Writing toward Linguistic Justice

(4 Credits)

Immerses students in debates over conceptions of voice in the field of writing studies. Starting with the controversial 1974 resolution on “Students’ Rights to Their Own Language,” the course uses case studies to explore four questions: What is writing? What does writing do? How do writers write? What rules must writers follow and why? By studying these questions, students will expand their rhetorical repertoires and develop critical awareness of how conceptions of language, writing, and voice contribute to patterns of discursive privilege and disadvantage. They will use their emerging understandings to analyze contemporary public debates.