Book by Rifenburg explores cadet writing

Dr. Michael Rifenburg, associate professor of English at the University of North Georgia (UNG), is releasing a book this fall that details the writing training cadets receive.

"Drilled to Write: Becoming a Cadet Writer at a Senior Military College," which will be released by the Utah State University Press, follows the journey of a cadet who graduated from UNG, commissioned from the Corps of Cadets, and is now a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Rifenburg, who serves as co-director of first-year composition in UNG's English Department, hatched the idea during the 2013-14 school year when interacting with cadets in a freshman English class.

"Writing this book and doing this research gave me a great appreciation of the Army training model we have in our country," Rifenburg said. "There's a great responsibility on our faculty to help train future military officers. We don't take this lightly."

Rifenburg also appreciated the strategic nature of training for cadets, who outline any operation in a sandbox terrain model before working through it in the field. He saw parallels to their writing steps.

"There is a sequential process to how they write something with the ultimate goal of enacting an operation in the field," Rifenburg said.