As Director of College Writing, Dr. Tom Sura oversees Hope’s introductory writing courses as well as the Klooster Center for Excellence in Writing, which offers workshops, seminars, one-on-one support with particular projects, and writing across the curriculum. This coordination means that Hope College develops college students into skilled communicators from the time they begin their studies to the time they graduate.

Dr. Sura teaches introductory writing courses as well as courses on grammar and writing theory. He has also taught in the Hope-Western Prison Education Program, a full college program that leads incarcerated men to a Hope College degree.  

Dr. Sura was West Virginia University’s undergraduate writing coordinator for nine years before coming to Hope in 2021. He is a member of Hope’s Culture Action Team, Assessment Committee, and Curriculum Committee, and chairs the General Education Council.

AREAS OF expertise

• Rhetoric
• Writing theory
• Teaching writing
• Writing program administration

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., English, Purdue University, 2011
• M.A., writing, DePaul University, 2006
• B.A., English and communications, University of Michigan, 2000

Selected PUBLIcations

• “Writing the Methods: Rethinking Research Paper Conventions in FYW" (with Kristin VanEyk), Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, forthcoming 2025 
• “Rhetorical In(ter)vention: Teacher Guides for Responding to Divisive Writing” (with Ellen Skirvin), in Violence in the Work of Composition: Recognizing, Intervening, Ameliorating (ed. by K. Fleckenstein and S. Gage), Utah State University Press, 2022 
• “When Everything Changes Over Night: What We Learned from Teaching the Writing Practicum in the Era of Covid-19” (with Christina Saidy), Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education, 2020 
• “From 'I Still Can't Work with You' to 'Let's Work Together': Creating a Rhetoric of Collaboration that Supports Professors” (with Julia Daniel), Profession, 2018
• “What Counts as Inclusive?: Articulating Writing Program Stances on Divisive Student Writing,” Present Tense, 2017

Outside the College

Tom enjoys rock music, scary movies, and radio sermons. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus and regularly coaches youth sports. One of his favorite pastimes is watching cartoons like Bluey with his family.