Internationally-known authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein will present a lecture on academic writing at West Virginia University from noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, in the Rhododendron Room of the Mountainlair.

Their lecture,Demystifying the Academic Game,will be drawn from their best-selling bookThey Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.

The presentation is part of the Jackson Distinguished Lecture Series which is supported by WVU s Department of English and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. It is free and open to the public.

In their book, the authors argue that contrary to widespread belief, there is a single set of practices, or rhetoricalmoves,that are used by all successful academics. These practices connect academic communication with communication in the wider sphere of the workplace, civic literacy and public policy.

Moreover, thesemovesare often obscured from view as students move from course to course and discipline to discipline, according to the authors.

During their lecture, Graff and Birkenstein will outline the nature of these basic practices and suggest how they can be taught more effectively in schools and colleges.

Graff and Birkenstein teach at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Graff is a professor of English and education and will serve as president of the Modern Language Association of America in 2008. He is an internationally-known author of such books asProfessing Literature: An Institutional HistoryandBeyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education.Birkenstein is a lecturer in English. She and Graff teach composition and conduct workshops on writing.

The Jackson Distinguished Lecture Series was created in 2004 by Professor Donald E. Hall, Jackson Family Distinguished Chair in the Department of English, as part of his duties as a distinguished professor.

The series brings to campus scholars who are known nationally and internationally in literary and cultural studies to give a public lecture and to work in seminars with graduate students. The series is supported by funds from the Jackson Family Endowment with the support of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the WVU Department of English.

For more information, contact Donald Hall, Department of English, at 304-293-3107, ext. 33435 or donald.hall@mail.wvu.edu .