Course Descriptions
Minor in Writing Practices
The Minor in Writing Practices develops writing proficiencies and knowledge at a time when employers assert that writing abilities are paramount, when writing shapes civic thought and action, when writing is a means of personal development and social interaction, when writing is inflected by evolving technologies. The minor is open to all undergraduates who have successfully completed WRIT xx22 and xx33 and are interested in honing their writing, furthering their understanding of concepts and theories, and demonstrating their abilities to employers and others. Students will complete at least 20 credits of courses culminating in a formal portfolio of their work:
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WRIT 2000: Theories of Writing (4 credits)
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Two courses from a list of approved Applied Writing courses (8 credits)
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One course from a list of approved Theory, History, or Research in Writing courses (4 credits)
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WRIT 3500: Capstone: Writing Design and Circulation (4 credits)
Theories of Writing
Fall 2019
This course introduced a number of theories of writing, providing an overview of complex issues and research into the state and status of writing and writers. It took up such questions as these: What is writing? Where did it come from? How did it develop – and did it do so the same or differently in other cultures? How do writers develop – and what accounts for differences? What are different types of writing, different situations for writing, different tools and practices – and how do these interconnect? What does it mean to study writing? How have major figures theorized writing, and what tensions emerge among their theories? What are relationships among thought, speech, and writing – and among images, film/video, and sound? How do such theories change our notions of what texts are and what texts do? The class learned how various theorists, historians, and researchers answer these questions, and we applied that knowledge to our own projects.