Writing Studies: A Course Overview

Welcome to Introduction to Writing Studies,  a course geared towards examining the dynamism of writing. In today's hyper-connective world with continuously evolving technologies, the demands of communication continue to grow and transform as the writing spaces we inhabit continue to develop and shift. Beyond our examination of the ways emerging technologies and web based writing spaces transform writing and communication, we will also examine the discipline of rhetoric. We will examine how communities of practice (also known as discourse communities) shape writing practices, utilize genres, and communicate in intricate ways to achieve goals. Our exploration will also examine the constructedness of writing to better understand how writers produce texts, how readers construct meaning from texts, and how misconceptions of writing practices emerge. Additionally, we will look at how our perceptions of writing are shaped by past experiences and explore how our writing processes work (or at times do not work).

No one can be certain of how modes and ways of communication will transform and develop over the next few decades, but if recent developments in connectivity and information exchange are any indication of the road ahead, we should expect the evolution of how communication happens to transform with increasing rapidity. What kinds of communication and writing will you be doing in ten years? How will the communities within which you participate shape modes of communication? What kinds of identities will you assume as you write and communicate in new and more highly sophisticated ways?

The aforementioned questions are tough to answer, and even the brightest minds of today have trouble predicting exactly what to expect. Though no one is certain of what the future will hold, this course is geared towards preparing you for a new world of hyper-interactive communication. In many ways we are already living in a world of hyper-communication. With text messages, tweets, status updates, blogs, chat rooms, online games, Skype, and other genres, we are communicating in complex ways that were considered science-fiction just two decades ago.

Unit 1: A study of your psychology of literacy: Where are you going, Where have you been? 

The first unit of the course examines your literate past and how you became the reader and writer you are today. Unit one calls you to to think critically about past moments, experiences, and relationships that impacted your literacy development. Who were the people who shaped your conception of what good writing is? How have your reading and writing habits been influenced by people or institutions? How have your conceptions of yourself as a reader and writer developed over time and what what factors have been most influential? 

Unit 2: Deconstructing the bridge to nowhere: Exploring how writing is constructed and how writing constructs develop 

The second unit explores how language and writing are constructed and examines writing conventions across different contexts. For many years of high school, middle school, and even grade school, students are inundated with 'rules' that are set up to produce better writers. However, there often isn't enough attention focused on why conventions develop as they do. Unit three explores the constructedness of writing from the perspective of rhetorical theory. Any situation is rhetorical when communication is used to try and convince another to change a perspective, take action, or adopt a new position. Something as simple as telling a friend that his room feels warm is rhetorical because the speaker is using language to persuade the listener to take action to make the room more comfortable. The final paper of this unit calls you to deliver a rhetorical analysis of an essay contest of your choosing, and then write the contest essay itself.

Unit 3:  A field site observation calling you to explore communication, culture, and other intricacies of a community you choose.

Our fourth unit explores how communities develop specific cultural and communicative tenancies. While at church, or at a job site, or out with friends at a coffee shop, different personae emerge and different approaches to communication and varying relationship dynamics come into play. The final ethnography project calls you to visit and observe a field site of your choosing multiple times over the course of a month. You are tasked with developing a sense of rapport with community members and should interview at least one member of the community you are investigating. Your project culminates in a ethnographic field report where you explore an angle or reveal interesting aspects related to the community you investigate. You should use the skills you learned in previous units to help you draft a well-crafted ethnographic field report.