Writing Studies (WRIT)

WRIT 100  Introduction to College Writing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. A writing-intensive workshop that stresses the development of college-level thinking and writing skills through frequent writing assignments. Emphasis is on the writing process: prewriting; drafting; revising; using peer and teacher critique; editing and proofreading. Evaluation is partly based on a portfolio of revised writing. Enrollment by advising. This course provides 3 general elective credits.

WRIT 105  College Writing I  (3-4 credits)

A workshop course to develop thinking and writing abilities through frequent writing and digital composition assignments based on critical response to intellectually challenging questions. Emphasis is on the academic writing and composing process--drafting, revising, using peer and teacher critique, editing, and proofreading. Evaluation is partly based on a portfolio of revised work. Meets Gen Ed - Communication: Writing.

WRIT 106  College Writing II  (3-4 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. The second semester of the intensive first-year writing sequence. Emphasis on the writing process continues as students learn to study the literature of a variety of fields in order to improve their writing and their understanding and appreciation of complex texts. Formal writing, including at least one documented essay. Meets Gen Ed - Communication:Literature.

WRIT 201  Introduction to Public and Professional Writing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course is an introduction to the practices and theories of professional and public writing. Students will gain experience with a variety of writing tasks, and they will compose documents that identify or solve problems, raise readers' awareness, or help readers make decisions. Students will learn methods for analyzing situations, and for discovering and implementing strategies to meet the unique demands of each new situation and task. Students will study a range of written artifacts to gain understanding of the rhetorical challenges and strategies other writers have encountered.

WRIT 204  Style and Editing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course is dedicated to intensive, advanced work on public, professional, and technical writing. The course provides sustained attention to achieving clarity of prose, with particular emphasis on editing, style, grammar, syntax, and mechanics. Students develop their skills as writers through drafting, revision,and peer review of original work, as well as through a collaborative editing project. Students analyze their strengths and weaknesses as writers, develop strategies for editing and polishing, and enhance their ability to analyze and construct arguments. The course addresses editing as a contextualized process contingent on modality and audience, and highlights recent trends in professional, scientific, and technical contexts toward plain communication.

WRIT 206  Workplace Writing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This writing-intensive course focuses on the skills needed for effective communication in the workplace, with an emphasis on audience, genre, and use of technology. Students will learn how to construct persuasive proposals, executive summaries, and other professional writing documents.

WRIT 207  Technical Writing and Communication  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course develops writing skills essential in technology, science and industry,with an emphasis on task-oriented writing, mechanism and process description,collection/analysis of data, and recommendation reports. This course introduces students to various technical documentation software, content and project management tools, and usability testing. Students compose technical documents for use in print and various digital contexts.

WRIT 208  Digital Writing: Composing with Text, Image, and Sound  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course explores how people write digitally, through multiple modalities and in varied contexts. Digital writers make use of all semiotic channels to communicate effectively among different groups and for different purposes, and thus students in this course will analyze and produce texts that combine alphabetic writing with audio, video, and images. Classical rhetorical principles such as kairos, invention, delivery, purpose, pathos, audience, and arrangement will provide the foundation for discussing how authors can effectively deploy messages in digital contexts. This course will balance production and analysis, with students creating and critiquing digital texts. Meets the Graduation Writing Requirement for majors in Public and Professional Writing.

WRIT 209  Visual Rhetoric and Writing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. Students will consider the impact of the pervasiveness of the visual in contemporary society. Visual rhetoric is the way the images work on their own and collaborate with written text to create an argument designed to move a specific audience. Emphasizing the rhetorical nature of visuals and design, the course draws attention to the thinking, process, and skills that are part of design, with a focus on the design of various documents professional writers encounter. Students will be introduced to a variety of theories and design approaches. Through readings and projects, students will gain critical and practical skills to become better consumers and creators of visual texts.

WRIT 270  Writing for Social Change  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. Examining writers at work in a variety of situations reveals the various social, personal, and political contexts in which writing occurs. Through research methodologies drawn originally from anthropology, researchers discover how writing works in diverse settings. Particular attention is paid to the various technologies and modes of communication in these practical settings.

WRIT 280  Argumentation: from Antiquity to Online  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. Study of rhetoric from the classical period to the present. Students will gain a working knowledge of rhetorical terms and an understanding of major theoretical trends. The course includes examination of major primary source materials, both spoken and written, with an emphasis on the place of rhetoric in civic, political, and cultural contexts.

WRIT 290  Collaboration and Coauthoring  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): WRIT 105 or HONP 100. This course will familiarize students with theories and practices of written collaboration and coauthoring, which are essential to the work of professional writers across fields. Students will read scholarship in the fields of rhetoric and composition studies, which offers theories for how and why writers collaborate, including the ways in which they problem-solve, compose, and revise in concert. Additionally, the course will examine a series of "case study" examples of coauthored texts across genres and disciplines in order to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how coauthoring and collaborative writing function in professional contexts. Finally, students will practice these skills, drawing on the tools, theories, and models studied throughout the semester, through the development and revision of their own coauthored and collaborative writing projects.

WRIT 302  Grant Proposal Writing  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): Any WRIT 200-level course or departmental approval. This course will provide students with the skills and tools to identify potential grant sources and will walk them through the steps to successful completion of the grant application process. Real‐world examples and applications in the course will provide students with practical experience. The instructor will provide basic theory and tips to strengthen confidence and skills in successful grant writing. Students will have the opportunity to complete an application for a program or initiative.

WRIT 350  Writing Women Safe: Writing, Rape Prevention, and Community Activism  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): Any WRIT 200-level course or JOUR 210 or GSWS 201. This course exposes students to writing-as-social-action through intensive study of the topic of sexual violence against women. Students will gain a broad-based understanding of community literacy and the role of writing outside school walls in order to fully explore how writing can function as an activist tool for the prevention of sexual violence. We will read broadly on the issue of sexual violence against women-analyzing depictions of rape in popular language, exploring how rape has been discussed in feminist theory and scholarship, and researching community-based and activist responses to rape and its prevention--in order to strengthen our own literacy practices towards prevention and awareness-raising. Students will be familiar with local, national, and international agencies that work to protect women from sexual violence and advocate for rape survivors. Students will develop activist writing projects that work to serve and further these existing efforts. Mutually Exclusive with GSWS 350.

WRIT 400  Community Writing: Theories, Practices, and Partnerships  (3 credits)

Prerequisite(s): Any WRIT 300-level course or departmental approval. This course will explore the ways in which writing exists beyond the boundaries of what we have come to know as "writing or school". As we learn about the many manifestations and purposes of writing outside of school, we will ultimately reflect on more traditional ideas about school writing in order to think about the relationships between these varied contexts. We will explore writing practices that extend beyond academic discourse alone and into alternate genres that can bring communities together and create social and political change. This writing can take on many different forms: oral history projects; community-based creative writing collections; political manifestos; grant proposals; awareness-raising pamphlets and newsletters, and more. This course will offer a foundational understanding of how writing practices develop on the community level, distinct from school-based practices, and invite and expanded notion of what it could mean to write inside-and outside- of school. We will work as researchers and program builders in order to put some of these ideas into practical shape.