Writing

Teaching “Writing” (Then and Now)

For nearly twenty years, Brian [ ~ he, him ~] has taught courses in “writing” at Universities and Colleges across North America.

Trained in the Expository Writing Program at the University of Washington in Seattle in the United States, Brian currently teaches a variety of academic writing courses at Capilano University, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Since he began teaching in 1999 he has taught a mix of preparatory, introductory, intermediate, and advanced writing courses to a diverse set of student populations in the greater Pacific Northwest. 

Brian’s teaching of “writing” has ranged from preparatory courses in “College Strategies” on note-taking and annotating (important forms of pre-writing) and introductory courses on the “Writing the Research Essay” to more complex literary and theoretical approaches to “writing” including Surrealist experiments in exquisite corpse, the OULIPO school, the Nouveau Roman (the new novel), L’Écriture féminine, post-Sassurean linguistics, Derridean deconstruction and what Sartre calls “committed” writing. 

Whether we are talking about academic wriitng or critacve writin. .. Most of debates about writing above, with exception of Sartre, are framed by the REALISM/NON-REALISM . Conatined by binary f,,

In his editor’s preference to a special issue of The Capilano Review devoted to the writing practice of the manifesto (“Manifestos Now!“), Brian describes the manifesto as the preeminent “practice of change writing.” (“Preface: Manifesto, Unremitting” 6). “Writing” in the best sense is always “change writing”: it confronts, intervenes in, and resists existing structures of consciousness, being, and meaning to open up a space for the historically new.

At Capilano University, where he currently works, Brian’s primary instructional responsibilities in “writing” include a required first-year writing course which introduces students to the community of academic writing (“University Writing Strategies” or ENGL 100); a preparatory writing course for students (formerly ENGL 010 and now ENGL 101); and an Advanced Writing Course (“Style, Rhetoric, ” ENGL 300). Secondary instructional responsbiity: all lit courses are writing-based.

Brian is also one of the Departments’ lead instructors in the English Department’s “bridge” program which links and EAP (English for Academic Purposes, formerly ESL) courses. Since 2018 he has been formally certified as a TESOL/TESL/TEFL instructor. 

Similar to other Faculty in the English Department at Capilano University Brian regularly works in the campus Writing Centre supporting students from all areas of the University. The Writing Centre has a one-one-one drop in format which allows for more informal, assignment-based instruction in “writing’ across the disciplines. 

Brian is in advocate for student writing and publication. He was a co-founder of Capilano University’s only journal of cinema criticism, The Parallax.

He teaches advanced writing courses at Capilano University including ENGL 300, which he runs as a “Digital Writing Studio” for . Students publish interactive “born digital” (to use the term of N. Catherine Hayles) on the emerging format Scalar. The class also works with the Wiki Edu initiative to

In 2016 Brian was the editor for The Capilano Guide to Writing Assignments.

Scholarly Works

Brian has published in academic journals including Textual Practice, The Capilano Review, and The Red Critique. 

For a full list of Brian’s publications and presentations, including conferences, journals and other print and digital formats, Brian’s CV is available upon request from bganter@capilanou.ca. 

Editing and Publications

Brian has worked professionally as a editor for long-form research projects in the natural sciences and also for dissertations in the interdisciplinary social sciences (see here, for example). Brian also a scriptwriter for Metropole.

As noted above Brian was the editor of Capilano University’s in-house manual for academi 

Some recent publications include:

Nettie Wild,

David Rimmer,

Teaching “Writing” Technologies (Now and Then)

1. writing born digital (cut and paste)
   
2. distributed writing: web-ready (publication)
3. not flat writing but horizontal writing; no process or product, just platform  /  e-lit falls apart
   
4. writing for the screen
5. writing as a visual practice (typography, layout, design).