James C. McDonald

Professor of English

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 1987

Office: Griffin 331
Phone: 337-482-5495
E-mail: jcm5337@louisiana.edu

Teaching and Research Areas

Rhetoric and composition studies, Renaissance literature.

Noteworthy

James McDonald’s research covers the history of rhetoric and literacy, composition faculty labor issues, writing centers, and composition theory and pedagogy, with articles on topics like Cicero, Hugh Blair, adjunct faculty working conditions, the undergraduate research paper, writing center tutoring manuals, and student metaphors of themselves as writers. He is the author of the textbook The Reader (Longman, 2009), the editor of The Allyn & Bacon Sourcebook for College Writing Teachers (2nd ed., 2000), and co-editor of Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana Culture. His articles and reviews have appeared in such journals as the Writing Center Journal, the Writing Lab Newsletter, English Journal, Kairos, Forum, and the Journal for College Writing and in collections such as Reforming College Composition (Heinemann, 2000), Teaching the Research Paper (Scarecrow, 1995), Realms of Rhetoric (Rhetoric Society of America, 1991), and Visions of Rhetoric (RSA, 1987). He and co-author Valerie Balester received the International Writing Centers Association Outstanding Scholarship Award for Best Article in 2001 for “A View of Status and Working Conditions: Relations Between Writing Program and Writing Center Directors,” in the journal WPA. They were keynote speakers for the International Writing Centers Association Conference in Houston in 2007.