a portal to a fantasy world. Its a great blend of fantasy and science fiction. Its definitely the best science fiction world (and story) Ive played in a computer game.

A big reason for my love of World of Warcraft comes from the fact that quests often uncover the narrative behind the worlds lore.

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