Spring 2022 WRT courses

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

Course	Title	Day	Time	Instructor	Room	Syllabus	Description
WRT 114	Writing Culture			Multiple Instructors			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	TTH	9:30-10:50	Rae Ann Meriwether			Students analyze satire (essays from McSweeney's and The Onion, television like The Colbert Report and The Chappelle Show, movies like Borat and Get Out) in order to understand its diverse purposes, effects on audiences, and the role it plays in various contexts. As students become aware of the social and political power that satire can yield, they will practice writing their own satirical works in various media and modes. They will also reflect on the “real world” work that their writing does or tries to do.
WRT 118	Writing for a Better You	TTH	3:30-4:50	Andrea Constable			Each day we use a variety of writing tools and genres to communicate with, identify with, and persuade others. But how can we use writing as a means to better our own health, improve our mental resilience, and find clarity in our lives? WRT 118 will introduce you to expressive writing as a healthful and mindful activity. In WRT 118, you will have the opportunity to learn the craft of writing for personal wellness and acquire transferable skills that can help you become a more mindful and generative writer and listener.
WRT 240	Writing through Health:	MW	3:45-5:05	Robin McCrary			How can we use writing to explore and respond to health, wellness, and illness? Whether as health specialists or non-specialists, how might we respond to topics around health/wellness/illness in ways that can further our understanding? In this inaugural course, you will engage with current media conversations- including but not limited to life writing, research articles, genres within the health humanities, and op-eds. In addition, we write about current issues contributing to our cultural understanding and debates surrounding health/wellness/illness. (G&P)
WRT 255	Advanced Writing Studio: Advanced Argumentative Writing	MW	12:45-2:05	Lois Agnew			Intensive practice in the analysis and writing of advanced arguments for a variety of settings: public writing, professional writing, and organizational writing. (Core Requirement for Majors & Minors.)
WRT 300/HUM 300	Public Rhetoric & Writing	TTH	3:30-4:50	Brice Nordquist			How can we write with communities in contexts of crisis? How can our rhetorics make and move publics? This inaugural course in the interdisciplinary Living Humanities seminar series considers the abilities and responsibilities of writers to understand and respond to the complex, pressing, and globally interconnected problems of local communities. Together, we will study and meet with writers and artists pursing social and cultural reform, and we’ll practice strategies for ethical and impactful public research and communication by identifying, studying, and writing in response to problems in our own communities. (G&P)
WRT 302	Advanced Writing Studio: Digital Writing	TTH	11:00-12:20	Sidney Turner			Practice in writing in digital environments. May include document and web design, multimedia, digital video, weblogs. Introduction to a range of issues, theories, and software applications relevant to such writing. (Core Requirement for Majors.)
WRT 307	Advanced Writing Studio: Professional Writing			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 (U801)	Advanced Writing Studio: Style	Winterlude 12/20/2021-1/14/2022		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 413	Rhetoric and Ethics	TTH	9:30-10:50	Jonna Gilfus			Introduces historical conversations concerning rhetoric’s ethical responsibilities and explores complications that emerge as assumed historic connections between language and truth, justice, community, and personal character are deployed in various social, political, cultural, national, and transnational contexts. (Core req. for majors)
WRT 422	Studies in Creative Nonfiction	MW	5:15-6:35	Robin McCrary			How might we utilize creative nonfiction as a tool to explore social identities? How can studying and practicing forms of creative nonfiction serve to address the conditions affecting minoritized/marginalized identities? To address these questions, this course surveys a selection of texts pointed toward the numerous cultural exigencies propelling creative nonfiction. In particular, the authors surveyed will focus on lived experiences of racism, sexism, gender bigotry, ableism, etc.--toward utilizing memoir & the essay to interrogate, and resist, the power dynamics creating the conditions in which social bias thrives. (G&P)
WRT 424	Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, Identity	MW	12:45-2:05	Kevin Browne			This course will explore rhetoric as an inherently multimodal practice of being. We will challenge the assumptions and limitations of rhetorical form—regarding the written word, still and moving images, the material features of objects, to name a few—as we consider what counts as an effective argument in these times. Together, we will explore methods that inform our relationship to rhetoric as an art of human expression that operates beyond the boundaries of persuasion. We will also contribute to the conversation by producing and displaying works of our own unique design. Class will be a hybrid seminar-workshop. (H&T)
WRT 430	Advanced Experience in Writing Consultation	MW	8:00-9:20	Ben Erwin			A continuation of WRT 331, allowing students to continue their consultant experience in the Writing Center. (G&P)
WRT 440	Politics of Language and Writing:	TTH	12:30-1:50	Tony Scott			We are living in a time in which our daily news feeds can seem like the beginning of a dystopian movie. The everyday realities of a global pandemic; wildfires, drought and hurricanes; forced migration; border closures; political violence and polarity can lead to anxiety and cynicism. In this course we will discuss various modalities of texts that don’t just document ruin but also offer examples of how writing can open possibilities for seeing, understanding and promoting connectivity and optimism “in the ruins.” Developing a semester-long project will enable you to experiment with genres and modalities of composition. (H&T)
WRT 447	Professional and Technical Writing in a Global Context	TTH	9:30-10:50	Cynthia Pope			Complexities arising in writing technical documents for a wide range of audiences, including other cultures and workplaces both domestically and internationally. Addresses ways that systems of knowledge, interfaces, design processes, and instructional mechanisms affect users. (H&T)
							This course introduces you to technical and professional writing under global contexts. We will analyze and create texts that work to communicate across cultures and workplaces, both domestically and internationally. We will explore complex writing situations, practice workplace genres, and consider how systems of knowledge, interfaces, design processes, and instructional mechanisms affect users. This course emphasizes documents that are goal-driven and is appropriate for all majors. (H&T)