Rebecca Day Babcock

Rebecca Day Babcock

Ph.D.

Director (Writing Studies), Global Listening Centre.

William & Ordelle Watts Prof. : University of Texas, USA.

Rebecca Day Babcock is William and Ordelle Watts Professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Dr Rebecca earned her PhD in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a specialization in Composition and TESOL She teaches courses in writing and linguistics and serves as Freshman English Coordinator in the department of Literature and Languages. In this capacity she supervises the freshman composition staff, offering professional development and formally observing adjuncts and graduate students. She also conducts a yearly assessment of the freshman writing program and the English graduate program. Recently, after years of preparation, UTPB began using Directed Self Placement, which allows entering freshman students to choose their own English course. Babcock has been involved in online teaching since 2003 and she has developed many courses for online delivery. She is a reviewer of online courses for Quality Matters and earned the Diamond Certificate for Online Teaching from the University of Texas Telecampus System.

Babcock serves the UTPB community on the Distance Education Committee, and as the faculty supervisor for the Student Cooperative Club. She serves the profession as a reviewer for The Writing Lab Newsletter, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Research in Developmental Disabilities, Study in English Language Teaching, Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, and Writing about Writing Newsletter. She also has conducted reviews for Marquette University Press and several commercial presses. She is currently a senior field bibliographer for the MLA International Bibliography and the Co-Coordinator of the Writing about Writing Standing Group for the Conference on College Composition and Communication. She has previously served on the Executive Board of the Midwest Writing Centers Association, the MLA Discussion Group for General Linguistics, and the MLA International Bibliography Advisory Committee.

Her writings have appeared in Writing Lab Newsletter, The Journal of College Reading and Learning, Linguistics and Education, and Composition Forum as well as several popular publications. A collection, Writing Centers and Disability, edited with Sharifa Daniels of Stellenbosch University is forthcoming from Fountainhead Press. Co-authored volumes A Synthesis of Qualitative Studies of Writing Center Tutoring and Researching the Writing Center have both been published by Peter Lang in 2012. Also in 2012 Gallaudet University Press published Tell Me How it Reads: Tutoring Writing with Deaf and Hearing Students in the Writing Center.

Babcock was educated in public schools in Massachusetts up to her MA degree. She earned her BA in English Literature and her MA in Bilingual Education from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She earned her PhD in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a specialization in Composition and TESOL. Before working at UTPB, she taught at Rock Valley College, Kishwaukee College, Rockford College, and the University of Texas at Brownsville.