ENGL493 - Writing Genres as Social Action

This course is designed for upper-division students interested in examining issues of identity, power, and medium as they relate to writing in various contexts.

Taking a rhetorical genre studies approach, we will study and apply relevant theory and research methods to a range of genres to consider how the moves they make create and maintain particular effects in the world. We will analyze the texts, context(s), and social significance of a public, professional, digital, and/or advanced academic genre and produce writing that meets, modifies, and subverts expectations. We ask questions not only about how to write successfully but also about how to write with awareness of the social norms and values sustained by the texts we produce. We come to see genres as providing “rules for play” that link us to shared expectations and enable innovation.
 
Our central aim will be to become more effective writers, more alert readers, and more acute observers of the social significance of textual production and circulation. Course workload includes daily writing, regular readings and scholarly research, meetings with genre experts, a research paper, a portfolio of writing, and a final exam.

Recommended: Satisfactory completion of the professional writing requirement (FSPW). Restriction: Must have earned a minimum of 60 credits. A rhetorical genre studies approach to understanding the work that texts do in the world. Examines issues of identity, power, and medium as they relate to writing in various contexts. Students analyze the texts, context(s), and social significance of a public, professional, digital, and/or advanced academic genre and produce writing that meets, modifies, and subverts expectations.