The Writing Studies model encompasses various approaches to meaning making across different rhetorical traditions, cultural contexts, technological platforms, and media environments. Writing Studies explores the proposition that cultures, rhetorics, and technologies are intertwined in consequential ways. Students are encouraged to take courses in various genres or modes of composition, including the digital in its various forms, as well as courses that analyze and theorize writing, rhetorics, and cultures. Writing Studies complements related models such as Cultural Studies, Feminisms, Genders, and Sexualities, Film and Media Studies, and Studies in Theory, but the model can be coordinated with coursework across the full curriculum. The model is designed for those who want to improve their writing and their critical understanding of writing and its relation to rhetorics and cultures.
The model requires five courses specific to writing studies, two courses with an emphasis on cultural rhetorics/studies/theory and three additional courses offered by the English Department.
Writing Studies Courses (Choose 5):
- ENC 3250 Professional Communication
- ENC 3310 Advanced Exposition
- ENC 3312 Advanced Argumentative Writing
- ENC 3414 Hypermedia
- ENC 4212 Professional Editing
- ENC 4260 Advanced Professional Writing
- ENG 3063Advanced Grammar: Analysis and Application
- SPC 4680 Rhetorical Criticism
Courses with an Emphasis on Cultural Rhetorics/Studies/Theory (Note: Some courses are variable topics) (Choose 2):
- AML 4311 Major Figures of American Literature and Culture
- AML 4453 Studies in American Literature and Culture
- AML 4685 Race and Ethnicity
- ENG 3010 The Theory and Practice of Modern Criticism
- ENG 3011 The Theorists
- ENG 3113 The Movies as Narrative Art
- ENG 4136 Film and Video Production
- ENG 4139 Television and Electronic Culture
- LIT 3003 The Forms of Narrative
- LIT 3400 Interdisciplinary Topics in Literature
- LIT 3362 The Age of the Avant-Garde
- LIT 4483 Issues and Methods in Cultural Studies
- LIT 4233 Postcolonial Literature, Culture, and Theory
- LIT 4930 Variable Topics in Literature and Language (check for topic)
Three additional courses drawn from offerings by the English Department.
These can include courses in Creative Writing as well as literature and film and can also include independent study, internship, and honors thesis work as appropriate.
Faculty
Department of English faculty who regularly teach courses in this model include:
- Victor Del Hierro – Digital Writing, Cultural Rhetoric, Hip Hop
- Sidney Dobrin – Writing Studies, Digital Media, Environmental Rhetoric/Ecocriticism/Ecocomposition
- Laura Gonzales – Digital Writing, Technical Communication, User-Experience
- Raúl Sánchez – Composition Studies, Composition Theory, Critical Theory