Workshop discussions and practice in basic elements of the writing process. Introduces basic concepts of rhetoric and communication and applies them to writing and collaboratively revising and editing longer formal texts. Contrastive study of rhetoric across disciplinary and professional communities. Develops expertise in the rhetorical and intellectual skills and arts of writing, examining relationships between general principles and knowledge of content or situation. Sections select particular arts, types, or problems of writing.
Students investigate, read, write about, and practice writing for nonacademic settings.
The course will be conducted in a seminar format where we read and analyze 20th century American writers and conduct workshops on class members' writing projects. In addition, we will work with community residents at a public school and in local retirement homes who wish to compose their life stories. This experience offers SU students a chance to improve their own writing skills and to understand more about themselves and others, about language use and learning, about public education, and about community activism. At the end of the course we will design a collaborative project to bring together what we have struggled with, questioned, learned, and accomplished. Students must have a block of time free each week during the school day to go to the public high school.