Jennifer Novak
Rhetoric PhD

Where did you get your undergraduate degree? What was your major? Where did you get your MA and PhD and what was each in? Why did you choose DU?
My PhD is from the University of Minnesota and my Masters degree is from Penn State. I worked in Manhattan at Goldman Sachs in Training and Development and Research during the time between earning my Masters degree and my PhD.

My teaching experience includes Scientific and Technical Writing, Writing for Business and Professions, Technology and Society, The Family, Expository Writing, Research Methods, and Web Authoring. My dissertation examines the tension between science and spirituality and many of my courses explore this issue.

I enjoy working at DU because I really like the rigor of our writing courses, and I love living close to my family and the mountains.

Describe what your writing process is like:
My best writing comes at unexpected moments. The worst writing I produce is when it is forced.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
I probably most enjoy revision -- crafting a piece and really thinking through the idea as I work to communicate it precisely. And of course, I like to read work that is finished.

Briefly, how would you describe your teaching philosophy?
I hope my students better learn to think critically about the world around them while taking my classes. My classroom practices tend to ask students to both analyze texts and to produce texts, and to actively engage with each other, with the academic community, and with communities outside the university.

What drew you to become a writing teacher?
Thats an interesting question. I suppose the simple answer is that English courses came easy for me. I cant say I set out to become a writing teacher. I just wanted a job that offered the space for thinking interesting thoughts. And I think that kind of job is rare.

What do you enjoy most about teaching writing?
Working with students who are interested and interesting. The day a student understands a complicated concept, like Kenneth Burkes terministic screens, and can apply it to interpreting their everyday lives. One of my students used terministic screens to interpret the impact of shifting from writing letters to writing text messages. Another used it to analyze how the Russian and English words for possession reflect each cultures understanding of the meaning for ownership. A third student used it to articulate the differences in parent-child relationships between families in Vietnam and families in America. A fourth used terministic screens to interpret in-group perceptions of an out-group after our classs experience with volunteering for Project Homeless. Those were all very satisfying papers to read.

What are your hobbies and outside interests?
I like running and on Thursday evening youll often find me at the Irish Snug running club. I attend Trinity Methodist, and I recently started to pick up courses at Iliff School of Theology for fun. I enjoy traveling and was in France and Italy during summer 2008. I have two fantastic sisters: one is an engineer in Breckenridge and the other is a radiologist at Cornell, and we like to compete in paddle ball games. My parents are retired in Red Feather Lakes, and they are currently raising their fourth daughter Pepper, a Boston Terrier.

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