"Writing helps us to find out, to savor the moment. Writing teaches us awareness. It teaches us to pay attention. It’s like that great Henry James line — a writer is someone on whom nothing is lost. And so it teaches you to take yourself seriously and to take life seriously."
— Anne Lamott
Writing is an inherently didactic act, and as a writer and a scholar of rhetoric and composition, I consider ways in which writing processes enlighten us as well as ways in which we can best teach writing. My experience as a writing teacher began in the University of Virginia Writing Center back in the mid-1990s, and I have long been interested in how collaborative activity can benefit writers. Since then, I have taught academic, professional, and developmental writing in different contexts: at a community college, at liberal arts colleges, and at public and private research universities. I still regularly teach writing classes and am always looking for ways to engage students with impactful projects. I want them to see how moments of writing and reading the world can be connective, life-affirming, and transformative.
Select Publications, Writing and Pedagogy
Lovvorn, Jason F. "Writing Center Discourses in Theory and Practice: A Comparative Case Study." Empowering Students Through Multilingual and Content Discourse, edited by Stacie Finley, Pamela Correll, Cathy Pearman, and Stephanie Huffman. IGI Global, 2023, pp. 139-158.
Lovvorn, Jason F., Linda Holt, and Charmion Gustke. “This Isn't Your Mother's English Class: Using Service-Learning Experiences to Improve Writing in the Composition Classroom.” Serve InDEED: Tennessee Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, vol. 2, no. 1, 2013, pp. 5-9.
Lovvorn, Jason F. "'Knowing the Why': Personal Writing and Its Value in the Service-Learning Classroom." Serve InDEED: Tennessee Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, vol. 2, no. 1, 2013, pp. 14-17.
Select Presentations, Writing and Pedagogy
"Beyond Page One of Google: Getting Students to Research and Write Toward Deep Learning." Lilly International Conference on College Teaching. Oxford, OH. November 2016. (with Sue Trout)
"Service, Scaffolding, and Student Success: Using Experiential Learning to Improve Research Writing in the Composition Classroom." Student Success in Writing Conference. Savannah, GA. March 2016. (with Linda Holt)