ENWR 2520 Special Topics in Writing

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.)

ENWR 2520 003 Visual Rhetoric and Scientific Images

T. Kenny Fountain

MoWe 5:00-6:15 

In this writing-intensive course, we will examine the role visual images and image-making technologies play in the development and communication of scientific and medical knowledge. Beginning with 16th century European book illustrations and ending with contemporary data displays, we will explore the ways scientific and medical images count as evidence, construct new forms of knowledge, and shape our conceptions of the natural world.

ENWR 2520 007 Personal Writing and Political Activism

Steve Parks

Mo 6-8:30PM New Cabell 064 

This course investigates the relationship between personal narratives of "political awakenings" and human rights activism. To do this work, we will correspond with students in the Middle East/North Africa, using our collective correspondence to create a "human rights activist handbook" (to be published digitally by the Working and Writing for Change series). Part of the course will also be dedicated to learning community organizing strategies.

ENWR 2520 008 Writing about the Nonhuman: Animals to Artificial Intelligence

Patrica Sullivan

MoWe 3:30PM - 4:45PM New Cabell Hall 036

This course explores the relationship between humans and other beings or forms of intelligence such as plants, animals, and artificial intelligences. Students will consider the ways in which we use writing to represent our observations about, knowledge of, and feelings about these different nonhuman agents. In particular, we will address questions of personification, anthropomorphism, personhood, the nature of the “human” and cross species communication. As a class, we will read and discuss myths, stories, poems, nonfiction essays, scholarly research and the occasional science fiction film or scientific (nature) documentary.  Students will be invited to compose a variety of texts -- autobiographical, analytical, exploratory, creative – and conduct some original research. Through workshops, peer reviews and individual conferences student will develop their awareness of their writing processes, the rhetorical options available to them and their resources as writers in and beyond academic contexts.

ENWR 3500 Black Women's Writing and Rhetoric

Tamika Carey

TR 1230-145 (New Cabell 309)

This class explores how writing can be used for social action through an exploration of the rhetorical strategies and arguments of Black women writers, a group that has consistently used pen and voice to empower themselves and their communities, address injustices, advocate for civil and human rights, spark social movements, and tell their own stories. Students will read a combination of scholarship in rhetorical theory by writers that include Jacqueline Jones Royster, Gwendolyn Pough, and Elaine Richardson and primary works by such figures as Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Anna Julia Cooper, Claudia Jones, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, Joan Morgan, and the Crunk Feminist Collective. They will also deliver an oral-presentation, write two short essays, and complete an end of the semester research project. This work will enable students to grapple with questions about the role of representation and power systems in shaping group subjectivity and life, which rhetorical situations and exigencies inspire these writers to take action, which topics they invoke when taking up matters of social justice, which genres, tropes, discourse strategies, and arguments Black women writers find most useful, and which literacies and theories they develop and rely on to do this work. By addressing these questions, students will fulfill the goal of this course, which is to learn how cultural groups such as Black women employ rhetoric as techne, or an artistic skill, to meet their needs, and how these rhetorics can be used to interpret, critique, and intervene in negative social conversations and conditions shaping their lives.

ENWR 3640 Writing With Sound

Steph Ceraso

T/Th 11:00-12:15

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.) 

ENWR 3660 Travel Writing

Kate Stephenson

T/Th 12:30-1:45

Explores travel writing using a variety of texts, including essays, memoirs, blogs, photo essays, and narratives. We will examine cultural representations of travel as well as the ethical implications of tourism. Students will have the opportunity to write about their own travel experiences, and we will also embark on “local travel” of our own. 

ENPG 3800 Tutoring Peer Writers

TuTh 12:30-1:45

Marcus Meade

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.) 

ENWR 3559 Climate Swerve

ENWR 3900 The Forbes Seminars in Career-based Writing and Rhetoric

Jon D'errico

MoWeFri 10-10:50

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.)