Position Title
Professor
Research Areas:
Teaching Areas:
Biography:
Dana Ferris is Professor in the University Writing Program at UC Davis. She formerly was Director of the UWP, Associate Director of English for Multilingual Students (ESL) and Associate Director of UWP 1. She teaches upper-division writing courses, pedagogy courses, English Grammar, and Ph.D. seminars on second language writing and response to student writing. Dana is also a participating faculty member in the Graduate Group in Education, the Designated Emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition Studies, and the Designated Emphasis in Second Language Acquisition.
Dana came to UC Davis, her undergraduate alma mater, in 2008 after 18 years as Professor of English at California State University, Sacramento, where at various points she directed the graduate MA TESOL Program and the ESL writing program. She has been living in Davis with her family since 1991.
Dana was Co-Editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-second-language-writing) and the founding Editor of the Journal of Response to Writing (http://journalrw.org/index.php/jrw). She was previously an Associate Editor of the TESOL Quarterly. She has served on the Board of Directors of CATESOL (California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) and the TESOL Nominating Committee and was also a member of the CCCC Standing Committee on Second Language Writing.
When not working, Dana enjoys watching baseball (San Francisco Giants), basketball (Golden State Warriors), and college football (USC Trojans). She also loves movies and quality TV, cooking (especially with her Instant Pot), and travel. She is a regular columnist for a San Francisco Giants fan blog under the nom de plume of DrLefty: http://togetherweregiants.com/category/out-of-left-field/
Education:
B.A. University of California, Davis--English/Creative Writing, minor in Political Science (with honors)
M.A. California State University, Sacramento--English/Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
M.A. University of Southern California, Linguistics
Ph.D. University of Southern California, Applied Linguistics
Awards:
Dean's Honors List, UC Davis
Outstanding Alumni Award, California State University, Sacramento
Dean's Fellowship, University of Southern California
Best Article Award, Journal of Second Language Writing (winner, 1997; honorable mention, 2001)
President's Award for Scholarly Achievement (three-time finalist), California State University, Sacramento
Outstanding Teaching Award (three-time finalist), California State University, Sacramento
David E. Eskey Memorial Award (given by California TESOL) for Teaching Readers of English (co-authored with John Hedgcock)
Publications:
Dana has published nine books and over 60 chapters in edited volumes and journal articles. Her books include Teaching English to Second Language Learners (2018, Routledge, with Jonathan Newton, Christine Goh, William Grabe, Fredricka Stoller, and Larry Vandergrift), Writing in a Second Language (2013, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press), Written Corrective Feedback in Second Language Acquisition and Writing (2012, Routledge, with John Bitchener); Teaching L2 Composition (3rd Ed. 2014, Routledge) and Teaching Readers of English (second Ed. 2018, Routledge), both with John Hedgcock; Response to Student Writing (2003, Erlbaum); Treatment of Error in Second Language Student Writing (2nd Ed. 2011, Michigan); and Teaching College Writing to Diverse Student Populations (2009, Michigan). Her first student text, Language Power: Tutorials for Writers was published by Bedford St. Martin's (2014). She has also co-authored and edited custom student textbooks for the UWP ESL program.
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Dana-Ferris/e/B001IU0MAE%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Her research has focused generally on teaching second language readers and writers and specifically on response to student writing and written corrective feedback in second language writing. Her work has been published in a range of journals including TESOL Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Journal of Second Language Writing, Across the Disciplines, Writing and Pedagogy, TESOL Journal, Assessing Writing, Language Teaching, College English, and CATESOL Journal.
- Second language literacy, teacher preparation, responding to student writing