Ben,

It's quite possible to have someone who places a very high importance on
grammar (or anything else) but is still unable to connect it to teaching
practice in ways beneficial to students. I think you might get a good
idea of the candidate's grasp of the subject and how s/he can put that
knowledge into practice by starting with a realistic example or two and
asking how s/he would deal with it in a classroom setting, especially if
it's an example that lets you link whatever grammatical issue is
involved to a larger rhetorical issue. 

For example, asking a candidate how s/he goes about discussing passive
sentences with students (or even better, starting with a piece of actual
writing with clumsy passives in it) could let you gauge not only whether
s/he knows what they are, but whether s/he knows that whether they're
"good" or not is tied to the context and purpose of writing. Of course,
this is all supposing that you have the time to pose that kind of
question and get a considered response.

Just from what personal experience I've had (as a candidate and as a
member of search committees) candidates show up already tense, and a
question like, "What do you think the role of grammar is in the
composition classroom?" is likely to trigger an "Ack! That's a loaded
question! They want some kind of code phrase! What do I do??!!"
response.

Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Varner
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Interview Questions?

We are going to hire a compositionist for the 2008-2009 academic
year and will conduct interviews of finalists within the next
few weeks.

I am on the search committee and want to be sure that the candidate
I recommend places a high value on the importance of grammar and
punctuation in the writing process.

The WPA Outcomes statement for first-year composition puts a
knowledge of such conventions rather low on the list:

http://members.cox.net/ipeckham/outcomes.htm

Any suggestions for questions for the interviews?

       Ben Varner

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