Writing Program

From pop culture to academia, queer narratives are often equated with sexuality. As bell hooks states, being a queer person can include sexuality, but there is an important aspect of queerness we will focus on in this class: transformation. Queer folks have had to create and imagine new ways to survive and thrive in the world. So what does this mean for writing and thinking? To queer a narrative or idea means we will read and write and revise with attention to form and context, to challenge systems of power including patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, whiteness, cisgenderism, and heteronormativity. As writers and thinkers, we will “garner strength from the diversity of people’s stories, the diversity of people’s imagination” (bell hooks).

In this course, we will learn about narrative and the ethics of storytelling by enacting queer reading lenses and interrogating traditional models of writing. We will analyze queer narratives through memoirs, graphic novels, short stories, poetry, and experimental genres, and we’ll examine queer representations in pop culture such as television, movies, music, and social media. Students will write and re-imagine various genres and forms such as personal narrative, analysis, argument, and creative writing.

As we discuss readings and construct our own writing, we will consider Timothy Oleksiak’s definition of queer rhetorical listening, in which “we catch ourselves in an unending stream of response and transformation…An unending commitment to be transforming.” To this end, we will explore the following questions: How does writing relate to identity formation? What does it mean to queer the writing process? How is queerness constructed under systems of power? How does queer writing and rhetoric affect our individual lives, relationships, and communities? And how can queer lenses help us challenge and explore new meanings? Together, as bell hooks imagined, we will “invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”

WRI 111 R: Writing Seminar: Uncovering the Past, Shaping the Future
Prof. Jennifer Conlon
WRI 111-R: WF 3:30-4:45pm
“I do not remember the days
before America — I do not remember the days
when we were all here.”
–Natalie Diaz, “American Arithmetic”

In this course, we will become detectives of the past and advocates for the future. We will interrogate the dominant narratives of U.S. history and uncover the narratives which have been overlooked or erased through violence. We will study the ways that stories we write about the past shape our futures. As James Baldwin once said, “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” In order to reveal the histories we carry, we will read and write and revise with attention to form and context, to challenge systems of power including patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, whiteness, cisgenderism, and heteronormativity.

Our coursework will examine the relationship between public memory and social movements in the U.S., considering how public memory is affected by each presidential administration. According to an analysis by The New York Times, “more than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites have been taken down” in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration this January. Many of the pages housed critical information pertaining to vaccines, scientific research, hate crimes, and LGBTQ+ people. State department websites have changed “LGBTQ” to just “LGB,” and have removed pages that use the words “transgender” or “inclusion.” We will explore the effects censorship has on our histories and futures, especially for marginalized folks.

In Toni Morrison’s essay “The Site of Memory,” she asserts that this practice is critical for all writers but “also critical for any person who is black, or who belongs to any marginalized category, for, historically, we were seldom invited to participate in the discourse even when we were its topic.” Readings will include historical texts, memoirs, essays, poetry, and speculative fiction. By the end of the semester, you will become empowered by the skills you build through research, rhetorical analysis, and storytelling.

WRI 111 S: Writing Seminar: Rhetoric of Place: Exploring the Intersection of Place and Identity
Prof. Elka Staley
WRI 111-S: MWF 8:00-8:50am
Exploring rhetorical approaches to place means uncovering complexity and conflict. It means analyzing where “culture” comes from, loss and recovery, the natural environment, urban and rural landscapes, and considering the ways in which places change through time, both gradually and suddenly, and the people who are most affected by those changes.

Perhaps most importantly, we cannot consider “place” without considering “identity.” Reflecting upon where you are from, and how that place has shaped your identity, is not a simple task. Even very common terms like citizen, country, and resident are loaded with meaning and controversy. Why are some people willing to die for their country? What does it mean to belong to a land, to be a local, a native, or to be an outsider, or an expat? What does home mean? Who shapes these narratives, and whom are the stories about? Even describing your “happy place” reveals so much about you. We will also consider imaginary places like our lives online, or the virtual universes of video games, virtual reality, etc.

We will write shorter personal narratives and rhetorical analysis, as well as a longer research-based essay–your choice of a cultural ethnography about a specific group of people in a specific place, or an argumentative essay that persuasively shares your views about a chosen place and its role in shaping identity. You will write a short book review of The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, which is the only text you will have to purchase.For your final, you will create a photo essay centered on a specific place and topic. Throughout the semester we will participate in written and verbal discussions about a variety of texts and genres: nonfiction, fiction, memoir, travel/nature writing, film, television, etc. Selections could include texts from Zadie Smith, Mark Twain, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Sedaris, Roxanne Gay, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sherman Alexie, Rebecca Solnit, and more.

WRI 111 T/U: Writing Seminar: Everyday Rhetoric and Writing in Popular Culture
Prof. Andrew Kendra
WRI 111-T: TR 3:30-4:45pm
WRI 111-U: TR 5:00-6:15pm
When we hear the term “rhetoric,” we typically think about the lectures of ancient philosophers or the speeches of tricky politicians; however, rhetoric is deeply ingrained in everyday aspects of our modern life. Rhetoric is a part of everything that surrounds us from the way that we dress to the things that we buy to the way that we communicate – any time that a message is communicated with an audience or purpose in mind, an argument is made and rhetoric is enacted. The influx of rhetorical messaging in everyday “texts” becomes even more striking as we spend more time online or on digital devices. While we are all subjected to thousands of rhetorical messages on a daily basis, we are often unaware of their power of persuasion.

In this class, we will look directly at the rhetorical messaging in our popular culture and ask questions such as: how does advertising shape the way we see the world? Can social media posts change the state of a nation? What could music videos or sitcoms tell us about academic genres? What are the ethical obligations of a celebrity or influencer? How does what we read online affect what we write and who we are as a culture? By asking these types of questions, we can break the cycle as mass consumers of popular culture and media and we will learn how to thoughtfully digest information and critically engage with the rhetorical world around us.

During this class, we will expand our understanding of rhetoric by locating examples of rhetorical texts in our everyday lives. Through the critical reading and analysis of popular media such as music videos, commercials, viral videos, and social media posts, we will begin to unpack the underlying power that these rhetorical messages have in our everyday lives. Throughout our rhetorical inquiry, we will read scholarly texts such as academic articles and conference presentations as well as non-scholarly texts such as song lyrics and a scene from popular television shows. We will not only have a wide range of readings, but we will also compose in multimodal ways. During this class, we will develop student-driven writing projects including argumentative rhetorical analysis, genre remix, individual blogging, and inquiry-based research. As part of our work in the class, we will also develop a writer’s website that demonstrates their engagement as critical consumers and producers of modern rhetorical texts.

WRI 111 V: Writing Seminar: Your Brain on Writing
Prof. Erin Branch
WRI 111-V: MWF 11:00-11:50am
In late 2022, the arrival of ChatGPT struck fear in the hearts of teachers everywhere and prompted journalists and pundits to proclaim the death of the essay. While the full impact of this new tool (and others like it) remains to be seen, what is known is that thinkers have debated for centuries how and why we write–and what writing is good for. In fact, Socrates himself thought writing was nothing more than a useful reminder.

But his view runs directly counter to what many writing scholars know today, which is that writing is one way to figure out what we think. Writing is not, despite romantic ideals to the contrary, the simple transcription of clear and distinct ideas from brain to page (or screen).

Ideas and arguments develop through the process of writing itself, messy as that might be. As Anne Carson writes, writing is about “the struggle to drag a thought over from the mush of the unconscious into some kind of grammar, syntax, human sense; every attempt means starting over with language, starting over with accuracy.” 

This course will investigate ideas about what exactly IS happening in our brains when we write, and how modern technology intersects with those processes. We’ll study arguments about invention and the writing process from various fields as we develop our own protocols for capturing, articulating, and analyzing writing processes. Readings may include philosophical arguments, academic research articles, contemporary journalism, and personal essays; writing projects include narratives, profiles, anthologies, and researched arguments.

WRI 111 W/X: Writing Seminar: Why Are You Here? Finding Your Place Through Writing
Prof. Keri Epps
WRI 111-W: MW 12:30-1:45pm
WRI 111-X: TR 2:00-3:15pm
Why are you here?

Really think about it. What brought you to Wake Forest University? To this Writing 111 class? Why do you want to be in this place, here and now, and where do you want to go?

This section of WRI 111 explores this provocative question from multiple angles, encouraging you to consider your roles and places in the university, in your prospective professional careers, in your hometowns, and in your current community of Winston-Salem. One possible angle is to examine the physical and material places you occupy, and another is to think about the subject positions you hold and perform as you try to find your “place” in any number of rhetorical situations.

To arrive at some possible answers, we will use writing as a mode of self-discovery, acceptance, and engagement. We will participate in creative writing processes, read texts about genre and rhetoric, and write across a range of genres for various real and intended audiences. By the end of the semester, you will have completed three major writing assignments, engaged in multiple rounds of workshopping and revisions, and composed a final portfolio that demonstrates your enhanced rhetorical skills and the beginnings of your responses to finding and (re)imagining your place.

WRI 111 Y/Z: Writing Seminar: On Play and Games
Prof. Marianne Erhardt
WRI 111-Y: MWF 12:00-12:50pm
WRI 111-Z: MWF 1:00-1:50pm
What does it mean to play?

In this class, we will write our way through an inquiry of games and play. What is play and why do we do it? What is the value of play and who determines that value? How does play function for children? For adults? What is play’s relationship to privilege? Who gets to play? What makes a game work? What makes it fair? How do our ways of playing and pretending reflect and shape culture?

We’ll treat writing itself as a form of play. Writers use tools. We make, follow and break rules. We write to explore, to attempt, to persuade, to win, to question, and to make sense of. Writing can be an act of play with the potential to engage countless readers, playmates, competitors, and referees.

We will develop our rhetorical skills while exploring topics such as gendered childhood toys, the dating game, politics, academia, video games, AI, music, sports, and fandom. The authors we study will come from a diversity of identities, experiences, and perspectives. Over the course of the semester, we will explore a variety of genres and complete three major projects, all with the support of a collaborative and playful class community.

Video game designer and writer Ian Bogost says that to play is “to take something – anything – on its own terms, to treat it as if its existence were reasonable.” He promises that “The power of games lies not in their capacity to deliver rewards or enjoyment, but in the structured constraint of their design, which opens up abundant possible spaces for play.” Let’s write together.

WRI 111 ZA: Writing Seminar:Rhetoric of Food
Prof. Hannah Harrison
WRI 111-ZA: WF 9:30-10:45am
Food does more for humans than secure our survival. Food cultivation, distribution, preparation,  and consumption reflect our values and maintain social norms. Just as food systems create communities, they also cause controversies and raise questions: Who has access to farmable land  and healthy food? Why? What constitutes a healthy diet and how can we educate everyone about nutrition? How can we cultivate and distribute food sustainably while confronting the realities of a changing climate and the needs of growing populations? What does the future of our food system look like and how can we adapt practices, technologies, and policies to improve it? Across your exploration, you’ll be encouraged to highlight the intersections of seemingly disconnected sectors  and fields to the food systems that sustain us. We’ll incorporate material from sustainability  perspectives as we learn about food systems issues. These concerns reflect the kinds of questions  that will ground your practice in critical reading, research, writing, and revision.

Your rhetorical thinking and your writing skills will develop through your engagement in the work  you’ll complete for this seminar- and workshop-style course. We’ll use Canvas Modules to guide our  workflow and we’ll engage with one another in class and online. You’ll read across a range of genres  and disciplines, including popular publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Civil Eats. Three units will explore various genres of writing, and your work from each unit will be  evaluated and graded using a portfolio method of assessment, which allows for—in fact, requires— ample feedback, revision, and reflection. For your first unit project, you’ll complete an essay that  profiles a local food systems “actor” (an advocacy group, business, organization, or individual) and  analyzes their digital media presence. Next, you’ll write an essay that summarizes and synthesizes the  public debate that you’ve elected to explore. Then, you’ll apply what you’ve learned to your own  persuasive work. You’ll choose your genre and mode of delivery (eg: an editorial article, an advocacy  letter, a podcast, a website) for the third project, and you’ll create research-informed compositions  that advance a position and an idea for action around the controversy you’ve studied. Throughout the course, you’ll participate in low-stakes instructional exercises, reflective writing assignments, and  peer feedback reviews to prepare for each unit project and portfolio compilation.

WRI 111 ZB/ZC: Writing Seminar: Controversies
Prof. Hannah Harrison
WRI 111-ZB: WF 11:00-12:15pm
WRI 111-ZC: TR 2:00-3:15pm
When you read or hear the word “argument,” what do you think of first? A fight between individuals? or a series of reasonable claims, reasons, and evidence? When you encounter the word “controversy,” what comes to mind? A heated public scandal? a publicly-debated issue? In this course, we’ll discuss these concepts and their application to situated writing practices using rhetorical theory. While the definition of “rhetoric” is a longstanding controversy itself, we’ll refer to Aristotle’s description of rhetoric as our touchstone: the study of rhetoric offers techniques for “discovering, in any particular case, all of the available means of persuasion.” By the end of the semester, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how rhetorical awareness can help us better understand and engage with arguments and controversies, particularly through writing and composition.

In WRI 111 “Controversies,” you’ll read about rhetorical theory and genre analysis as our main theoretical foundations for writing studies. Students will learn practical writing skills and strategies that they can transfer to a variety of situations for writing, from the academic and professional to the creative and personal. To adopt new strategies and develop existing strengths, students will complete scaffolded exercises designed to facilitate their growth as independent, confident writers. These low-stakes assignments will be completed for homework and during class time so that students have opportunities to engage with and learn from their peers. Students will create at least two project portfolios which will include a range of rhetorical genres and purposes: analysis, evaluation, narrative, summary, description, argumentation, feedback, and reflection. You should leave the class feeling more confident that you can respond effectively to any rhetorical situation that calls for thoughtful, persuasive, and sometimes conventional or otherwise innovative composition.

We will approach this range of rhetorical genres and purposes through the lens of publicly-debated controversies. This means that students will identify and research discourse communities and stakeholders that participate in ongoing debates. Topics may relate to students’ academic, profession, and/or personal interests. For example, a student curious about political science might research debates about the current state of American Democracy. A student considering a career in a medical field could explore opinions about healthy eating or access to affordable healthcare. Students concerned about climate change might research what scientists, politicians, and the public say about warming oceans and how to mitigate their effects on humans and animals. These are just a few examples of the publicly-debated, contemporary topics of controversy that you might consider as you develop your writing skills this semester. Ultimately, regardless of the topic, you will be encouraged to adopt a “growth mindset” and self-direct your engagement with the course in consultation with the instructor.

WRI 111 ZD: Writing Seminar: Rewriting
Prof. Danielle Koupf
WRI 111-ZD: TR 9:30-10:45am

“No text is sacred. The best writers know this. Fiction or nonfiction, poetry or reportage, it can all be endlessly tinkered with, buffed, polished, reshaped, rearranged.” –Jennifer B. McDonald, The New York Times

Many writers have claimed that all writing is rewriting. In this class, we will explore this sentiment by engaging in three dominant forms of rewriting. First, we will regularly tinker in class—that is, creatively rewrite the texts we are reading (both published texts and student texts) to gain greater insight into them and to practice new writing techniques. Through tinkering, we will modify, improve, and in fact, sabotage others’ texts. Second, we will learn to position our ideas among others by carefully reading texts and (re)writing their ideas into our essays, whether by summarizing, forwarding, countering, critiquing, or imitating them. Finally, we will embrace McDonald’s notion, above, that “No text is sacred” and pursue substantial revision of our own texts by reimagining significant parts of them, such as the focus, argument, evidence, or organization.

We will read and respond to essays on a variety of topics while also examining different approaches to revision. This class challenges you to approach writing as a recursive process, to mess with writing that may already feel complete, and to take seriously the ideas of others and respond to them thoughtfully and patiently. You will leave this class with new stylistic, grammatical, and rhetorical techniques for writing; skills in integrating quotations and writing the voices of others into your writing; experience with substantial revision; and a portfolio of essays that have been carefully shaped, reshaped, and shaped again.

WRI 111 ZE/ZF: Writing Seminar: Originality and Invention
Prof. Danielle Koupf
WRI 111-ZE: TR 12:30-1:45pm
WRI 111-ZF: TR 2:00-3:15pm

“[A]ppropriation, mimicry, quotation, allusion, and sublimated collaboration consist of a kind of sine qua non of the creative act, cutting across all forms and genres in the realm of cultural production.” –Jonathan Lethem, “The Ecstasy of Influence”

You may have heard critics lament the lack of “original” content in today’s popular culture: more and more movies, television shows, and songs, it seems, are merely remakes, remixes, adaptations, sequels, prequels, or covers. How important is originality in writing, art, and media? Even Shakespeare adapted some of his ideas from history and literature. While the burden of originality can plague us as writers, adopting “unoriginal” techniques like collage and adaptation can free us of some of this burden. We can still be inventive and creative when composing with reused materials, as the line between “original” and “unoriginal” is blurry.

This course introduces you to invention as a rhetorical concept that encompasses both creation and discovery, meaning that invention can entail repetition just as it can entail generation. We will explore where ideas come from and how we can reliably generate them through invention processes. It is my aim to help you grow more aware of which tools for writing and invention work for you and what factors influence your writing and reading practices.

You will have ample opportunities to experiment with your writing. We will practice writing in a variety of styles, which may include exploration, personal reflection, critical analysis, researched writing, and collage writing. We will engage in frequent low-stakes writing assignments and undertake substantial revisions of our essays and projects. As we work on our writing, we will also work on our reading by examining unusual and challenging texts, annotating them thoroughly, and reflecting on our reading experiences.

WRI 111 ZG: Writing Seminar: Writing for College and Beyond
Prof. Zak Lancaster
WRI 111-ZG: TR 5:00-6:15pm
Writing well in college goes beyond crafting strong paragraphs and thesis statements. Research in Writing Studies shows that successful student-writers are not just linguistically skilled; more importantly, they are attuned to context, adept at recognizing and adapting their writing strategies, and rhetorically and stylistically flexible. This course is designed to help you develop these capacities by investigating how writing works: What counts as good writing in different contexts? What qualities of student writing do professors value, and how are these values expressed through language? How do successful writers adapt their writing to different courses, text types, and professors?

In exploring such questions, this section of WRI-111 takes writing itself as its central theme. We’ll be reading, discussing, and writing about writing. We’ll engage with foundational concepts from Writing Studies, focusing on ideas that will support you as you navigate university writing. You’ll practice analyzing writing across contexts that interest you—academic, professional, and public. You’ll experiment with writing in different styles for varied audiences and purposes, and you’ll have the opportunity to interview professors and upper-level students in majors that interest you. By the end of the course, you’ll approach writing with greater confidence and authority—both in college and beyond.

WRI 111 ZH: Writing Seminar: Writing as Public Action
Prof. Alisa Russell
WRI 111-ZH: MWF 10:00-10:50am
Have you found that you’re deeply passionate about an ideal, a stance, a movement, or an issue? You want to do something — engage with others, open a new line of thinking, and/or bring about change for your community. But how do you get in on the conversation? How do you reach a variety of audiences? This course focuses on a variety of written genres that allow one to engage and shape public conversations.

In the first half of the course, we will focus on learning the language of GENRE — the way various elements of writing (e.g., author/audience, main claims/stakes, evidence/appeals, organization/formatting, tone/style) come together in patterned ways to achieve particular actions in the world. No matter your major or career goals, writing will be part of your regular routine because it is how we record, communicate, argue, inform, understand, and share ideas across time and space. In this course, you will gain the analytical language and tools to figure out any new genre you may encounter in the future. Even more, we will keep a critical eye on these genres (e.g., who gets included and excluded? what values do they emphasize?), and we will even play with the boundaries of genre to investigate their flexibility.

In the second half of the course, we will use our new knowledge of genre to write about the public issues we care about most. You will choose which genres would best fulfill your chosen purpose and reach your chosen audiences in order to accomplish the public actions that will bring about positive change in your communities. We will compose genres across modes and mediums, and we will practice shifting rhetorical strategies from genre to genre to build our flexibility. We will especially consider how composing is rather messy: We’ll explore a number of writing processes and strategies, and you can experiment with which ones work for you, including ChatGPT. We’ll also find that writing is an inherently social activity; you will use your peers (and me) as resources for feedback and growth in your writing skills as part of your process.

WRI 111 ZI/ZJ/ZK: Writing Seminar: Us vs. Them
Prof. Elisabeth Whitehead
WRI 111-ZI: MWF 10:00-10:50am
WRI 111-ZJ: MWF 11:00-11:50am
WRI 111-ZK: MWF 1:00-1:50pm
Sometimes we choose the group, and sometimes the group chooses us.  But whether it is race, gender, religion, sexuality, a nation, a political party, or an ideology, we all can claim numerous group affiliations.  Group membership can fulfill important needs, helping us to negotiate and establish identity, reduce chaos, and create a sense of larger purpose.  It can also instill in us a feeling of safety and confidence, or even aid in our survival.  So, when is group alliance functioning in a life-giving way, and when does it become dangerous?

In this course we will be investigating the psychology and rhetoric of groups, especially as it relates to written text. We will look at themes such as conformity, obedience to authority, dispersal of responsibility, group privilege and power, and stereotypes.  We will discuss through what lens groups see each other, speak to each other, and write about each other, and will analyze texts about issues including censorship, racism, cults, and conspiracy theories among many others. In addition, we will study authors who embrace a very different vision, of empathy and inclusion, including Martin Luther King Jr. who once wrote: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

This is a reading and writing intensive course.  We will be exploring a variety of texts, including nonfiction essays, journalism, psychological studies, film, letters, speeches, poetry, and the graphic novel.  In addition to analytical and researched writing, you will also have the opportunity to write narratives from personal experience.

Texts may include work by Martin Luther King Jr., Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, Art Spiegelman, and Deborah Layton.

WRI 111 ZL/ZM/ZN: Writing Seminar: Wander, Gather, Write
Prof. Guy Witzel
WRI 111-ZL: TR 8:00-9:15am
WRI 111-ZM: TR 9:30-10:45am
WRI 111-ZN: TR 12:30-1:45pm
How often do you let your mind wander? How often do you allow your thoughts to drift without purpose? And what about your feet? Is there time in your schedule to step away from your work, step out into the world, and let happenstance and a good pair of shoes surprise you? Do you know the joys of strolling through the park, hitting the streets, hiking the trail, or otherwise getting your steps in? Such meandering journeys, whether in the land of daydreams or on dirt paths, can freshen your perspective and focus your attention in startling ways.

In this course we view wandering, be it out in the world or within the boundlessness of our very skulls, as vital to the practice of good writing. This may seem strange when we describe, for instance, the strong academic essay as focused, well-organized, and logical. And yet, without time to experiment, think on the page, stumble upon the unexpected, and gather new insights and experiences, strong writing rarely manifests.

Writing and wandering have long been fellow travelers. Our earliest written stories are rich with journeys, flights, migrations, and adventures-on-foot. This course invites students to embrace this tradition—symbolically, yes, through writing activities designed to let your mind roam free while improving your skills as a writer. But this course also asks students to venture forth literally. Assignments and class sessions will take students out of the classroom and onto the paths that wind through and just beyond campus, all in an effort to find and refine one’s voice, style, and place as a writer. Consequently, students will leave this course better equipped to gather and assess evidence, map critical conversations, challenge common sense, and invent meaning through writing.

WRI 111 ZO: Writing Seminar: Writing New Media Across Difference
Prof. García-Rentería
WRI 111-ZO: TR 3:30-4:45pm
In a world that is becoming more fragmented and interconnected at the same time, one of the most significant challenges we face is giving everyone an equal opportunity to express their own views. Modern democracies have responded to this challenge by expanding access to literacy and education, arguing that to participate successfully in public life, citizens need high levels of reading and writing skills. But how can education live up to the promise of equality through literacy in a society where memes and emojis are used as the primary means of expression?
This course is inspired by the principle that not only traditional reading and writing can allow you to participate fully in public and academic life, but also the kinds of reading and writing practices that resonate more with you. Using cutting-edge academic research, we will explore our understanding of literacy to consider visual, digital, and embodied means of expression and their relationship to identity, democracy, and power. We will study a broad range of media, from memes to urban art, using traditional academic writing and practical embodied activities like multimedia mapping workshops. Following a pedagogy of solidarity and caring, we will build common experiences that promote your autonomy in the choices you make about writing within the communicative context of college and beyond.

WRI 111 ZR/ZS/ZT: Writing Seminar: The Language of Health, Wellness, and Self-Care
Prof. Abby Bryan
WRI 111-ZR: TR 11:00-12:15pm
WRI 111-ZS: TR 2:00-3:15pm
WRI 111-ZT: TR 3:30-4:45pm
What does it mean to be well? Every day we are confronted with messages prompting us to care for our health and well-being. Influencers and celebrities promote the latest self-care trends on TikTok and Instagram, healthcare providers flood our inboxes with tips for “being well,” and big-box stores advertise an endless array of products promising to make us fitter, healthier, and happier. In this class, we will analyze how a variety of everyday wellness messages—from food blogs and meditation apps to university initiatives and wearable fitness technologies—shape how we think about health and well-being, often in subtle and even invisible ways.

Together we’ll ask: What do these everyday wellness messages suggest about what it means to be healthy and well? What assumptions do such messages make about bodies, normalcy, personal responsibility, and care? And, perhaps most importantly, how do these messages shape our own behaviors and influence how we care for ourselves and others? As we explore these questions, we’ll develop a set of analytical tools that will strengthen our skills as writers, researchers, and rhetors and enable us to engage critically with our contemporary wellness culture.

200- & 300-Level WRI Course Sections

WRI 210 A: Exploring Academic Genres: Writing as Knowledge Creation
Prof. Alisa Russell
WRI 210-A: MW 12:30-1:45pm
Questioning is a natural part of the human experience, and it forms the foundation of the academy in which scholars seek to build knowledge in their domains. Yet, how questions are asked and how answers are found can vary widely between disciplines — from the humanities to the sciences, from the social sciences to the performing arts. Each discipline has its own ways of asking questions, finding answers, and sharing results with others. What is the same across disciplines, though, is that this knowledge is built, crafted, and shared through writing. Writing becomes both process and product: It is used to guide research processes and craft findings. In this way, knowledge is both created and distributed through academic writing.

In this course, we will explore how writing shapes and sustains the work of academic disciplines. We will practice with the analytical tools and research methods that allow us to comparatively explore academic writing for what conventions make it effective in different disciplines, as well as what values and worldviews those conventions convey. We’ll explore different disciplinary genres, how they make arguments, their major organizational structures, sentence-level linguistic patterns, and their research/writing processes.

Therefore, this course will heighten your awareness as an academic reader and writer, and it will increase your flexibility to engage with academic (and non-academic) texts. Moreover, it will provide the opportunity to deep-dive into the writing (and therefore knowledge-building practices) of the discipline(s) in which you’re most interested. And of course, the main way we will explore academic writing is by…writing about it. We will thus aim to become a community of writers who frequently share their ideas and their work with one another for feedback and support.

WRI 212 A: Literary Nonfiction: The Art of the Essay
Prof. Marianne Erhardt
WRI 212-A: WF 9:30-10:45am
In Madness, Rack, and Honey, poet and essayist Mary Ruefle considers her relationship to writing. “I used to think I wrote because there was something I wanted to say. Then I thought, ‘I will continue to write because I have not yet said what I wanted to say’; but I know now I continue to write because I have not yet heard what I have been listening to.”

In this class, we will explore the essay as a vehicle for listening – to ourselves, to each other, and to the world. We will study mostly contemporary essayists, including Eula Biss, Junot Diaz, Ross Gay, Jan Jamil Kochai, Elena Passarello, Lia Purpura, Ocean Vuong, and others. We will read for pleasure, for rhetorical study, and for appreciation and development of craft. We will consider the history of the essay form, some of its many subgenres, and imagine its future.

Our writing together will be both critical and creative. We will develop three original essays with attention to the artistic and ethical questions inherent to literary nonfiction writing. What does it mean to be “creative” when telling the truth? What does it mean to pay attention, to listen? How do memory, curiosity, and research work together? What stories are mine to tell? Given my time and place in the world, what MUST I write? Along the way, we will practice generous and rigorous workshop habits to develop a robust and inclusive classroom community.

WRI 320 A: Writing in and about Science: Scientists as Writers and Writers as Scientists
Prof. Franziska Tsufim
WRI 320-A: WF 11:00-12:15pm
“Science is not finished, until it’s communicated,” says Mark Walport, the UK’s former Chief Scientific Advisor. From “flatting epidemic curves,” to “gigatons of carbon emission,” scientists routinely grapple with complex concepts and datasets that, while difficult to grasp by non-experts, can have a massive public impact. Breaking down and translating scientific findings for a general, sometimes skeptical, or outright hostile audience is therefore an essential skill to be mastered by any scientist or science writer. Think about it this way, what would become of scientific research if it remained inaccessible, locked away behind the doors of jargon and disciplinary nicheness? Does science even happen without someone writing about it broadly and accessibly?

In this writing class, we will focus on precisely this problem: From readers of the science section in newspapers, lovers of science podcasts, your uninitiated family and friends, to policymakers, as we write in and about science, we will learn how to take into consideration different audiences’ needs, expectations and expertise. And because these needs vary, our communicative approach will have to vary, too. To this end, our class projects will include a literature review, an interactive science article for a newspaper, and a hands-on science exhibit, that will teach us that successful science communication utilizes oral, visual, and electronic modes in synergy with writing to reach diverse stakeholders.

Just one more note, you don’t need to be a “sciencey” person to do well in this course. You should be curious about science and bring a willingness to investigate and explore the different types of writing, or acts of communication, that make it happen.
WRI 320 counts as an elective in the English major.
Click here to view WRI 320’s course flyer.

WRI 340 A/640 A: Practice in Rhetoric and Composition: 21st Century Writer: Digital Rhetoric and Multimodal Composition
Prof. Kendra Andrews
WRI 340-A/640-A: TR 12:30-1:45pm
For millennia, writing has been primarily associated with the interpretation and production of alphabetic text, a.k.a words printed on the page. However, with the advancements and increased access to computer technologies as well as the proliferation of digital media and online networks, what “writing” means for contemporary communication has shifted. A 21st century writer forges meaning not only from words on the printed page, but also combines those words with images, colors, sounds, videos, and digital design principles to produce rhetorically complex, multimodal texts.

In this class, we will explore what it means to be a 21st century writer who moves from the page to the screen in both theory and practice. We will develop our understanding of digital rhetoric and multimodal composition as more than critiquing writing used in digital spaces or producing simple texts to be seen online. The course will include an in-depth exploration of the theoretical and ideological issues involved with the shift from writing in text-only modes to writing with(in) new media. We will apply this expanded understanding of digital rhetoric and multimodal composition through projects involving various digital tools and methods of critical making.

Although previous computing knowledge or technical skill are not required to take this course, you must be willing to engage in topics related to writing in the 21st century, such as multimodal rhetorics, remix culture, artificial intelligence, participatory culture and social networks, digital storytelling, data visualization, or accessibility issues. We will apply these topics and theoretical approaches through active participation, experimentation, and production of course projects such as developing audio-visual projects, creating data and network visualizations, conducting digital inquiry research, exploring the role of the maker, and creating personal websites. We will explore composition with platforms such as the Adobe Creative Suite (primarily PhotoShop and Adobe Express), Wix Website Builder, the Google Suite, and the Wakerspace on campus. By the end of this course, you should be able to more easily recognize the rhetoricity of digital environments and demonstrate flexibility when composing in 21st century contexts.
WRI 340 counts as an elective in the English major.

WRI 344 A/JOU 340 A: Magazine Writing
Prof. Barry Yeoman
WRI 344-A/JOU 340-A: M 1:00-3:20pm
Students in this class will learn and practice the skills needed to produce magazine stories for publication. Focusing on a single topic of their own choosing all semester, they will be encouraged to write creatively and often. They will learn advanced principles of interviewing, document research, story structure, character development, and explanatory journalism. They will also read and analyze some of the best magazine stories written over the past thirty years.
WRI seats are limited. WRI 344 counts as an elective in the English major.