WRT Course Offerings

Linked course titles have extended descriptions. Syllabi provided where available.

Course	Title	Day	Time	Instructor	Room	Syllabus	Description
WRT 114	Writing Culture	Various	Various	Various			Nonacademic writing; creative nonfiction, memoir, the essay. Students write texts experimenting with style, genre, and subject; read contemporary nonfiction texts by varied authors; attend lectures/readings of visiting writers.
WRT 117	Writing, Rhetoric, and Satire: "This Class is a Joke"	MW	12:45 - 2:05	Rae Ann Meriwether			Do you love 'smart' comedy like John Oliver and Stephen Colbert? Do you enjoy analyzing the meaning of satirical films like Get Out and Idiocracy or satirical songs like Bo Burnham's White Woman's Instagram? Do you want to try your hand at writing satirical texts yourself? If so, this class is for you! In it, students will analyze satirical texts in various media and genres (and from various time periods) and use what they learn to create their own satirical texts. We will write short satirical texts (appropriate for publications like McSweeney's), longer satirical essays and even some "writer's room" collaborative sketches for comedy shows.
WRT 118 (M001)	Writing for a Better You: Writing to Heal	TTh	12:30 - 1:50	Amy Barone			Stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness directly impact not only our mental health, but also our physical health and sense of connection to community. We’ll embark on a journey of healing through writing (inventory list, personal journal, letter, greeting card and eulogy) our silenced stories in ways that free us from the shackles of shame and into the empowerment of words. Drawing from ancient healing modalities, guest practitioners will share meditation, reiki, hypnosis, shamanic, tarot, past-life regressions and sound healing as ways to access experiences. By offering a holistic approach to writing for wellness, students are able to incorporate healing practices as a way to write one’s own story.
WRT 118 (M002)	Writing for a Better You: Writing Toward Care	TTh	12:30 - 1:50	Abby Long			Together, we will write to better understand our relationships with others, the world around us, and ourselves. Learning from insights that emerge from the disability justice movement, trauma studies, and memoir, we’ll critically engage with notions of “wellness,” “self-care,” and “care networks.” Through a range of genres (including journals, letters, apologies, bids for care, and creative nonfiction), we will re-story our individual lives within our shared writing community.
WRT 255	Advanced Argumentative Writing: Just Hear Me Out!	TTh	9:30 - 10:50	Eileen Schell			What arguments make you sit up and pay attention? Which ones do you tune out or quickly click through? When you make arguments, how do you draw in your audience and get them on board with your point of view? This course will assist you in making engaged arguments for varied audiences. We will study and practice different rhetorical theories and approaches to making effective arguments that matter to you and to specific organizations, groups, and communities. We will also examine how arguments work to build solidarity, drive wedges, and create specific kinds of communities and social worlds. (Core Req for Majors.)
WRT 302	Advanced Writing Studio: The Digital Writing Revolution	TuTh	8:00 - 9:20	Cynthia Pope			Want experience developing digital writing skills to join the workforce while expressing your creativity at the same time? Then this course is for you. Learn how to use progressive software, theory, and artificial intelligence to create blogs, social media, digital portfolios, virtual reality, video public service announcements regarding subjects you care about, and other professional artifacts that will land you the job you want and arm you with digital skill sets needed to thrive in the field. (Core Req for Majors.)
WRT 307	Advanced Studio: Professional Writing	Various	Various	Multiple Instructors			Professional communication through the study of audience, purpose, and ethics. Rhetorical problem-solving principles applied to diverse professional writing tasks and situations. (Core Req for Majors.)
WRT 308	Advanced Writing Studio: Style	Winterlude (async)		Collin Gifford Brooke			Don't let them tell you that style is just on the surface, something you polish before you hit send. Style runs deep, lurking at the heart of everything we speak or write. Style can dazzle, enchant, seduce, repulse, or bewilder. It can stop you in your tracks and rewire your brain. In this course, we will experiment voraciously with language, shape and reshape our writing, build our stylistic repertoires, and hone our sensibilities. The course will focus primarily on short writing exercises and individual feedback, meeting online (asynchronously). (G&P)
WRT 331	Practicum: Become a Peer Consultant!	MW	2:15 - 3:35	Rae Ann Meriwether			If you enjoy writing and providing feedback on writing for your friends and peers, and if you thrive on learning in an exciting, hands-on environment, this class is for you. In this course, students will learn effective practices for writing consulting, practice writing consultation sessions with each other, and ultimately serve as tutors to their Syracuse University peers. Students will also improve their own writing and communication skills. This class is an excellent resume-builder, since employers want graduates with experience in collaboration and problem-solving who have excellent communication skills. (G&P)
WRT 413	Rhetoric and Ethics	TTh	11:00 - 12:20	Tony Scott			This course is designed to enable you to gain a stronger sense of agency and purpose as a writer through better understanding how current rhetorics and technologies perpetuate mistrust, anxiety, violence and polarization. Reading and writing in the course will help you to gain more insight into the ethical dimensions of the rhetorics that you encounter in your everyday life. They will also help you to better understand how technologies shape our rhetorical decisions. You will write about your own social media encounters, and envision how you can bring your writing more in alignment with your values. (Core Req for Majors.)
WRT 422	Creative Nonfiction: Community Storytellng Studio	TTh	12:30 - 1:50	Brice Nordquist			Community Storytelling Studio invites you to explore the transformative power of storytelling in shaping local communities. In this hands-on course, you’ll collaborate with community partners addressing critical issues like food justice, transportation, housing, public health, environmental justice, and educational inequity. Together, you'll craft meaningful stories through podcasting, still and moving images, and writing. Whether you’re passionate about digital media or social change, this course offers you the chance to amplify voices, share untold stories, and make a lasting impact through creative storytelling. (G&P)
WRT 424	Writing/Rhetoric/Identity: Writing Identities	TTh	2:00 - 3:20	Tony Scott			In a time of heightened political awareness, conflict and continual pressure to curate identities in social media, lines between identity performances and our embodied, lived sense of ourselves can blur. In this class we will explore rhetorics of identity with the goal of finding language and genres that open up ways for you to recognize and express your identity as complicated, multiple, relational, emotionally imbued and evolving. (H&T)
WRT 426	Writing/Rhetoric/Technology: Persuasive Robots	TuTh	9:30 - 10:50 (sync)	Krista Kennedy			Robots aren’t a sci-fi future, they’re here. They write essays and poetry, produce art, conduct surveillance, and are sometimes attached to our bodies as prosthetics. As humans wrestle with how to live alongside intelligent machines, contemporary movies and TV shows reflect our apprehension and fascination. We’ll explore what they reveal about our reaction to this uneasy alliance and pursue areas of interest through multimodal and written research projects. Potential topics include sharing workplaces with robots, historical depictions of automatons, and the integration of human and machine. (H&T)
WRT 427	Emerging Technologies in PTW: AI Power in Pro Writing	MW	2:15 - 3:35	Melanie Haas			This class explores the world of Generative AI and how it's shaking things up in professional and technical writing. Whether it’s automating reports, crafting marketing content, or generating entire documents, AI is starting to play a huge role in industries that rely on clear, effective communication. We’ll also look at the human side—what it means for your future career, the ethics behind using Generative AI, and how to use these tools to your advantage without losing your voice. Expect hands-on projects working with AI, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses, and deciding when it’s a help—or a headache. (G&P)
WRT 436	Feminist Rhetoric(s): We Aren’t Going Back	TuTh	12:30 - 1:50	Eileen Schell			With assaults on reproductive rights, trending headlines about “trad wives” and aggressive misogyny, we may feel like the wheels of progress have been rolled back. But we aren’t going back; instead, feminists are fighting back. Whether through social protests, social media, the law, public policy, or art, feminist rhetoricians are advocating for social change. We will examine historical and contemporary feminist rhetorical theories, figures, and movements who have fought to create a better world. You will develop writing and advocacy projects that engage directly with feminist issues and movements that matter to you. (H&T)
WRT 496	Senior Research Seminar II: Writing Distinction	TBD	TBD	Collin Gifford Brooke			Students may earn the award of Distinction in Writing if they are a Writing major, have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.4 and a minimum GPA of 3.5 in WRT after taking at least four Writing and Rhetoric major courses. Rising seniors who meet these criteria are invited to enroll in WRT 495 - Senior Research Seminar I in the fall of their senior year (one credit) and WRT 496 - Senior Research Seminar II in the spring of their senior year (two credits) during which students must complete a thesis-length independent research or creative project.