Patricia Freitag Ericsson

Biography

Patricia Freitag Ericsson teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in technical communication, multimedia authoring, rhetoric, and critical technology studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Technical Communication in 2003 from Michigan Technological University. Previous to that she completed degrees at Augustana College of South Dakota (M.A. in Composition Theory and Technology) and at the University of South Dakota (B.S. in English Education). Before coming to WSU, she taught Composition and Rhetoric at Dakota State University and directed the DSU Writing Program.

Research Interests

Ericsson’s research interests include critical technological literacy, technical and professional writing, visual literacy, the impacts of technology on education and agency, and the public perception of the discipline of composition. She is currently working on two book projects. One is a co-edited essay collection focused on the machine assessment of student essays, Truth or Consequences: Machine Scoring of Student Essays. The second is a monograph concerned with the communication of disciplinary knowledge. Recent articles and book chapters include an article addressing the issue of standards in English education, two chapters analyzing the WPA Outcomes Statement, and a chapter that address the need for teaching speaking and listening skills in the technical communication classroom.

Recent Publications

Machine Scoring of Student Essays: Truth and Consequences. Ed. Patricia Freitag Ericsson and Richard Haswell. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, (forthcoming 2005).

“The Meaning of Meaning: Is a Paragraph More than an Equation?” Machine Scoring of Student Essays: Truth and Consequences. Ed. Patricia Freitag Ericsson and Richard Haswell. Logan, Utah: Utah State UP, (forthcoming 2005).

“Listen Up! Speaking and Listening in the Technical Communication Classroom.” Resources in Technical Communication. Ed. Cynthia Selfe and Art Young. Baywood Press.

“Raising the Standards for Standards: A Call for Definitions.” English Education, April 2005.

“Celebrating Through Interrogation: Consideration of the OS Through Theoretical Lenses.” In The Outcomes Book: Debate and Consensus about the WPA Outcomes Statement. Ed. Susanmarie Harrington, Keith Rhodes, Ruth Fischer, and Rita Malenczyk. Logan Utah: Utah State UP, March 2005.

"Expanding Our Understanding of Composing Outcomes.” With Cynthia Selfe. In The Outcomes Book: Debate and Consensus about the WPA Outcomes Statement Ed. Susanmarie Harrington, Keith Rhodes, Ruth Fischer, and Rita Malenczyk. Logan Utah: Utah State UP, March 2005.

"Community Voice." In Computers and Writing: The Cyborg Era. Ed. James A. Inman. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2003.

"The Politics of the Program: MS WORD as the Invisible Grammarian." Co-authored with Tim McGee. Computers and Composition, Dec. 2002.

"Stasis and Change: The Role of Independent Composition Programs and the Dynamic Nature of Literacy." Co-authored with Cynthia Selfe and Gail Hawisher. In Field of Dreams: Independent Writing Programs. Ed. Peggy O'Neill, Angela Crow, and Larry Burton. Logan, Utah: Utah University Press, 2002.

Links

http://www.wsu.edu/~ericsson

E-mail: ericsson@wsu.edu