Special Topics from the Writing Program
Spring 2010
WRT 302: Writing for the New Media
WRT 302: Rhetorics of the Hero
WRT 302: Women Writing
WRT 302: The Personal Essay
WRT 200: Grammar
WRT 302.02: Writing for the New Media
Cynthia Davidson
In this course we will explore online networked reading and writing practices. We will examine the social, cultural, educational, and ethical dimensions of digital texts. The topics we cover, the readings we do, and the discussions we have should help us to understand digital spaces as deeply rhetorical spaces; become more sophisticated navigators of the information available to us in digital spaces; and become more effective writers and communicators in print and digitally mediated spaces. Digitally mediated spaces to be explored include, but are not limited to, You Tube, Facebook, Second Life, networked video games, and Neal Stephenson's Metaverse in Snow Crash. Students will have the opportunity to engage a specific issue in depth through a final project.
Class # 58871 TUTH 2:20-3:40
WRT 302.04: Rhetorics of the Hero
Wilbur Farley
This course will examine the political, cultural, and economic factors which shape popular American understandings of the terms 'hero,' 'heroic,' and 'heroic ideal'. We will trace out the constantly shifting character of American identity (on both national and local levels) in relationship to these terms by interrogating our understandings of the hero's significance and value through the lenses of race, class, and gender. Some texts will include Sturges' The Magnificent Seven, Hammet's The Maltese Falcon, and Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Three 4-5 page essays as well as an 8-10 page research-based final essay are required.
Class # 58873 MW 3:50-5:10
WRT 302.01: Women Writing
Kristina Lucenko
In this writing-intensive course we will examine what we can learn from reading and studying women's voices. Some of the questions that will guide our examintion are: What is the relationship between women and writing? Between women and rhetoric? What rhetorical and writing strategies have women writers and speakers used to achieve their goals? What difference does gender make when we read and write? In the context of reading a range of genres - from poetry to flash fiction to graphic novels - students will explore the rich history of women's texts and consider what these texts can teach us in our own writing practices.
Class # 58870 TUTH 11:20-12:40
WRT 302.03: The Personal Essay
Thomas Tousey
The personal essay is a form that has recently come back into fashion. In this class we will engage the form by writing our own personal essays as well as reading and responding to the work of writiers who have come to define the genre: examples include Michel de Montaigne, Charles Lamb and E.B. White, as well as more contemporary writers such as Joan Didion and Scott Russell Sanders. We will explore the differences between shaping experiences as truth in a personal essay or memoir and as a work of fiction. As a definition of personal essay evolves, we will consider whether personal writing and essay writing (or "essaying") have a place in academic writing. Students in this class will also be able to prepare a personal essay for their application for graduate or professional school.
Class # 58872 MWF 11:45-12:40
WRT 200.01: Grammar
Ann Horbey
Students will consider different facets of grammar to obtain a better understanding of the language. Students will learn how the parts of a sentence function by diagramming them, dissecting them, emulating them, and creating them. Students will also examine issues in grammar, including instruction, dialect, class, and multilingualism. There will be regular homework assignments, three short papers, two mid-semester exams, and a final exam.
Class # 58875 MW 3:50-5:10