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• NMSU
• English Department
• Faculty
• Jennifer Sheppard

Research Interests
My publications focus on issues of new media, professional communication, and pedagogy. I am particularly interested in how emerging technologies can be used to help students develop critical, rhetorical, technological, and multimodal literacy practices. Much of my work is directly related to my teaching and is ultimately concerned with how new media can be used for academic and professional purposes.

Recently Taught Courses

• ENGL 610: Proseminar in Rhetoric and Professional Communication
• ENGL 600: Doctoral Research
• English 585: Portfolio Preparation
• English 578/678: Topics in Rhetoric and Technology: Multimedia Theory and Production
• English 572: Technical and Professional Communication: Theory and Pedagogy
• English 549/649: Graduate Study in Writing: Online Pedagogy
• English 543/643: Multimedia Theory and Production
• English 449/549: Advanced/Graduate Study in Writing: Web Communication Design and Development
• ENGL 478: Document Design
• ENGL 315: Writing for the Web
• ENGL 318: Advanced Technical and Professional Communication
• ENGL 218: Introduction to Technical and Professional Communication

Selected Publications

"Multimedia Composition: The Role of Collaboration and Constraints in the Design of New Media Assignments." Journal of Literacy and Technology. 11(1): April 2010.

"Creating a Design Center: Negotiating Pedagogy, Disciplinarity, and Sustainability in Communities of Practice." RAW (Reading and Writing) New Media. Jim Kalmbach and Cheryl Ball (Eds.). Hampton Press. Cresskill, NJ: 2010, 323-341. New Dimensions in Computes and Composition series.

"The Rhetorical Work of Multimedia Production Practices: It's More than Just Technical Skill." Computers and Composition. 26 (2009).

"Using Multiple-Source Research to Create Persuasive Evidence-based Communication." Persuasive Professional Communication." Resources in Technical Communication: Outcomes and Approaches. Cindy Selfe (Ed.). Baywood. Amityville, NY: 2007, 37-61. Technical Communication series.

Invited Book Review: Communication of Complex Information: User Goals and Information Needs for Dynamic Web Information by Michael J. Albers. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. 263 pages. Appearing in Technical Communication Quarterly 17(1), Spring 2008, 138-142.

Manuscripts in Development
"Balancing Act: A Guide to Analyzing Context and Developing a Technologically Appropriate Approach to Visual Communication Instruction." Accepted for edited collection titled Designing Texts: Teaching Visual Communication. Eva Brumberger and Kathryn Northcut (eds.)Under review by Baywood Publishing.

Multimodal Projects across the Curriculum: A Guide for Students and Teachers (working title). Co-authored with Kristin Arola and Cheryl Ball. Sample chapters currently under review with Bedford/St. Martin's.

Professional Statement
My experience teaching composition, technical writing, web design, and speech communication has shown me the value of situated, activity-based learning, as well as the importance of helping students to develop rhetorically-aware, multimodal approaches to communication. No matter what the medium, my primary goal in teaching is always to support students as they try on various perspectives, generate new ideas, and work to consider rhetorical issues that influence how their positions are received by others. Further, I believe that while introducing students to new communication technologies is important, this should always be done to support pedagogical goals rather than for the sake of the technology itself. Without this approach, technology instruction risks being taught as a set of decontextualized skills that are unrelated to the purposes and objectives of a communication course.