Writing Studies

Introduction to Writing Studies

Welcome to Introduction to Writing Studies,  a course geared towards examining the dynamism of writing. In today's hyper-connective world with continuously evolving technologies, the demands of communication continue to grow and transform as the writing spaces we inhabit continue to develop and shift. Beyond our examination of the ways emerging technologies and web based writing spaces transform writing and communication, we will also examine the discipline of rhetoric. We will examine how communities of practice (also known as discourse communities) shape writing practices, utilize genres, and communicate in intricate ways to achieve goals. Our exploration will also examine the constructedness of writing to better understand how writers produce texts, how readers construct meaning from texts, and how misconceptions of writing practices emerge. Additionally, we will look at how our perceptions of writing are shaped by past experiences and explore how our writing processes work (or at times do not work).


No one can be certain of how modes and ways of communication will transform and develop over the next few decades, but if recent developments in connectivity and information exchange are any indication of the road ahead, we should expect the evolution of how communication happens to transform with increasing rapidity. What kinds of communication and writing will you be doing in ten years? How will the communities within which you participate shape modes of communication? What kinds of identities will you assume as you write and communicate in new and more highly sophisticated ways?

The aforementioned questions are tough to answer, and even the brightest minds of today have trouble predicting exactly what to expect. Though no one is certain of what the future will hold, this course is geared towards preparing you for a new world of hyper-interactive communication. In many ways we are already living in a world of hyper-communication. With text messages, tweets, status updates, blogs, chat rooms, online games, Skype, and other genres, we are communicating in complex ways that were considered science-fiction just two decades ago.

Many people are already part of online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr, and on some level those digital communication spaces are mediating how communication happens, but new modes of communication are always emerging. On the surface we use different modes of communication often, but for the final assignment of this course, your goal is to closely examine a community to understand the subtle intricacies of the community and how those impact communication. You are welcome to investigate either a digital community or a physical community. You might start your investigation by addressing some of the following questions: What types of identities are developed within the community you are studying? How is power brokered in the community? What is communication supposed to do in the community?

Unit 1: A study of your psychology of literacy: Where are you going, Where have you been? 
The first unit of the course examines your literate past and how you became the reader and writer you are today. Unit one calls you to to think critically about past moments, experiences, and relationships that impacted your literacy development. Who were the people who shaped your conception of what good writing is? How have your reading and writing habits been influenced by people or institutions? How have your conceptions of yourself as a reader and writer developed over time and what what factors have been most influential? 

Unit 2: Deconstructing the bridge to nowhere: Exploring how writing is constructed and how writing constructs develop 
The second unit explores how language and writing are constructed and examines writing conventions across different contexts. For many years of high school, middle school, and even grade school, students are inundated with 'rules' that are set up to produce better writers. However, there often isn't enough attention focused on why conventions develop as they do. Unit three explores the constructedness of writing from the perspective of rhetorical theory. Any situation is rhetorical when communication is used to try and convince another to change a perspective, take action, or adopt a new position. Something as simple as telling a friend that his room feels warm is rhetorical because the speaker is using language to persuade the listener to take action to make the room more comfortable. The final paper of this unit calls you to deliver a rhetorical analysis of an essay contest of your choosing, and then write the contest essay itself.

Unit 3: A study of your cognition of writing processes: What is it that you do when you compose?
The third unit explores writing processes and calls you to examine how you think while writing. Are there triggers that block or impede the progress of a draft? How do you define the stages of your writing process? What kinds of situations cause you to have a brief spat of writer's block? Through our study in unit three, you should come to a new understanding regarding your writing practice.

Unit 4: Contextualizing digital writing spaces: an examination of how online communities communicate
The final unit explores how discourse communities shape writing. If one is in a flag football practice, the community's practices will dictate certain communication conventions as acceptable, but those same conventions are not acceptable in other communities. Communication is dynamic and is contingent upon recurring rhetorical situations experienced by discourse communities. How you might write in a blogging community called the Liberal Activists will be very different from how you write and communicate in your biology class. This final unit asks you to investigate the communication practices of a discourse community. Examining recurring rhetorical situations that call for communication, specific genres used to accomplish community goals, and conventions that dictate community practices will allow you to see new communication dynamics operating within the community you are investigating.

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The four units we cover intend to meet the following course outcomes, and at the commencement of the term, students should:

1. demonstrate awareness of rhetoric and an understanding of the constituents of rhetoric
2. demonstrate understanding of one's own writing process from both cognitive and psychological perspectives
3. ascertain an understanding of how discourse communities shape, mediate, and otherwise influence writing and reading practices
4. demonstrate an improved ability to understand complex texts
5. demonstrate an ability to examine and synthesize data
6. recognize various inclinations of what literacy is
7. understand ways in which genres enable discourse
8. demonstrate an ability to utilize evidence to support arguments