Phil Eubanks
Department of English
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
eubanks1@niu.edu


he reads Vitals:   Professor and Chair, Department of English, Northern Illinois University.    Ph.D. in English (Center for Writing Studies) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996.  Specializations in writing studies and figurative language and thought.
Below: Publications, Courses
Also visit: Department of English, Northern Illinois University

Publications [back to top]

Books

Metaphor and Writing: Figurative Thought in the Discourse of Written Communication.  Novemember 2010 (Cambridge University Press).

Metaphor and Writing Cover

A War of Words in the Discourse of Trade: The Rhetorical Constitution of Metaphor. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.

War of Words Cover

Essays

“An Analysis of Corporate Rule in Globalization Discourse: Why We Need Rhetoric to Explain Conceptual Figures.”  Rhetoric Review.  July 2008 (27.3).

With John Schaeffer.  “A Kind Word for Bullshit: The Problem of Academic Writing.”  College Composition and Communication. 59.3 (2008): 372-88.

"Globalization, "Corporate Rule," and Blended Worlds: A Conceptual-Rhetorical  Analysis of Metaphor, Metonymy, and Conceptual Blending." Metaphor and Symbol 20.3 (2005): 173-197.

With Christine Abbott. "How Academics and Practitioners Evaluate Technical Texts: A Focus Group Study." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 19.2 (2005): 171-218.

With John Schaeffer.  "A Dialogue Between Traditional and Cognitive Rhetoric."  Rhetoric Society Quarterly 34.2 (2004): 53-70.  

"Poetics and Narrativity: How Texts Tell Stories."  in What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analysis of Text and Practice.  Eds. Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004. 

With Christine Abbott.  "Using Focus Groups to Supplement the Assessment of Technical Communication Texts, Pedagogy, and Programs."  Technical Communication Quarterly 12.1 (2004): 25-46.

"Understanding Metaphors for Writing: In Defense of the Conduit Metaphor." College Composition and Communication 53.1 (2001): 92-118.

"The Story of Conceptual Metaphor: What Motivates Metaphoric Mappings?" Poetics Today 20.3 (1999): 419-42.

"Conceptual Metaphor as Rhetorical Response: A Reconsideration of Metaphor." Written Communication 16.2 (1999): 171-99.

"Genre and Technical Translation: Social, Textual, and Educational Exigence." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 12.1 (1998): 150-70.


Courses [back to top]


English 300a, Advanced Essay Composition (Undergraduate)

English 300a gives accomplished student writers the opportunity to pursue these objectives: to write more elegantly, to write more persuasively, and to write more interestingly.  Although the course is about "writing," it also involves significant amounts of reading--interesting reading, one hopes.

English 308, Technical and Professional Writing (Undergraduate)

This course focuses on the fundamentals of technical writing: what it is, how it works, and why it works. Many students in this class hope to find careers in technical writing. Other students take this course because, increasingly, all kinds of careers require strong writing and communications skills.

English 403, Technical Editing (Undergraduate)

In this course, students develop the skills needed to prepare technical documents for publication. It takes a "levels of edit" approach. In other words, the course helps students develop professional competence in matters of mechanics and correctness, and it also asks students to consider big-picture questions about communicative strategy and document design.

English 510, The Rhetoric of Prose Composition (Graduate)

English 510 focuses on the rhetorical dimension of "rhetoric and composition." Naturally, no course can claim to present a comprehensive view of either rhetoric or composition, so we pursue this modest goal: to read some important rhetorical commentary and, in turn, to read some current, rhetorically informed work in composition studies. 

English 525, Research Methods in Technical Writing (Graduate)

English 525 focuses on the ways scholars and practitioners do research about technical and other workplace writing. The course surveys both experimental and qualitative research methods. It has two main goals: first, to enable participants to better understand and critique published research; second, to enable participants to design and implement their own research projects.

English 526, Technical and Professional Writing (Graduate)

In this course, traditional graduates students and people currently in the workplace (1) develop professional technical communication skills and (2) learn to reflect upon technical writing as a rhetorical process. Students create documents in several genres, read and present textbook material, and discuss a variety of commentary about technical writing, from academic studies to articles published by working professionals.

English 527, Technical Editing (Graduate)

In English 527, traditional graduate students and people currently in the workplace become familiar with the processes of technical editing. These processes range from accurate copyediting to envisioning the appropriate form and purpose for a technical document. The course emphasizes not just particular skills (such as using standard markup symbols) but also how editing tasks fit into the larger process of preparing a technical and professional documents for publication.

English 398/529, Visual Rhetoric

English 398/531 is about looking—looking carefully at the details of page and screen layouts, and looking insightfully at the what visual presentations can mean.  Students analyze images and so-called "hybrid texts" and create visually appealing, usable designs for print and screen.

English 530, Theory and Research in Technical and Professional Communication (Graduate)

In English 530, students will examine important and current trends in research into technical and professional communication, including (1) empirical research about the practice of technical communication, (2) rhetorical inquiry about the nature of technical communication, and (3) research and commentary about the teaching of technical communication. 

 

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