On This Page:
Advanced Courses in Writing and Rhetoric
PWR offers a select number of upper division courses for students interested in doing more advanced work with topics related to writing and rhetoric.
Students interested in registering for PWR 191 and PWR 194 should do so through Axess. Students interested in enrolling in PWR 195 should apply in the Winter to the Peer Tutoring Program. Those students who are admitted into that program can then register for the course through Axess.
PWR 191. Advanced Writing -- Marvin Diogenes
PWR 191 is an intensive writing course for students who want to develop their ability to write effectively in a range of nonfiction genres. We explore the personal essay, the memoir, biography, the critical essay assessing art or culture, reporting and literary journalism, travel, nature and scientific writing. We examine how strategies useful in writing nonfiction can help us better understand the academic essay. We explore moving beyond the traditional thesis-and-support structure to work with more diverse and adventurous organizational strategies. We also work on style with the aim of developing a repertoire of written voices. The course is conducted primarily as a writing workshop with the focus on student work in progress. In-class activities will be supplemented by individual conferences.
PWR 194. Topics in Writing and Rhetoric -- Clyde Moneyhun
We explore the history and major trends of the western rhetorical tradition. The specific focus and authors read each time the course is offered may vary. However, it typically includes work from Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Ines de la Cruz, Nietzsche, Bakhtin, Burke, Derrida, Foucault, Hall, Eagleton, Jameson, Cixous and Kristeva.
We address such questions as: What is rhetoric (that is, how has it been defined across the ages)? What does a rhetorical view of language teach us about the roles of speaker / author and listener / reader? What does rhetoric clarify about differences between oral and written forms of language? How is rhetoric related to cultural styles and world views, to gender, to social, economic and political power? Students use course readings to develop an original theory of rhetoric in a seminar paper. The course is particularly useful to students majoring in English, linguistics, philosophy, classics, law, communication, anthropology, sociology, psychology and symbolic systems.
PWR 195. Peer Writing Tutor Training Course -- Clyde Moneyhun
This course trains students to work as Peer Writing Tutors (PWTs) in the Hume Writing Center. Its main focus is on the practical knowledge, strategies, and techniques needed to be an effective PWT.Attention is paid to recent theories of writing instruction and ancient and modern principles of rhetoric that inform the teaching and tutoring of writing. Other topics covered include tutoring specific types of writing (IHUM / PWR / WIM papers, grant / internship / graduate school applications). We also cover tutoring at the sentence level and tutoring ESL students.
Course activities include the following:
- Reading influential essays from the fields of composition studies and writing center studies
- Writing short essays that synthesize the readings and articulate a clear philosophy of tutoring
- Observing and reporting on tutoring sessions in the Writing Center
- Conducting practice tutoring sessions in the Writing Center