Dr. Angela Jones
By: Sarah K. Miller
Dr. Angela Jones grew up on a farm in east-central
Illinois near the town of Greenup. Her undergraduate and
master’s degrees are from Eastern Illinois University,
located in Charleston, about ten miles away from the farm.
She began her doctoral work at Illinois State, in Normal,
Illinois, then completed her Ph.D. at the University of
Kansas. Dr. Jones said that through her education she has
tried to emphasize both composition and American
literature. “I was able to successfully keep a foot in both
camps,” Jones explained. “Then when I wrote my
dissertation in rhetorical theory, I applied it to American
literature.”
While earning her B.A. in English with Teacher
Certification, Jones took a class called Document Design.
“I was just blown away,” she said. “I thought, ‘wait a
minute, people actually think about these things?’ So all
these things that I had been seeing in the newspapers, magazines and on flyers around campus
that I had always sort of critiqued but not really known why I was critiquing them, like why I
liked some designs and not others, why I liked when teachers used certain typefaces and not
others, all became clear. This is an actual area of study.” She was able to do projects that applied
this kind of thinking to design implementation in documents, such as a collaboration with the
wife of the university president, working on a conference that she ran each spring. “I would sit at
her house and drink tea and work with her on the program and supporting documents,” Jones
elaborated. “I thought, ‘Oh, so this is a way that you can take what you’re learning as an English
student out!’ I found that really appealing and took all the classes that I could as I was going
through graduate school.”
Teaching became a part of Jones’ life early, due to the fact that her parents were both
teachers and actually met while teaching high school. Her grandmother and great-grandmother
had also been teachers. She called teaching, “a pretty natural thing” and had always seen it as a
possibility. At first, she had received a scholarship to University of Illinois to study Animal
Science to eventually become a veterinarian. At the last minute, she thought she would rather
stay closer to home and study English. “I picked English for stupid reasons, because I thought it
was easy,” she said. “I did not realize how poor my English instruction had been in my tiny, rural
high school. I had a lot of catching up to do. I literally did not know what the word ‘essay’ meant
when I started college.” She tells this story to her English 100 students because she feels like if
she can go from that rocky beginning to earning her PhD, she believes they can pass her class.
Jones was fortunate to be part of EIU’s Honors Program (now College), which challenged her
and helped her to overcome her initial struggle.
Jones graduated in 3.5 years and began taking graduate courses and working as a
teaching assistant at the age of 21.. Before beginning her PhD, she also taught at an urban
technical college in Indianapolis and in a medium-security prison. Once she had transferred to
Kansas, she had an opportunity to teach the 300-level technical writing course, which was
unusual for a graduate student. Jones explained that there was a lack of teachers who wanted to
teach this subject and she happened to be one of the next-in-line for the opportunity and agreed
happily. “By this time, I had a lot of experience teaching non-traditional students who were
already quite a lot older than I was, who had quite different life experience than I did,” Jones
elaborated. “Picking up a junior-level class at Kansas was fun because it was a really different
set of people. A lot like the Technical Writing class here, it drew a lot of students from outside of
the English Department but it did not feel super intimidating just because it was a different level
of class. I just got lucky; I was in the right place at the right time.”
After she finished her coursework and exams except for her dissertation, she obtained
another teaching position at a liberal arts school in Erie, Pennsylvania. She enjoyed the
opportunity to get to know professors from all different departments in the small school
environment. She recalled that there were maybe about 100 faculty members at that school,
which is about twice the size of the Department of English here at WKU. Jones enjoyed the
small size of the faculty along with being able to get to know students very well, but soon missed
teaching at a public university. “I decided to go on the job market and look for public schools
that were larger and were in places, frankly, where I did not have to shovel so much snow,”
Jones said. This is how she found a position open at WKU. “I was really fortunate, I had several
interviews that year. I was super lucky! But after my interviews, this was my first choice.” She
began teaching here in 2005.
Dr. Jones has taught English 100, Introduction to College Writing, 300, Writing in the
Disciplines, 306, Business Writing, 307, Technical Writing, 369 and 389, Cooperative Education
in English I & II, 402/G, Editing and Publishing, and 414, Professional Writing Capstone. Jones
helped to develop both of the internship courses and the Professional Writing Capstone as well
as a distance-learning version of 306; she also taught a class of English 100 with students from
The Gatton Academy. Trenton Marcum has had two internships in the program developed by
Jones. “The internship course is an excellent program because of Dr. Jones's diligence and
devotion,” Marcum said. “I have taken the course twice, and each time has been an invaluable
experience. Dr. Jones set up the class so students can reflect on their experiences and really take
an introspective look at their growth as professionals. She is an amazing professor, and I
genuinely mean that. She cares about her students and really dedicates herself to her craft.” A
Professional Writing concentration alumnus Mac Kern, said that he advised students to take her
classes as well. “Take Dr. Jones, realize that it won't be an easy class but that hard work is
rewarded.”
She enjoys teaching established classes as well as those she has developed. “I’m a kind of
person who likes to do a lot of usability testing,” Jones explained. “When I’ve taken a class
through a few iterations I feel like I’ve worked some of the kinks out. I can focus on fine-tuning
it or helping students move in a different direction. The first time I teach a class it feels
experimental.” That feeling, she said, can be awesome for some teachers. Jones, however, feels a
little anxious in these kinds of courses because she is unsure at first of how it will all work out.
“I’m revising English 100, which I haven’t taught for awhile. I am teaching two sections of it in
the spring. This is a chance for me to completely re-conceptualize the class. I can pick a brand
new textbook and just launch out there and try something different. It is exciting!”
Over the last decade Jones has worked here, there have been many changes in the
department. The biggest one that Jones has seen is the development of the Professional Writing
program. Previously, there was just one writing concentration that lumped together Creative and
Professional Writing. This concentration took many of the same courses, and many students have
continued to do so even as the concentrations have separated, Jones explained. However, “there
were times when that was very frustrating for students. We only had one Capstone class, and the
Creative Wiring professors always taught that. It was taught like the Creative Writing Capstone
is now, which was great for those people but not so great for those who wanted to do more on the
professional side of writing.” Jones has also watched the internship program grow tremendously
over the past few years. When she was hired she was asked to take on the responsibility of
standardizing this program in terms of opening more opportunities to students, building bridges
with the community, and providing more opportunities. “It’s been really neat to watch that
develop,” said Jones, as she explained that she is approached often with new opportunities for
more internships. “It shows that students are out there doing things that are successful and that
other people in other departments [and in the community] are really noticing it.”
Outside of teaching, Dr. Jones said she has three main hobbies. The first is her passion
for animals. Jones has three dogs and volunteers regularly for the Bowling Green-Warren County
Humane Society. Her second is yoga. She is an RYT 200, which she explained means that she
has completed a 200-hour training program in yoga. She also co-founded a studio downtown
where she teaches one or two classes a week. She is currently working on a more intensive
certification program as well. Her third hobby is planning the Bowling Green International
Festival. She has been the president of the board since 2011 and has previously served as
secretary and a general board member, dating back to 2006. Jones recently was selected as the
winner of the Potter College of Arts & Letters Service Award in 2013 for her accomplishments
here as well.
Looking into the future, Jones is serving on a departmental committee that aims to
improve the core curriculum for all English majors. From there, she will be looking into
developing more courses for Professional Writing students. “Those conversations have started a
little bit, and we’ve proposed a new class on digital writing and reading. That would be a fun
class to develop,” Jones said. “We need to be able to offer more electives to our Professional
Writing students. Part of what we will be doing in our concentration is figuring out what areas of
special topics people would like. I’d like the chance to offer one of those. There’s also always
new internship opportunities.”