Department of English Language and Literature
Directory
William Rivers
Title: | Distinguished Professor Emeritus |
Department: | English Language and Literature College of Arts and Sciences |
Email: | riversw@sc.edu |
Office: | HUO 523 |
Resources: | English Language and Literature |
Education
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1976
MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1971
BA, Wofford College, 1968
Areas of Specialization
• Eighteenth-Century British Literature
• Composition and Rhetoric
• History of the Book and Authorship
Professional Accolades
• William L. Mitchell Prize for Bibliography or Documentary Work on Early British Periodicals
or Newspapers. Awarded by the Bibliographical Society of America in 2006 for Nicholas
Amhurst, Terrae Filius; or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford (1721;
1726). (A Modern Critical Edition) Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004. See http://www.bibsocamer.org
• The Folger Institute: five grants totaling over $15,000 to support research in the
Folger Shakespeare Library and to attend seminars on documentary editing and seventeenth
and eighteenth-century history, politics, and economics.
• NCR-Columbia: $154,150 plus equipment to establish and operate the NCR-USC Document
Validation Laboratory and a technical writing resource center. January 1988-December
1995.
Administrative Experience
• Chair, Department of English (2007—2014)
• Director, First-Year English [Freshman Composition], Department of English, University
of South Carolina, 1987--1992; 2001--2007.
• Associate Chair, Department of English, University of South Carolina, 1999.
• Principal Investigator, NCR‑USC Document Validation Laboratory, University of South
Carolina. January 1988--1993.
Current Research Projects
• Nicholas Amhurst's Contributions to The Craftsman. (Amhurst's contributions included
both lead essays and poetry. This project will include at least three separate volumes:
two volumes of Amhurst's Craftsman essays and one volume of his poetic contributions.)
• An edition of Nicholas Amhurst's collected poetry, 1717-1726. (This project will probably
produce two separate volumes.) Articles and presentations on the periodical literature
of England during the 1710s, 20s, and 30s.
Selected Publications
• Nicholas Amhurst, Terrae Filius; or, the Secret History of the University of Oxford
(1721; 1726). (A Modern Critical Edition) Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004.
• Issues and Images: An Argument Reader. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich: Ft. Worth, TX.,
1993.
• Business Reports: Samples from the "Real World." Prentice Hall, Inc.: Englewood Cliffs,
N. J., 1981.
• Twenty-two Articles or Book Chapters on Writing, Literature, and Interdisciplinary
Issues in major refereed Journals including Papers on Language and Literature; Eighteenth
Century Life; The Journal of Business Communication; The Journal of Business and Technical
Writing; or books published by the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing; Modern
Language Association; Random House; Association of Business Communication; or The
National Council of Teachers of English.
• Over thirty Papers presented at Professional Meetings (International, National, Regional,
and Local) on Writing, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Issues. Venues include College
Conference on Composition and Communication, Modern Language Association (national
and regional conferences), Society for Technical Communication (international and
local meetings), Association for Business Communication (international and regional
conferences), The Victorian Institute, Conference on Technology and the Humanities,
Southern Humanities Conference, Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, among others.