Contact Information

Biography

Dr. Jim Purdy is a Professor of English/Writing Studies and Director of the University Writing Center. He received his doctorate in English with a specialization in writing studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His research and teaching interests include composition and writing center theory, digital humanities, digital writing and research practices and spaces, expertise, intellectual property, and Wikipedia. His research studies the research and writing practices of scholars (from novices to professionals), particularly ways in which those practices are mediated by digital technologies.

He received Duquesne's Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2016.

He has published two co-authored books: Are We There Yet? Computers and the Teaching of Writing in American Higher Education–Twenty Years Later (Utah State University Press), co-written with Jennifer Marlow, and The Effects of Intellectual Property Law in Writing Studies: Ethics, Sponsors, and Academic Knowledge-Making (Routledge), co-written with Karen J. Lunsford. In addition to publishing in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes, he has also co-edited four books, including Making Space: Writing Instruction, Infrastructure, and Multiliteracies (University of Michigan Press) with Dànielle Nicole DeVoss.

Education

  • Ph.D., English/Writing Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006
  • M.A., English/Writing Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001
  • B.A., English, The Pennsylvania State University, 2000

 

School

Graduate/Cross-listed Upper-level Graduate
  • ENGL 460W/568: Authorship and Ownership in Digital Writing
  • ENGL 460W/567/667 and 568/668: Theories of Composition
  • ENGL 437W/537 and 572/672: Writing for Digital Media

Undergraduate
  • English 313W: Writing and Research in Digital Spaces
  • English 302W/JMA 485: Facebook, Flickr, and Web 2.0 Writing
  • HONR 105: Honors Inquiry II
  • HONR 104/IHP 104: Honors Inquiry Freshman Seminar I
  • IHP 101: Logic and Rhetoric
  • UCOR 102: Imaginative Literature and Critical Writing
  • UCOR 101: Thinking and Writing across the Curriculum

Independent Studies 
  • Digital Literacies in Writing and Publishing
  • Queer Studies in Composition

Writing Center
  • Staff Instruction
  • Writing consultant orientation
  • Bi-weekly professional development meetings

Faculty Workshops (selected)
  • Approaches to Peer Writing Workshops 
  • Better Business Communication
  • Designing Effective Writing Projects
  • Five Writing Activities for Any Day 
  • Grading Writing to Encourage Revision 
  • (How) Should We Teach Grammar?: Strategies for Responding to Sentence-Level Writing Mistakes
  • Planning a Writing-Intensive Course
  • Responding to Five Common Student Writing Struggles 
  • Strategies for Responding to Student Writing
  • Teaching Writing to Digital Natives
  • Wikipedia Is Good for You!: Using Wikipedia to Teach Research-based Writing
  • What Are Writing-Intensive Courses?

Student Workshops (selected)
  • AMA Citation and Source Use and Professional Writing for Physician Assistants
  • APA Citation and Source Use for Nursing
  • CVs and Cover Letters for Graduate School
  • MLA Source Use and Citation
  • Strategies for Successful Research-based Writing
  • Structural and Sentence-Level Conventions of Scientific Writing
  • Writing Effective Thesis Statements

Plenary

  • Insana, Lina, John Marx, James P. Purdy, and Andreea Ritivoi. "Plenary II: Innovative New Programs: From Concept to Course Catalog." Modern Language Association ADE-ADFL (Association of Departments of English-Association of Departments of Foreign Languages) Summer Seminar East, Pittsburgh, PA, 7 June 2019.
  • Brown, Renee, Brian Fallon, Harvey Kail, Soma Kedia, Ron Maxwell, James P. Purdy, Jon Olson, and Ben Rafoth. "A Recollection of Events: Toward a History of the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing." National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 20 October 2007.

Keynote

  • Purdy, James P. "Literacies in a Digital World: Approaches to Teaching Tomorrow's Digital Scholar." Nassau Community College Faculty Development Day, Garden City, NY,
    21 April 2017.
  • Purdy, James P. "Literacies in a Digital World: Approaches to Teaching Tomorrow's Digital Scholar." Pace University Faculty Institute, Pleasantville, NY, 17 May 2016.

Featured

  • Purdy, James P. "Teaching Literacies across the Curriculum in a Digital World." Rockland Community College Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 10th Anniversary Celebration, Suffern, NY, 3 November 2016.
  • Purdy, James P. "Literacy, Literacies, and Student Research-Writing Behaviors." Illinois State University Writing Program Colloquium Series, Normal, IL, 27 October 2016, isuwriting.com/2016/12/05/jim-purdy-visiting-speaker-2016-2017/.

Respondent

  • Purdy, James P. "A Discussion of ‘What Can Design Thinking Offer Writing Studies?'" University of Pittsburgh Composition/Rhetoric Reading Group, Pittsburgh, PA,  27 September 2015.

Refereed

  • Purdy, James P. (respondent). "Information and Intellectual Property Literacy in an Age of Bots." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, WI, 27 March 2020. Accepted. (Did not present because conference was cancelled.)
  • Purdy, James P. "What Does It Mean to Be a Writing Expert? Wikipedia, Expertise, and the Missing Commonplace." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Milwaukee, WI, 26 March 2020. Accepted. (Did not present because conference was cancelled.)
  • Lunsford, Karen J., and James P. Purdy. "Beyond Remix and Open Access: Ethical Lenses for Making Intellectual Property Decisions." Computers and Writing, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 22 June 2019.
  • Michael Day, E. Ashley Hall, Jennifer Marlow, and James P. Purdy. "From T-Shirts and Conference Programs to Email and Chat Transcripts: Discovering our Identity through Preserving and Analyzing our Computers and Writing Conference History." Featured Town Hall Session. Computers and Writing, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 21 June 2019.
  • Lunsford, Karen J., and James P. Purdy. "The Problem with ‘Practical Wisdom' Offered by (Digital) Intellectual Property Gatekeepers." Computers and Writing, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 26 May 2018.
  • Day, Michael, E. Ashley Hall, Jennifer Marlow, and James P. Purdy. "Planning for Change, Building in Redundancy: Preserving Our Computers and Writing Conference Archives." Computers and Writing, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 25 May 2018.
  • Purdy, James P. "Digital Design: Using Cross-Disciplinary Language to Teach Literacies across the Curriculum." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Kansas City, MO, 16 March 2018.
  • Marlow, Jennifer, and James P. Purdy. "What a Wonderful (Sub)field..." Computers and Writing, University of Findlay, Findlay, OH, 2 June 2017.
  • Purdy, James P. (respondent). "Cultivating Library/FYC Partnerships: Assessment, Information Literacy Instruction, and Beyond." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Portland, OR, 18 March 2017.
  • Purdy, James P. "A Study of Writing in Wikipedia: Ten Years Later." Computers and Writing, St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, 22 May 2016.
  • Lunsford, Karen, and James P. Purdy. "Intellectual Property Stories in Writing Studies." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, TX, 7 April 2016.
  • Purdy, James P. "Design Thinking in the Writing Center." International Writing Centers Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 10 October 2015.
  • Lunsford, Karen, and James P. Purdy. "Innovations for IP and IRB." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Tampa, FL, 20 March 2015.
  • DeVoss, Dànielle Nicole, Russell Carpenter, Andy Frazee, James P. Purdy, David Sheridan, and Douglas Walls. "Making Spaces: Architecture, Infrastructure, and the Rhetoric of Design." Computers and Writing, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 7 June 2014.
  • Purdy, James P. "‘I Do Not Like Using Books': Why Students Characterize Themselves as Strong or Weak Researchers." Computers and Writing, Washington State University, Pullman, WA. 7 June 2014.
  • Purdy, James P. "Why Are We Invoking Design? An Analysis of Use of Design in Computers and Composition Scholarship." Computers and Writing, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, 8 June 2013.
  • Ball, Cheryl, Kris Blair, Virginia Kuhn, James P. Purdy, Naomi Silver, and Joyce R. Walker. "Futures of Composition." Computers and Writing, Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, 7 June 2013.
  • Purdy, James P. "Challenging Public Perceptions: Why First-Year Writing Students Select Research Resources as Their Favorite." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Las Vegas, NV, 15 March 2013.
  • Naydan, Liliana, Millie Mo, Ethan Fried, James P. Purdy, Jon Olson, and Grace Schmidt. "Convers[at]ions in the Writing Center: Turning Ideas and Identities." National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Chicago, IL, 3 November 2012.
  • Purdy, James P. "Putting Our Multimedia Where Our Mouth Is: The Architexture of a New MA Concentration." Computers and Writing, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 20 May 2012.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Scholarship on the Move: Digital Manifestations of Scholarly Activity." Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, MO, 23 March 2012.
  • Purdy, James P. "More than Delivery: Thoughts on Writing an Open Text as a Knowledge-Making Practice." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, GA, 9 April 2011.
  • Purdy, James P. (co-presenter for workshop). "Making a Case for Tenure and Promotion within/outside Rhetoric and Composition. Conference on College Composition and Communication, Atlanta, GA, 6 April 2011.
  • Purdy, James P. "The Three Gifts of Digital Archives." Computers and Writing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 21 May 2010.
  • Purdy, James P. (speaker on roundtable). "Composition 2.0: Teaching and Learning Writing in an Age of Freeware, Webware, and Data-Driven Applications." Computers and Writing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 21 May 2010.
  • Purdy, James P. "Rethinking Our Approach to Plagiarism Detection Services: Researching Student Researchers." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Louisville, KY, 19 March 2010.
  • Purdy, James P. "Digital Archives and Plagiarism Anxiety: An Argument for Viewing Plagiarism Detection Services as Digital Archives." Computers and Writing, University of California, Davis, CA, 20 June 2009.
  • Purdy, James P. "Aren't Media Already Multiple?: Reflections on Proposing a Course in Multimodal Composition." Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, 14 March 2009.
  • Purdy, James P. "The Changing Space of Research: Web 2.0 and the Integration of Research and Writing Environments." Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 17 October 2008.
  • Purdy, James P. (speaker on roundtable). "The Instability of New Media Performed in One-Minute Provocations-Roundtable." Computers and Writing, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 25 May 2008.
  • Purdy, James P. "Attitudes, Activities, and Associations: Survey Data on How Composition Students See Themselves as Researchers." Computers and Writing, University of Georgia. Athens, GA, 23 May 2008.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Valuing Digital Scholarship: Exploring the Changing Realities of Intellectual Work." Conference on College Composition and Communication, New Orleans, LA, 3 April 2008.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker "Making a Case for Digital Research in the First Year Writing Classroom." Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition: Rhetorics and Technologies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 9 July 2007.
  • Purdy, James P. "When the Tenets of Composition Go Public: A Study of Writing in Wikipedia." Computers and Writing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 18 May 2007.

Duquesne University

  • Purdy, James P. "Teaching the Digital Humanities: Opportunities, Tips, Resources." Duquesne University Digital Humanities Roundtable, Pittsburgh, PA, 21 September 2018

Book

  • Lunsford, Karen J., and James P. Purdy. The Effects of Intellectual Property Law in Writing Studies: Ethics, Sponsors, and Academic Knowledge-Making. Routledge, 2020.

Edited Volumes

  • Purdy, James P., and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, editors. Making Space: Writing Instruction, Infrastructure, and Multiliteracies. University of Michigan Press, 2017, www.digitalculture.org/books/making-space/.
  • McClure, Randall, and James P. Purdy, editors. The Future Scholar: Researching and Teaching the Frameworks for Writing and Information Literacy. Information Today, Inc., 2016
  • Purdy, James P., and Randall McClure, editors. The Next Digital Scholar: A Fresh Approach to the Common Core State Standards in Research and Writing. Information Today, Inc., 2014.
  • McClure, Randall, and James P. Purdy, editors. The New Digital Scholar: Exploring and Enriching the Research and Writing Practices of NextGen Students. Information Today, Inc., 2013. 

Journal Articles

  • Lunsford, Karen J., and James P. Purdy. Webtext design by Erika Carlos. "Mapping the IP Landscape: Reflections on Ownership, Authorship, and Copyright for Writing Instruction." Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 24, no. 1, 2019, http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/24.1/topoi/lunsford-et-al/index.html.
  • Purdy, James P. "What Can Design Thinking Offer Writing Studies?" College Composition and Communication, vol. 65, no. 4, 2014, pp. 612-641.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Liminal Spaces and Research Identity: The Construction of Introductory Composition Students as Researchers." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Language, Literature, Composition, and Culture, vol. 13, no. 1, 2013, pp. 9-41.
  • Purdy, James P. "Why First-Year College Students Select Online Research Resources as Their Favorite." First Monday, vol. 7, no. 3, no. 2012. www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4088/3289.
  • Walker, Janice R., Kristine Blair, Douglas Eyman, Bill Hart-Davidson, Mike McCloud, Jeff Grabill, Fred Kemp, Mike Palmquist, James P. Purdy, Madeleine Sorapure, Christine Tulley, and Victor J. Vitanza. "Computers and Composition 20/20: A Conversation Piece, or What Some Very Smart People Have to Say about the Future." Computers and Composition, vol. 28, no. 4, 2011, pp. 327-346.
  • Purdy, James P. "Three Gifts of Digital Archives." The Journal of Literacy and Technology, vol. 12, no. 3, 2011, pp. 24-49. http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/uploads/1/3/6/8/136889/jlt_v12_3_purdy.pdf.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Valuing Digital Scholarship: Exploring the Changing Realities of Intellectual Work" Profession, 2010, pp. 177-195.
  • Purdy, James P. "The Changing Space of Research: Web 2.0 and the Integration of Research and Writing Environments." Computers and Composition, vol. 27, no. 1, 2010, pp. 48-58.
  • Purdy, James P. "When the Tenets of Composition Go Public: A Study of Writing in Wikipedia." College Composition and Communication, vol. 61, no. 2, 2009, pp. W351-W373. www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/CCC/0612-dec09/CCC0612When.pdf.
  • Purdy, James P. "Anxiety and the Archive: Understanding Plagiarism Detection Services as Digital Archives." Computers and Composition, vol. 26, no. 2, 2009, pp. 65-77.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Digital Breadcrumbs: Case Studies of Online Research." Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 11, no. 2, 2007. kairos.technorhetoric.net/11.2/binder.html?topoi/purdy-walker/index.htm.
  • Purdy, James P. "Calling Off the Hounds: Technology and the Visibility of Plagiarism." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, vol. 5, no. 2, 2005, pp. 275-295 *Reprinted in Johnson, T. R., ed. Teaching Composition: Background Readings, 3rd edition, St. Martin's, 2008, pp. 305-324.

Book Chapters

  • Purdy, James P. "The ACRL and WPA Frameworks in Conversation for Tomorrow's Researcher-Writer." Teaching Information Literacy and Writing Studies: Volume 2, Upper-Level and Graduate Courses, Purdue Information Literacy Handbooks Series, edited by Grace Veach, Purdue University Press, 2019, pp. 51-64.
  • Purdy, James P. "Duquesne University Writing Center." Writing Program Architecture: Thirty Cases for Reference and Research, edited by Bryna Siegel Finer and Jamie White-Farnham. Utah State University Press, 2017, pp. 303-18.
  • Purdy, James P. "Going Digital: Ideas for Updating the Statement for a Digital World." Labored: The State(ment) and Future of Work in Composition, edited by Randall McClure, Dayna Goldstein, and Michael Pemberton, Parlor Press, 2017, pp. 225-43.
  • McClure, Randall, and James P. Purdy. "Ever Mindful of the Changes: What We Know About Student Use of Emerging Technologies." The Next Digital Scholar: A Fresh Approach to the Common Core State Standards in Research and Writing, edited by James P. Purdy and Randall McClure, Information Today, Inc., 2014, pp. 21-34.
  • Purdy, James P. "Scholarliness as Other: How Students Explain Their Research-Writing Behaviors." The New Digital Scholar: Exploring and Enriching the Research and Writing Practices of NextGen Students, edited by Randall McClure and James P. Purdy, Information Today, Inc., 2013, pp. 133-159.
  • Purdy, James P., and Joyce R. Walker. "Scholarship on the Move: A Rhetorical Analysis of Scholarly Activity in Digital Spaces." The New Work of Composing, edited by Debra Journet, Cheryl E. Ball, and Ryan Trauman, Computers and Composition Digital Press and Utah State University Press, 2012. http://ccdigitalpress.org/book/nwc/chapters/purdy-walker/.
  • Purdy, James P. "Wikipedia Is Good for You!?" Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, vol. 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press, 2010, pp. 205-224. writingspaces.org/essays/wikipedia-is-good-for-you *Reprinted in Barry, Terri Trupiano et al. A Student Guide: Reading, Writing, Researching in the Sciences, Great River Technologies, 2012. 
  • Lovett, Maria, James P. Purdy, Katherine E. Gossett, Carrie A. Lamanna, and Joseph Squier. "Writing with Video: What Happens When Composition Comes Off the Page?" RAW (Reading and Writing) New Media: A Collection of Essays and New Media, edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Jim Kalmbach, Hampton Press, 2010, pp. 287-304.

Research: Internal

  • English Department Nominee, Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts: 2014, 2017, 2019
  • NEH Endowment Competition Grant, $1,278: 2018
  • Presidential Scholarship Award, $5,000: 2018
  • NEH Endowment Competition Grant, $2,000: 2016
  • NEH Endowment Competition Grant, $1,500: 2015 
  • NEH Endowment Competition Grant, $1,550: 2014 
  • NEH Endowment Competition Grant, $1,570: 2013 
  • Presidential Scholarship Award, $5,000: 2011
  • Wimmer Family Foundation Grant, $2,727: 2009

Research: External

  • Winner, "29 Best Property Law Books of All Time," BookAuthority, for The Effects of Intellectual Property Law in Writing Studies: 2020
  • Bronze Medal, Education Theory/Commentary Category, Independent Publisher Book Awards, for The Next Digital Scholar: 2015
  • Finalist, Educational/Academic Category, USA Best Books Awards, for The Next Digital Scholar: 2014
  • Silver Medal, Education Theory/Commentary Category, Independent Publisher Book Awards, for The New Digital Scholar: 2014 
  • Ellen Nold Award for the Best Article in Computers and Composition Studies, for "Valuing Digital Scholarship": 2011
  • Kairos Best Webtext Award, for "Digital Breadcrumbs": 2008

Teaching

  • John G. Rangos Prize, $1,000: 2019
  • Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching: 2016
  • Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts: 2016