WRITING MINOR COURSEWORK

What Has Callie Taken?

THEORIES OF WRITING

Fall 2018

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Rebekah Shultz Colby

This course introduced several 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 image, film/video, and sound? How do such theories change our notions of what texts are and what texts do? Students learned how various theorists, historians, and researchers answer these questions, and they applied that knowledge to their own projects.

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For this class, I wrote a short seminar paper about what it means to be literate in society today and wrote my own theory of writing essay claiming that poetry acts as fashion does: swooping in and out of fads.

RHETORICAL GRAMMAR

Spring 2019

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Keith Richards

"Be concise. Don't split infinitives. Write with flow. Don't end a sentence with a preposition. Avoid the passive voice. Never use "I" in academic writing." Everyone has these maxims about writing and grammar. This course interrogated those maxims, and provided systematic ways to draft, revise, and polish prose based on the needs and demands of the audience. More specifically, students considered matters of sentence structure and sentence rhythm, cohesion and concision, as well as voice and point of view. Through a series of shorter and longer writing assignments, in-class exercises and activities, and course readings, students honed their writing and grammar skills, all with the goal of writing with improved clarity and grace. The course was open to all students who wanted to take their writing to a next level of sophistication, clarity, and range.

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I had many projects in this course. First was an imitation project where I imitated the style, syntax, and voice of the writer Joy Williams from her book 99 Stories of God. Then I read and wrote an inquiry paper on Ben Yagoda's The Sound on the Page, evaluating the effects of reading this book to learn about grammar and writing. Next up was an imitation of my own vernacular where I recorded my own voice telling a story, transcribed it, and tried to imitate the style in writing a new story. Then I wrote a manifesto on how I think grammar should be taught: more focused on style. Finally, I put together a portfolio of four pieces of my own that I revised and edited with the grammar tips and tricks I learned through the quarter (this was two poems and two short works of creative prose).

GREEN RHETORIC

Winter 2020

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Bradley Benz

This course examined the green rhetorical tradition in American nature writing, including the creation, idealization, evocation, degradation, and protection of the American wilderness. Course readings focused on American non-fiction, including memoirs, historical and government documents, as well as established and emerging green rhetoric genres, among others. Students could expect to write a nature memoir and to analyze an environmental rhetoric case study (e.g. Muir’s campaign to save the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, the Dakota Access Pipeline Movement at Standing Rock). Additionally, students selected, developed, and designed a green rhetoric campaign about a local environmental issue by writing in several genres for public audiences (e.g. an op-ed, an infographic, select social media).

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My projects for this class included a 40 minute presentation on John Muir and Hetch Hetchy Valley, a nature memoir about my trip to Trim, Co. Meath, Ireland, and a Green Campaign. Within the Green Campaign there was an op-ed, an infographic, and social media posts. The memoir and green campaign can be found in my portfolio at this link.

WRITING CAPSTONE

Spring 2020

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Richard Colby

Kara Taczak

The primary goal of this capstone course for the Minor in Writing Practices was to create and present a professional electronic/web-based portfolio synthesizing university writing experiences. The portfolio showcased and offered reflective insight into a student's writings, demonstrating the writer's ability to navigate diverse rhetorical situations. Students learned theories and practices for selecting, arranging, and circulating/publishing written work, culmination in a required portfolio that synthesized their university writing experiences. In addition to practicing principles of editing and design, students produced a substantive revision of a previous piece of their own writing and composted a theory of writing that synthesizes analyses of their practices with published scholarship and research. The course covered design considerations and strategies and offered studio time for peer and instructor feedback. It culminated with a public showcase.

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For this class, I compiled information and analyses of my own writing throughout my years so far at DU. These analysis projects include an ecosystem map for a short story of mine, an infographic of all my writing statistics, a deconstruction of an op-ed, and a two-part reflection (mind map and reflection questions) of three past works. Click here to see these analyses. Another project I did was a revision of an old short story into a series of poems. I have also created this website and focused on design techniques to prepare this portfolio.