Community-engaged writing

“I Didn’t Know I Could Research That”: Using Objects for Research Topic Invention

Activities, Community-engaged writing, Place-based Writing, prewriting and invention, research /

Mario A. D’Agostino Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description Objects matter. As material rhetoricians (Barnett & Boyle; Gries & Brooke), cultural materialists (Bennett), and compositionists (Rule) have recently noted, objects play an important role in our lives and composing processes. An excellent example of the cultural significance of objects and what they mean to their […]

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Environmental Justice: Writing Urban Spaces

Community-engaged writing, Place-based Writing, Public Writing, Volume 5 /

Mattius Rischard Volume 5 Chapter Description Our sense of place not only affects our perspective, but also the way in which we represent our home to others. It is vital that students learn to write about spaces that civically engage them on a personal level. The structural elements of the built environment that contribute to

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Object Ethnography for the Real-World: Using Objects and Documents for Disciplinary Development

Assignments, Community-engaged writing, critical thought and analysis, genre and discourse community, primary source research, reflection, research, rhetoric /

Meng-Hsien (Neal) Liu Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description As Writing Studies has sought to address multimodal and embodied composition, one area has focused on how objects mediate writing processes and identity formations (Shipka). This assignment represents a final term project for an advanced composition class with the overall objective of complicating students’ thinking regarding

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Writing Like a Game Designer

Activities, Community-engaged writing, research, visual/multimodal rhetorics, writing technologies /

Elizabeth Caravella & Rich Shivener Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description As students turn to composing more multimodal and digital pieces in their writing courses, a number of writing instructors have employed the process known as gamification, or, the application of game-like elements, to their classrooms. Through this activity, students will learn to also utilize

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Emotionally Aware Ethnography

Assignments, Community-engaged writing, critical thought and analysis, genre and discourse community, narrative and storytelling, Place-based Writing, primary source research /

Sarah Bramblett Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description I’ve encountered several jarring writing submissions: an essay describing a student’s family member’s tragic death, an essay detailing a student’s battle with an eating disorder, an essay telling of a student’s loneliness in their first semester of college, and an essay recounting a student’s suicidal thoughts. These

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Exploring Community and Personal Connection as Idea Generation for Argumentative Writing

Activities, Community-engaged writing, Place-based Writing, prewriting and invention /

Amanda Rachelle Warren Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description The argumentative essay is a relied upon element of the composition classroom. These essay assignments help students develop thoughtful, well-considered arguments on debatable topics. As many teachers know, those “debatable topics” tend towards predictable subject matter that is often too broad for an essay-length argument, is

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Avoiding the Savior Complex in Community-Engaged Writing

Assignments, Community-engaged writing, genre and discourse community, Place-based Writing, rhetorical situation /

Charisse S. Iglesias Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description “Avoiding the Savior Complex in Community-Engaged Writing” is a three-day activity to prepare students for community-engaged writing partnerships. Community-engaged writing is a common undertaking in composition courses (Schutz and Gere). While community-engaged writing encourages civic responsibility, exposure to different communities, and engaged pedagogies, the practice does

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