Fall 2008 (click a title to learn more)

Arguing Publicly, Arguing Personally—WRT 255: Advanced Argumentative Writing

Eileen E. Schell
TTH 11:00-12:20, #39520

What arguments make you sit up and pay attention, and which ones do you tune out? Who is the “person” or community behind specific arguments, and why does the “personal” matter? In this course, we will address how writers navigate the challenges of making personal arguments in public settings. Along the way, you will have the opportunity to study different theories and approaches to making effective arguments that matter personally to you. Finally, we will examine how arguments work to build solidarity, drive wedges, and create specific kinds of communities and social worlds. This course also will help students explore options for constructing and maintaining electronic writing portfolios.

Writing the Election—WRT 301:Advanced Writing Studio: Civic Writing

Lois Agnew
TTH 9:30-10:50, #18001

We are told that in an election, every vote counts. Yet many people believe that their voices aren’t really heard, even in an election year. In this course, we will contest that assumption by writing our way into the 2008 Presidential election. During the course of the semester, we will define and debate issues central to the campaign, analyze political discourse about those issues, discuss how changing audiences and contexts affect political conversations, and discover how writing can provide us with ways of becoming active participants in those conversations.

Writing in Digital Spaces—WRT 302: Digital Writing

George Rhinehart
TTH 5:00-6:20, #17390

The technologies of writing have changed, are changing, will change. Ideograms to page to screen. Today's "new media" is tomorrow's old news. Readings will explore cognition, the history and future of writing technologies, visual design, and information architecture. Writing media will include blogs, tagging, mashups, wikis, video, animation, webpages, podcasts, and whatever new happens between now and then. Prior experience with these technologies is neither required nor expected, but creativity and willingness to experiment are.

The Rhetorics of Research—WRT 303: Research and Writing

Tricia Serviss
TTH 3:30-4:50

How is research used to shape beliefs about pressing national issues such as the Iraq war, immigration, and health care? How does research operate as a persuasive tool in public discourses? We will explore the ways in which research is conducted and used to shape audience perceptions. As we grapple with questions such as—What counts as credible research? What purposes do different genres of research serve?—we’ll develop a rhetorical awareness of how to conduct and employ research in our own work. Students will design and implement their own research projects in creative ways that attend to the demands of their unique audiences.

WRT 307: Professional Writing

WRT 307 is taught by multiple instructors at various times. The following is the catalog description:

"Professional communication through the study of audience, purpose, and ethics. Rhetorical problem-solving principles applied to diverse professional writing tasks and situations."

Writers Beyond the Classroom—WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum

Jason Luther
TTH 2:00-3:20, #18816

This course is an excellent resume builder, ideal for those seeking real teaching experiences outside of the classroom. Throughout our course, you will acquire the skills needed to work one-to-one with a variety of writers, helping them shape and form voices which serve the diverse needs of their audiences and classroom or community, professor or politician. You’ll accomplish this by exploring your own writing habits, reflecting and comparing our writing experiences (in and out of the classroom), investigating current theories of consulting, and most importantly actually applying these consulting practices when working with student writers at SU (through our Writing Center) and in the city of Syracuse.

Stranger than Fiction—WRT 422: Studies in Creative Nonfiction

Minnie Bruce Pratt
MW 12:45-2:05, #18817

This class in reading and writing creative nonfiction emphasizes texts and themes from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) lives. Creative nonfiction is a genre particularly congenial to students who write from multiple perspectives, complex bodied identities, varied ethnicities and nationalities, several sexes or sexualities, multiple or trans gender experiences, and layered locations and/or languages. Reading focus is on LGBT creative nonfiction, and writing focus is on students' exploration of themes of bodies, genders, and sexualities through CNF. Students gain CNF skills using techniques of fiction, memoir, poetry, drama.

Writing in the City—WRT 428: Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy

Steve Parks
MW 5:15-6:35, #24309

What are the theories and insights which inform writing designed for urban audiences to produce change? How do marginalized urban communities organize, theorize, and actualize writing projects designed to alter their political and social position? This class will attempt to answer these questions by reading theories of social change and by studying how urban communities in Syracuse have addressed such issues as disability rights, labor conditions, and public school reform. Depending on student interest, the possibility of a community-based project can be considered.

Rhetoric and Politics of the Black Sermon—WRT 440: Studies in the Politics of Language and Writing

Adam Banks
MW 3:45-5:05, #17391

Using the upcoming 40th anniversary of James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power as a context, this course will examine the rhetorical history of Black Theology as a movement that had the explicit goal of uniting the radical democratic aims of the Civil Rights movement with the Black Power movement and various strands of Black nationalism. The course will also explore the depths of the Black sermonic tradition as an instrument of liberation, from the language and discursive patterns to the persuasive strategies employed in individual sermons and rhetorical texts by public figures appropriating elements of the Black sermon.

Prior Semesters

2007-2008

Spring 2008
Argument and Community—WRT 255 : Advanced Argumentative Writing	Lois Agnew
Civic Space in New City—WRT 301: Civic Writing	Christina Feikes
Scholarship in Action—WRT 303: Research Writing	Madeline Yonker
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
It's All About How You Say It—WRT 308: Style	Molly Voorheis
Life, Love, and Liberation —WRT 423: African American Rhetoric	Adam Banks
Rap, Race, Rhetoric, and Identity—WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Gwendolyn Pough
Writing the Digital Divide—WRT 426: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Information Technology	Iswari Pandey

Fall 2007
Writing for Local and Global Audiences—WRT 255 : Advanced Argumentative Writing	Iswari Pandey
Engagement Through Writing—WRT 301: Civic Writing	Adam Banks
Writing the Digital Zeitgeist—WRT 302: Digital Writing	Ty O'Bryan
Writing for Enthusiasts—WRT 303: Research Writing	Henry Jankiewicz
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Writing Beyond the Classroom—WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum	Jason Luther
Stranger Than Fiction—WRT 422: Studies in Creative Nonfiction	Minnie Bruce Pratt
Writing in Schools and Communities—WRT 428: Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy	Jonna Gilfus
Writing About The Media—WRT 440: Studies in the Politics of Language and Writing	Steve Thorley

2006-2007

Spring 2007
Writing For Our Local and Global Communities: The Word, the Image, and the Screen—WRT 301: Civic Writing	Eileen Schell
Research Writing in an Online World—WRT 303: Research Writing	Kurt Stavenhagen
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Stylin'—WRT 308: Style	Jeff Simmons
Writers Beyond Classrooms—WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum	Jason Luther
Public Intellectuals, Cultural Critics, and “Pop Culture” Analysts: Writing Self and Society—WRT 422: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Gwendolyn Pough
Troubling Bodies: Race, Gender, and Sexuality—WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Elisa Norris
Writing for Web 2.0 —WRT 426: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Information Technology	Collin Gifford Brooke

Fall 2006
The Active Writer—WRT 301: Civic Writing	Lois Agnew
The Digital and Its Links—WRT 302: Digital Writing	Derek Mueller
Radical Syracuse—WRT 303: Research Writing	Nance Hahn
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Peer Consultant Practicum—WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum	Jason Luther
Where Do We Go From Here? Contemporary African American Rhetoric—WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Adam Banks
Authors, Writers, Heroes—WRT 428: Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy	Rebecca Moore Howard
Class Warfare: Campus & Community—WRT 440: Studies in the Politics of Language and Writing	Steve Parks

2005-2006

Spring 2006
From Spray Paint to Blogs: Activist Writing —WRT 301: Civic Writing	Steve Park
Research Noir—WRT 303: Research Writing	Jeff Simmons
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Constructing Style—WRT 308: Style	Lois Agnew
Advanced Editing Studio—WRT 340: Advanced Editing Studio	Chris Madden-Feikes
Writing a Sense of Place: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop —WRT 422: Studies in Creative Nonfiction	Eileen Schell
Race, Rhetoric, and Technology —WRT 426: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Information Technology	Adam Banks


Fall 2005
Writing for Change—WRT 301: Civic Writing	Molly Voorheis
Jacking the Frame (Technological Remediation and Re-culturation)—WRT 302: Digital Writing	Madeline Yonker
Argument in the 21st Century—WRT 303: Research Writing	Rebecca Moore Howard
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum	Vivian Rice
WRT 427/627: Writing in Design and Development Environments (Online)	George Rhinehart
Sermons, Standups, and the Spoken Word: Rhetoric in the African American Oral Tradition —WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Adam Banks
Black Women and Literacy—WRT 428: Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy	Gwendolyn Pough
Language and the Public—WRT 440 : Studies in the Politics of Language and Writing	Lois Agnew

2004-2005

Spring 2005
</writing>—WRT 302: Digital Writing	George Rhinehart
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Experimenting With Styles—WRT 308: Style	Rebecca Moore Howard
WRT 340: Advanced Editing Studio	Eileen Moeller
The Art of Creating Memoir—WRT 422: Studies in Creative Non-Fiction	Maureen Puetzer
Paul Robeson, the Black Left, and the Movement Between the Movements—WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity)	Adam Banks
WRT 430: Advanced Writing Consultation	Vivian Rice

Fall 2004
Environmental Activism—WRT 301: Civic Writing	David Nentwick
Language, Culture, and Information —WRT 303: Research and Writing	Tennyson O'Donnell
WRT 307: Professional Writing	Multiple Instructors
Peer Writing Consultant Practicum—WRT 331: Peer Writing Consultant Practicum	Vivian Rice
Memoir and Public Voice —WRT 422: Studies in Creative Non-Fiction	Amanda Brown
Self-Presentation/Media Representation —WRT 424: Studies in Writing, Rhetoric, and Identity	Burgess
Writing, Schools, and Power —WRT 428: Studies in Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy	Jonna Gilfus

Last modified: Feb 25, 2008