Cindy Mooty

Special Lecturer
Office: ODH 136
Phone: 248-370-2103
Email:  [email protected]

Biography

Cindy Mooty has been a Special Lecturer in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric since 2012 teaching Composition I, Composition II and Business Writing classes. She earned her Ph.D. in 2015 from Wayne State University; her dissertation examined student learning while enrolled in a service-learning composition course at a minority-majority community college. Before Mooty's academic career, she was a journalist; first writing for The Macomb Daily and then the public relations field; she also taught OU journalism courses from 2006-2008.

As an instructor of rhetoric and composition courses, Mooty's teaching philosophy is rooted within the goals she wants for students to acquire throughout the semester. First, and foremost, she wants them to become a supportive community of learners. This sense of community is nurtured whether the class meets in the classroom or online through various activities like group projects, discussion of course readings, and/or peer review of assignment drafts.

She also believes learning needs to be student centered and that students need to be active participants within the learning process. To meet this goal, Mooty incorporates an inquiry-based curriculum. By allowing students to write about issues meaningful to them, they develop an ownership of their material; this ownership carries them through a carefully-scaffolded assignment sequence that traverses across several genres including writing an academic research essay combining primary and secondary sources, analyzing Aristotle appeals and fallacies within various mediums, and even composing within a multi-media platform. Throughout it all, Mooty strives to provide detailed assignment descriptions, samples, and rubrics. To conclude, she wants students to understand writing as a recursive process driven by purpose, audience, and context – the trifecta of Rhetoric. It is Mooty's hope that they take the steps to become effective, ethical communicators.

Education

Ph.D. in English, Rhetoric and Composition. Wayne State University (2010).
M.S. in English, Rhetoric and Composition. Wayne State University (2010).
B.S. in Elementary Education. Oakland University (2003).
M.A. in Journalism. Michigan State University (1990).
B.A. in Journalism. Oakland University (1985).

Courses

WRT 1050 Composition I
WRT 1060 Composition II
WRT 3082 Business Writing