Mary Ward has over 30 years of teaching and textbook writing experience at the university and community college levels in the U.S. and Italy. Since 1991, she has taught English composition, English as a Foreign Language, intensive academic English skills, and technical writing to native and non-native speakers of English.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she completed a B.A. in Italian language and literature (1991), a junior-year abroad program with the Università di Bologna (1988-1989) and an M.A. in Applied English Linguistics (1995). Based on her M.A. coursework, Mary has always approached the classroom with an open mind and an awareness of how sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and pedagogy contribute to students’ learning experience.
She has applied these theories to her analytical teaching practice in classrooms at Columbia University’s American Language Program, the University of California-Berkeley’s College Writing Program in the U.S., as well as Rome’s Luiss University (Academic English for Political Science and the master’s in International Relations, Professional Writing Skills for the MBA program) , The American University of Rome’s academic and technical writing courses (graduate-level Food Writing Across Media, and undergraduate-level Business Writing), Public Speaking, and beginning composition at Temple University’s Rome campus over the past eighteen years.
One of her three major textbook projects include a 2008 listening skills textbook for Pearson-Longman, What I Believe: Listening and Speaking about What Really Matters, about which she presented a talk at the annual TESOL convention that same year. In 2012, she worked with editors at Oxford University Press to author an eight-unit textbook for professionals in the fashion industry (English for the Fashion Industry). For Kaplan International (US-based locations), in 2018, Mary completed materials for an internal course that make up a nation-wide textbook of six modules, with five lessons each, titled Best of America.
From each of these publications, she has garnered confidence in framing instruction to meet students’ learning needs across a variety of courses. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need to update her classroom approach, so she completed an online course with Columbia University, via EdX, titled Inclusive Teaching: Supporting All Students in the College Classroom.
In addition to textbook writing, Mary has contributed articles to blogs and teaching publications on the topics of the effects on learning regarding the visual experience of layout and textbook design, and the importance of drawing upon authentic sources for learning materials.
She is also an avid swimmer and admirer of Italian art and architecture.
Courses Taught
ENG 701 - Introduction to Academic Discourse