Professor, Coordinator of Composition Studies and Professional Writing Concentration
Phone: (901) 678-4215
Email: ethrush@memphis.edu
Office: Patterson 401D
Concentration Affiliation: Applied Linguistics and Composition Studies and Professional Writing

Education

A.B., 1976, Duke University
M.A., 1979,  University of Florida
Ph.D., 1990, Georgia State University

Academic Summary

Emily A. Thrush is a professor of Applied Linguistics and Professional Writing. Her research interests include international and intercultural issues in professional communication, writing for digital media, and issues in second language reading and writing. She has conducted workshops on teaching ESL as an Academic Specialist for the U.S. State Department in Lebanon, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Brazil, trained teachers in China for the Foreign Experts Bureau, and spent a year in Mexico as a Senior Fulbright Scholar. She is the co-author of several books in the McGraw-Hill Interactions/Mosaics series. In 2012, she was presented with the University Alumni Association award for Distinguished Research in the Humanities.

Select Publications

• Thrush, Emily A., Laurie Blass & Robert Baldwin. (2006) Interactions Access: Listening and Speaking. 5th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
• Wyss, Robert & Emily A. Thrush. (2007) Practical Guide to Teaching English in China. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press.
• Thrush, Emily A. & Susan Popham. “Working with International Students in Online Tech Comm Classes” In Technical Communication Online: Theory into Practice. Kelli Cargile Cook and Keith Grant Davies, Eds. In Press.
• Thrush, Emily A. & Angela Thevenot. 2011. “Globalizing the Technical Communications Classroom: Killing Two Birds with One Stone.” In Teaching Intercultural Rhetoric and Technical Communication:  Theories, Curriculum, Pedagogies, and Practices. Barry Thatcher & Kirk St. Amant, Eds. Baywood Press.
• Kim, Loel, Emily A. Thrush, Susan Popham, & Joseph Jones. 2008. “A Profile of Students Using Wireless Technologies in a First-Year Learning Communities In Going Wireless. Amy Kimmehea, Ed. Hampton Press. 151-178.
• McCloskey, Mary Lou, Emily A. Thrush, Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton, & Gabriela Kleckova. “Developing English Language Curriculum for Online Delivery.” CALICO Journal. 25(2) 2008
• Thrush, Emily A. & Linda Hooper. 2006. “Industry and the Academy: How Team-teaching Brings Two Worlds Together.” Technical Communication, 53(3) pp. 308-316.
• McCloskey, Mary Lou & Emily A. Thrush. 2004. “Building a reading scaffold with web texts.” Essential Teacher. 2(4) 2004: 48-54
• Thrush, Emily A. 2001 "Plain English? A Study of Plain English Vocabulary and International Audiences." Technical Communications.. Society for Technical Communication. 48(3), p.289-296.
• Thrush, Emily A. 2000. "High and Low Context Cultures: How Much Information is Too Much?" Global Documentation: Case Studies in International Technical Communication, Deborah Bosley, Ed. Allyn & Bacon.
• Maylath, Bruce & Emily A. Thrush. 1999. “Cafe, Thé ou Lait? How shall we train technical communicators?” in Managing Global Discourse ,PeterHager & Howard Scheiber, Eds. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Thrush, Emily A. 1993 “Bridging the Gap: Technical Communications in the International and Multicultural World”, Technical Communications Quarterly, 2(3) pp. 271-283. Winner of Nell Ann Pickett award from the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing as the best article of the year in TCQ.