JEFF KARON
Jeff Karon is a writer, teacher, and consultant who has helped students and professionals for over twenty years. He has edited, revised, and proofread publications that include reports, theses, dissertations, textbooks, proposals, essays, stories, and articles. His Ph.D. is in English with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition, a choice that signals his devotion to clarity and power in language. Prior to his years as an English professor, he studied and taught philosophy, critical thinking, and logic, publishing in these fields as well as in literary studies. He has led writing and editing workshops for students, teachers, and artists. Currently, he is leading creativity workshops and developing ways to build honor in the classroom and workplace.
As a writer and teacher, he believes that we should strive for excellence by practicing effective and fair techniques at all times. He has combined a life-long interest in the martial arts with writing: if you choose to work with him, he will ensure that your writing is powerful, not merely competent.
EDUCATION
M.A., Ph.D., English, Rhetoric and Composition Specialization
University of South Florida.
Literary Concentration: Modernism, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Dissertation: The Ethics of Writing.
Thesis: Cohesion as Logic: The Possible Worlds of Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress."
B.A., Philosophy (May 1981).
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Consultant, Adjunct Professor, The University of Tampa
Created and taught web-based critical thinking course that encourages skepticism and problem-solving; required service-learning component so that students contribute directly to their community, workplace, or discipline. Taught professional writing and
research techniques and essentials for business and technology communication to graduate business majors. Hired as consultant by the College of Business to develop a professional communication course that would be required in the undergraduate business curriculum.
Assistant Professor, The University of Tampa
Rhetoric and Composition I and II; Honors Global Issues course on "Universal Human Rights and Cultural Identity" (Web-Enhanced using Blackboard, Writing-Intensive); integrated technology including Web-based software; provided symposia and workshops on writing for colleagues; developed innovative approach for teaching strategic writing "TheHonorableClassroom.com").
Instructor, University of South Florida
Freshman English I and II (including Computer-Enhanced), Honors English II, Technical Writing, Professional Writing, Narration and Description (creative writing), Study Skills. Taught at-risk students in Summer Bridge Program: Freshman English and Study Skills.
Adjunct Instructor, University of South Florida, Continuing Education.
CLAST (College Level Academic Skills Test) English Review.
Writing Tutor, University of South Florida Writing Center.
Tutored students in composition, literature, and general test preparation.
Writing Tutor, University of South Florida, Athletics Tutoring Center (19911992). Tutored athletes in composition, literature, and general test preparation.
CONFERENCES
"The Myth of the Fearless Warrior: The Japanese Fighting Code in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture," Fear and Awe: 21st Annual International Conference on Literature and the Visual Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2-4, 2006.
"‘Secret’ Fighting Manuals of the Renaissance: On Selling a Fantasy," Arms and Letters: 20th Annual International Conference on Literature and the Visual Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, October 27-29, 2005.
"The Ethics of Deception: East Versus West," Truth and Mendacity: 19th International Conference on Literature and the Visual Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, October 22-24, 2004.
"In Praise of Paper" (Chair and Presenter for panel, "Hold Your Horses: A Plea for the Virtues of So-Called ‘Outmoded’ Technology"), Florida College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida, October 16-17, 2003.
"The Good Liar: Notes toward a New Theory of Deception," The International Conference on Literature and Psychology," The University of Greenwich, England, July 2-7, 2003.
"The Hope and Failures of Technology: Dignity in First-Year Composition" (Chair and Presenter), College English Association Conference, St. Petersburg, Florida, April 3-5, 2003.
"The Warrior Mind: On the Impossibility of Eliminating War-Like Thinking," South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, November 15, 2002.
"The Hopes and Failures of Technology: Dignity in First-Year Composition" (Chair and Presenter), Florida College English Association Conference, Gainesville, Florida, October 18, 2002.
"The Liar’s Paradox: Deception and Cheating in The Great Gatsby." The 6th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, St. Paul, Minnesota, September 19-22, 2002.
"Psychological Realism Regained: Cognitive Psychology Versus Phenomenology in Modern Literature." The International Conference on Literature and Psychology, University of Sienna at Arezzo, Italy, June 26-July 1, 2002.
"Deception in the Classroom: Re-Thinking the Ethics of Deception." Florida College English Association Conference, Sanford, Florida, October 2001.
"Reopening Old Wounds: Fitzgerald’s Babylon Revisited and the Moral Life." International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, Asheville, North Carolina, September, 1998.
"Going to Hell in Hyperspace: Nastiness in the Networked Classroom," 14th Computers and Writing Conference, Gainesville, Florida, May 1998.
"In the Tracks of the Sophists: Skirting the Epistemological Quagmire," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Nashville, March 1994.
"Frankenstein in Pain: Living Corpses, Dead Robots, and Tortured Cyborgs," International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, March 1993.
WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS
"The Creative Life: An Arts and Creativity Workshop" (for Hillsborough County Magnet school administrators), Lyon’s Eye Institute, Tampa, Florida, June 22, 2007.
Poetry and Performance Workshop, Trinity Preparatory School, Orlando, Florida, February 9, 2006.
"The Honorable Classroom: A Workshop for Creating and Maintaining Excellence" (co- presenter), The Florida Council of Teacher’s of English, Orlando, Florida, October 13-15, 2005.
"Lying and Cheating in F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Mark of ‘Good’ Literature," The Sarasota Institute of Lifelong Learning, Sarasota, Florida, March 10, 2004.
Creative Writing Workshops, Blake High School for the Arts, 1999-2004.
Honors Symposium Presenter, "To Live By the Sword: A Short History," The University of Tampa, October 22, 2002.
Honors Symposium Presenter, "The Ethics of Deception: East Versus West," The University of Tampa, October17, 2001.
"Writing Intensive Revisited" (co-presenter), The University of Tampa, March 22, 2001.
Technical Writing Workshop for Institutional Research and Planning, University of South Florida (presenter), SeptemberDecember, 1996.
"True Ease: A Writing Workshop for Artists" (copresenter), The Arts Council of Hillsborough County and the Tampa YMCA Writer's Voice, March 1996
"Where's Waldo?: Giving the Professional Writer a Face" (presenter), Hillsborough County Summer Institute for English Teachers, June, 1995.
PUBLICATIONS
Scholarship
The Honorable Classroom. Under Review.
"Deception and Intentional Transparency: The Case of Writing," Philosophy and Literature 27 (2003): 134-150.
"Science and Sensibility in the Short Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut." At the Millennium’s End: New Essays on the Work of Kurt Vonnegut. Ed. Kevin Alexander Boon. New York: SUNY, 2001.
"Cohesion as Logic: The Possible Worlds of Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress,'" Style 27 (1993): 91105.
Review of Dorothy Seyler's Read, Reason, Write in Composition Studies 20 (1992): 10407.
Nonfiction
"Passion, Civility, and the Case of Al-Arian," FCEA On-Line Newsletter, March 2002.
Reviews of James Lee Burke’s Burning Angel, Robert Crais’s VoodooRiver, Lawrence Block’s A Long Line of Dead Men in The Weekly Planet, May 30, 1996.
Poetry
Sonnets from the Andalusian Twilight. Chapbook under review. Currently working on multi-disciplinary performance.
"The Plains Are Filled with Men," White Pellican Review 3 (Spring 2002): 37.
"Stories from Under Your Bed" (cowriter), poetry and dance program for children, St. Petersburg Junior College, April 1997.
"Release from Nostalgia," Florida Suncoast Writers' Conference Anthology, 1994.
FEEDBACK
“I am very satisfied with Dr. Karon’s work. Maybe most noteworthy, he clearly understood the content of the article, which is not at all self-evident and was very helpful. I accepted practically all of his changes to the article.” - Professor, Northwestern University
"I contracted Dr. Jeff Karon to copy edit my doctoral dissertation on philosophy and ethics. Not only was the quality of his work outstanding, his enthusiasm about creative writing and his encouragement carried me through very difficult times at the end of my program. I truly appreciated his comments and suggestions, many of which I will continue to work with as I am preparing a manuscript from my dissertation to be published as a book. Without reservation, Dr. Karon has my highest recommendations. He showed me how beautiful written language can be and reinvigorated in me the writing spirit that I had nearly lost in the strategic aspects of the dissertation process. It was a perfect fit both in terms of the topic and personality." —(Contact information on request)