The UCF WAC Program and the Department of Writing and Rhetoric present the first in a series of video interviews with UCF faculty members, in which they discuss their reading, research, and writing processes. The first interview, conducted and edited by Writing and Rhetoric faculty member, Dan Martin, is with Hakan Ozoglu, an associate professor in the Department of History and the Director of MIddle Eastern Studies. We thank Dr. Ozoglu and the Department of History for their participation.
Students of writing can benefit greatly from hearing about their professors’ writing, reading, and research processes. Being able to hear, first-hand, their professors discuss their wrirting and publishing projects can help students in “demistifying” the research and writing processes and in seeing that a lot of the concepts they study in their writing classes (purpose, audience, context, and others) are as important for experienced writers as they are for beginners. Such knowledge is extremely important for the creation of transferable writing competencies, which students can take with them from one course to another, from one discipline to the next, and from college writing to writing in their future professions. In conducting and publishing these video interviews with UCF Professors, the WAC Program adds to a substantial body of similar works in writing studies and in other disciplines. For example, the series of interviews with prominent scholars in rhetoric and composition “Take 20,” conducted by Todd Taylor and published on DVD by Bedford St. Martin’s in 2008, explores questions about writing, research, and teaching. Similar video interviews with scholars in the sciences, social sciences, and business exist as well.