“We worked on the second edition for approximately 40 Sundays,” said Roe when asked about working with den Ouden. “Some days the work was hard going, but most days it was gratifying and brought us a lot of joy. Pamela and I are a good team.”
Both colleagues were thrilled to have worked together on the book.
Designs for Disciplines is primarily for first-year college and university students, and presents patterns for writing sophisticated academic papers in courses across the curriculum. In addition, students can use strategies in the book as an aid for reading academic articles.
“We think students can really benefit from using our text,” explained den Ouden. “In the second edition, we’ve updated some of the terminology and presented new examples of scholarly work that highlight many of the big ideas that are currently receiving a lot of attention in academia. This is a book that students can use throughout their university education.”
Another new feature of Designs for Disciplines follows the progress of an actual NLC student in detail, throughout a semester – from choosing and narrowing a topic, through to the finished paper – along with the student’s thoughts and instructor feedback on the whole project.
“Excerpts from the work of many other NLC students are included, and this textbook wouldn’t have been possible without the help of NLC instructors as well,” said den Ouden. “Greg Lainsbury, Eva St. Jean, Heather Harper, and many others shared their time and expertise.”
“Overall, Designs for Disciplines is proof of the great work that’s being done in academic programs at NLC,” commented Roe. “For students headed to university, NLC is a great place to start. The book that Pamela and I have written is just one example of a much broader, departmental commitment to scholarly activity. NLC’s academic instructors place teaching first and foremost, but they’re also leaders in their fields. They publish research articles and books, present at conferences, and are engaged in other kinds of original, creative work.”
Happy with how the textbook turned out, den Ouden added, “Most people don’t realize how lengthy a process it is to write a book. It is very satisfying to finally see the second edition!” For over a decade, Designs for Disciplines has been used at several colleges and universities across the country.
