CLASSES

Theories of Writing

This course introduces a number of theories of writing, providing an overview of complex issues and research into the state and status of writing and writers. It takes up such questions as these: What is writing? Where did it come from? How did it develop--and did it do so the same or differently in other cultures? How do writers develop--and what accounts for differences? What are different types of writing, different situations for writing, different tools and practices--and how do these interconnect? What does it mean to study writing? How have major figures theorized writing, and what tensions emerge among their theories? What are relationships among thought, speech, and writing--and among image, film/video, and sound? How do such theories change our notions of what texts are and what texts do? Students will learn various theorists, historians, and researchers answer these questions, and they will apply that knowledge to their own projects. Prerequisites: WRIT 1133, 1633, or 1733.

In the class we were tasked to write a creative non-fiction piece using any piece of art on campus. I chose the piece "Whispers" by the late Lawrence Argent. When you sit on the lip shaped benches, a track of pre-recorded lectures on various subjects plays. Here's my Piece

Topics in Applied Writing

Writing for the Public Good: Are you interested in applying writing for the public good, whether through nonprofit work, teaching, public service, or other types of community engagement? In this class, we’ll explore applied writing in the context of community-engaged literacy, through the specific lens of the nonprofit sector. By examining the relationship between literacy and social justice, we’ll grapple with questions of writing in contexts of genre, access, media, and ethics. Students will write in genres related to nonprofit work, such as grant proposals, letters of inquiry, internal program memos, press releases, fundraising letters, and mission statements. In addition, students will create individual portfolios that promote their writing skills through job or internship materials, graduate school applications, and creative or public writing. Students will also develop their writing skills by workshopping their own and their classmates’ work. Ultimately, we will apply rhetorical knowledge by writing for and about the public good.

Memoirs and Personal Writing

In learning to write memoir, a writer is learning how to analyze memory, select experiences, invent narratives – all while still being “truthful.” In this course, students distinguish memoir from other forms of writing about the self, including autobiography, diaries and journals, blogs, and letters. They read excerpts of published memoirs and drafts of memoirs they write during the course, with a particular interest in how these writers shape and represent their experiences textually: how do people construct the stories thy tell about their lives? What is the value of personal writing for writers and readers? And perhaps most importantly, how can we begin to create stories of experiences in compelling ways? Students will complete multiple writing projects, including at least one polished short memoir.

Here is one of the many memoirs I produced in this class. I grew so much as a writer in this class and I loved the subject. I am extremely proud of some of the work I did in this class. We were tasked to write a piece based off an image. Here is my Image and Piece.

Topics in Writing Theory, History, Research

Private Gain and Public Good: Quintillian’s ideal orator was “a good man speaking well,” but we know that evil people can speak well and good people can struggle to communicate. We also know that a lot has changed since 95 AD. We will trace the thorny relationship between rhetoric and ethics, from the Sophists of ancient Athens to recent concerns about political persuasion on Facebook, discussing touchstones in rhetorical theory and how their frameworks apply to contemporary argument and persuasion. Students will compose analysis and response logs, a multimodal representation of an ongoing public argument, and a dialogue, manifesto, or open letter to present their personal philosophy of ethics and persuasion.

I had the opportunity, while studying rhetoric in current issues, to write an op-ed piece about Brexit, a subject I had written a previously rhetorical analysis on. Here's my Piece

Capstone: Writing Design and Circulation

The primary goal of this capstone course for the Minor in Writing Practices is to create and present a professional electronic/web-based portfolio synthesizing university writing experiences. The portfolio showcases and offers reflective insight into a student's writings, demonstrating the writer's ability to navigate diverse rhetorical situations. Students will learn theories and practices for selecting, arranging, and circulating/publishing written work, culmination in a required portfolio that synthesizes their university writing experiences. In addition to practicing principles of editing and design, students will produce a substantive revision of a previous piece of their own writing and compost a theory of writing that synthesizes analyses of their practices with published scholarship and research. The course covers design considerations and strategies and offers studio time for peer and instructor feedback. It culminates with a public showcase. Prerequisites: WRIT 2500 and completion of at least two other courses in the Writing Practices minor.

In this class, we were tasked to revise one our pieces from another subject or class and change the genre. I wrote a creative non-fiction revision of my research paper on the Me Too. movement. Here is my Revision and my Original. We were also asked to look back on another piece and deconstruct it; talk about how and why we wrote things. I decided to look at one of my memoir pieces because that was one of my favorite classes. Here is my Deconstruction