MICHAEL NEAL,Assistant Professor, Ph.D. University of Louisville (2001), M.A. Ball State University (1994), B.A. Taylor University (1993). Neal's research interests include writing assessment, digital technologies for composition, and multi-media authorship. His current book project entitled Writing Assessment and the Digital (R)Evolution of Texts and Technologies explores the intersections between writing assessment as an educational technology and the ever increasing ways writing assessments are supported by digital technologies. This dialectic yields an approach that affirms student agency and authorship, educational responsibility, and the rich rhetorical contexts that surround authentic composing in the digital world.

Neal teaches a variety of courses including graduate courses in composition theory, research methods in composition, visual rhetoric, and teacher preparation courses as well as undergraduate courses in composition theory, visual rhetoric, advanced article and essay workshop, technical writing, and first-year composition. He has directed first-year composition, served as an ePortfolio faculty fellow, and delivered workshops and consultations on electronic portfolio initiatives, institutional writing assessments, and writing across the curriculum.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

• "New Designs for Communication across the Curriculum." with Pearce Research Team. Discord and Direction: the Post-Modern WPA. Carolyn Handa and Sharon James McGee, editors. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2005.
• "Writing Assessment: A Techo-History" with Brian Huot. Handbook of Writing Research. Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald, editors. Guilford Publications, Inc., 2005.
• "Adding Portfolios to the Placement Process: A Longitudinal Study" with Vicki Hester, Peggy O'Neill, Tony Edgington, and Brian Huot. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2005.
• "Toward a Theory of Online Collaboration." with Ellen Schendel and Cecilia Hartley. Multiple Literacies for the 21st Century. Eds. Charles Bazerman, Brian Huot, and Beth Stroble. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2003. 195-208.
• "Responding to Directed Self Placement." with Brian Huot. Directed Self-Placement: Principles and Practices. Dan Royer and Roger Gilles, editors. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton P, 2003. 243-255.
• "Breaking Hierarchies: Using Reflective Theory to Administrate and Restructure Writing Programs." with Susan Popham, Brian Huot, and Ellen Schendel. The Writing Program Administrator as Theorist. Eds. Irvin Weiser and Shirley Rose. Boynton/Cook, 2002. 19-28.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS

• CCCC Committee on the Preparation of Writing Teachers, 2005-2007.
• CCCC Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing Digitally, 2003-2004.
• Writing Program Administrators Organization Task Force on Plagiarism, 2001-2003.