Writing and Culture

0 or 3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

An intensive seminar, enrolling no more than 15 students, focused on developing students’ ability to use writing as a tool for inquiry, to develop their writing through an iterative process, and to practice writing in different rhetorical situations. The Writing and Culture Seminar helps students develop their ability to: • read critically in ways that are attentive to language, context, and form • write in ways that are appropriate for different rhetorical situations, with awareness of genre, context, and technology • deploy language’s many resources, including its figurative power as well as conventions of grammar, punctuation, syntax, and semantics, to shape and communicate meaning with clarity and fluency • research, evaluate, and synthesize appropriate evidence in order to build and support effective analyses and arguments Students in this course will demonstrate rhetorical agility by composing in a variety of genres. Because learning to write effectively benefits from sustained practice along with informed feedback, students will be given opportunities to revise papers. In addition to formal assignments, writing will also be used as a tool for inquiry in frequent low-stakes writing opportunities such as reflections and response papers. While a variety of readings may be assigned, WRIT 1155 is not intended to be a literature-based course.