Courses

Offers a two-semester approach to the First Writing Requirement. This sequence allows students to take more time, in smaller sections and with support from the Writing Center, practicing and reinforcing the activities that are central to the first-year writing course. Like ENWR 1510, ENWR 1505-06 approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing.

Approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing.

ENWR 1520 shares the same writing goals and approaches as ENWR 1510, but focuses on community engagement in pursuit of those goals. In ENWR 1520, students contribute to a conversation and learn to position their ideas, research, and experiential learning in community engaged projects. Students should expect to spend time outside the classroom interacting with community partners, either in person or virtually.

ENWR 1530 shares the same writing goals and approaches as ENWR 1510. Each 1530 student attends two weekly lectures and one weekly discussion section meeting, and the course instructors reflect a variety of academic backgrounds. Students will analyze, practice, and experiment with genres of academic inquiry.

The course in highest demand for students on the FWR+ track is ENWR 2510, an Advanced Writing Seminar. Like ENWR 1510, ENWR 2510 approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing. While ENWR 2510 and ENWR 1510 share the same goals and practices, ENWR 2510 offers added rigor, often in the form of denser course texts and longer, more self-directed writing assignments.

Offers a changing selection of inquiry-based writing courses in response to student interest and instructor availability. Past topics have included business and technical writing, sports writing, cyber-ethics, writing for the web, writing about law and literature, and creative non-fiction. If you are interested in having a particular ENWR 2520 topic offered in upcoming semesters, please contact the writing program to let us know. (Meets second writing requirement.)

Investigates the role of style in the writing process. What does it mean to write with attention to style? How can attention to style be generative? Students will explore the variety, uses, and implications of a broad range of stylistic moves available in prose writing and build a rich vocabulary for describing them. Students will imitate and analyze exemplary writing and discuss each other’s writing in a workshop setting. (Meets second writing requirement.)

Examines the variety of critical approaches to popular culture available to us as writers. How can we write in response to music, video games, television, and movies in ways that contribute to a larger critical conversation? What are the unique challenges to writing about popular culture? Students will read, analyze, and write a variety of multi-modal reviews of pop culture artifacts in a workshop setting. (Meets second writing requirement.)

We will use inquiry-based writing to explore the role that work plays in the good life. We'll critically analyze how and why we write about work to refresh our thinking about real-world experiences both familiar and unfamiliar to us. We will develop as writers by generating and exploring complicated questions. Why do we do the things that we do? What work do we value, and how do we communicate that?

Explores how emerging technologies change the genres and modes of writing inside and outside of the academy. Students will produce both conventional print texts such as written narratives and personal essays, alongside more multimodal electronic texts, such as digital stories and academic web essays.  (Meets second writing requirement.)

Introductory course in news writing, emphasizing editorials, features, and reporting.

This course provides the opportunity to offer a new, advanced topic in the subject area of writing and rhetoric.

Offers a changing selection of writing and rhetoric courses focusing on rhetoric and composition in digital platforms.

In this course, we'll look at a variety of texts from academic arguments, narratives, and pedagogies, to consider what it means to write, communicate, and learn across cultures. Topics will include contrastive rhetorics, world Englishes, rhetorical listening, and tutoring multilingual writers. A service learning component will require students to volunteer weekly in the community.

In this reading- and writing-intensive course, we engage a range of work on literacy and cognition, including technical treatments of issues such as neural development and brain connected to literacy tasks. We read extensive peer-reviewed work from neurologists and cognitive scientists, creativity experts, mental health practitioners, and professional writers and editors, all trying to understand the relationship between literacy and our minds.

Trains students to become attuned, thoughtful listeners and sonic composers. In addition to discussing key works on sound from fields such as rhetoric and composition, sound studies, and journalism, we will experiment with the possibilities of sound as a valuable form of writing and storytelling. Students will learn how to use digital audio editing tools, platforms, and techniques for designing and producing sonic projects. (Meets second writing requirement.) 

Focuses on creating meaningful, responsible, and engaged writing in the context of significant environmental issues. Analysis of representative environmental texts, familiarity with environmental concepts, examination of ethical positions in private and public spheres of writing, and sustained practice with form, style, medium, and genre will drive a variety of writing projects. (Meets second writing requirement.) 

An in-depth study of African American political speeches, letters, sermons, essays, and book-length texts that examines the debates, strategies, styles, and persuasive practices employed by African Americans in dialogue with the larger nation and among themselves.

A chronological survey of the persuasive communication and writing strategies Black women have used towards the project of empowerment and activism in speeches, essays, poetry, drama, and novels.

Political propaganda often persuades through conspiracy theories that create suspicion and fear. This course examines the rhetorical strategies of conspiracy-driven propaganda from the 20th and 21st centuries. By examining the arguments, evidence, images, myths, and tropes that animate propaganda and conspiracy theories, we will identify how they are circulated to inflame our emotions, exploit our prejudices, and bias our decision-making.

An introduction to critical frameworks and methods for exploring how rhetorics construct, preserve, and augment social understandings of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, class and more. Areas of focus may include: cultural practices of writing, digital rhetorics, performance, popular culture, material rhetorics, visual rhetorics, race and ethnicity. Specific themes and topics may vary.

Prepares students for professional or advanced academic writing; also prepares students to manage (assign, edit, supervise, and coach) the writing of others. Lectures present principles based on research in writing studies; seminars allow students to master those principles in the context of projects keyed to their specific interests and career plans. Meets second writing requirement.

Prepares undergraduates to tutor peer writers by introducing them to theories of writing and practices of peer tutoring. Students will read in the field of writing instruction, research primary materials (such as assignments and syllabi), observe tutors, and practice tutoring peer writers under supervised and supportive circumstances. (Meets second writing requirement.) 

Develops proficiency in a range of stylistic and persuasive effects. The course is designed for students who want to hone their writing skills, as well as for students preparing for careers in which they will write documents for public circulation. Students explore recent research in writing studies. In the workshop-based studio sessions, students propose, write, and edit projects of their own design. (Meets second writing requirement.)