As the first Director of Writing Across the University, Anderson will advance the quality of teaching and learning about writing.
Paul Anderson, a leading scholar and advocate for excellence in writing, will join the Elon faculty in August 2012 as the first Director of Writing Across the University and Professor of English. Anderson will come to Elon from Miami University of Ohio where he currently serves as the Roger and Joyce Howe Director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence and Professor of English.
In his efforts to advance the teaching and learning of writing, Anderson will support the Elon Commitment strategic plan along with a writing-focused Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) that is at the center of the university’s reaccreditation process.
Anderson will work with departments, programs, and individual faculty and staff to enhance formal and informal writing instruction across all areas of the University. He will facilitate Elon’s engagement with regional, national and international organizations and initiatives on writing in higher education.
Anderson is the author or editor of four books related to writing and communication, and the author of more than 40 articles. He co-directs an $800,000 National Science Foundation grant on writing in computer science and software engineering curricula, and has received grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Eli Lilly Foundation, Procter & Gamble, the American Paper Institute and the Ohio Board of Regents.
He has been honored by the National Council of Teachers of English for the best book in technical and scientific communication, and has also received awards from the Society for Technical Communication and the National Council of Teachers of English. He is a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Miami University.
Anderson has been a faculty member at Miami University since 1975 and has served there as director of the Center for Writing Excellence, special assistant to the provost, and director and founder of the master’s program in technical and scientific communication and the undergraduate program in business and technical writing. He has a doctorate from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University.