Rebecca Chenoweth Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description This assignment invites students to identify academic knowledge that they value, and to share this knowledge with a new audience that is impacted by and/or can impact the topic. They are then tasked with analyzing their own writing in this “non-academic” rhetorical situation. Both components of this […]
Jeanette Lehn Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description In my class on public rhetorics, I strive to empower students to possess agency in speaking to an unbounded global public with the understanding that all rhetors are constrained and imbricated in complex systems. Cooper writes, “Rhetors—and audiences—are agents in their actions, and they are responsible for
Getting in Conversation about Activism: Group Podcast Assignment Read More »
Megan Heise Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description First-year writing classes (can) provide a fertile ground for student exploration of meaningful topics that impact them and their broader communities both within and beyond the Ivory Tower. Research-based writing courses, in particular, can open up spaces for students to dive deep into areas that are important
Kelly Scarff Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description The Problem Statement is a collaborative assignment that helps students approach writing as a problem-solving tool, incorporate discipline-specific language in their writing, and identify safety or accessibility issues in their community. In teams of three, students identify a safety or accessibility problem on campus or in the
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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
Environmental Justice: Writing Urban Spaces Read More »
Glenn Lester, Sydney Doyle, Taylor Lucas, and Alison Overcash Volume 5 Chapter Description Many college students write for one reason and one reason only: to complete a class assignment. But students who subscribe to this view of writing—writing as merely a means to an end, a tool to achieve a grade—are seriously limiting themselves. In
We Write Because We Care: Developing Your Writerly Identity Read More »
Matthew A. Vetter and Oksana Moroz Volume 5 Chapter Description In a previous Writing Spaces essay entitled, Wikipedia Is Good for You!?, James P. Purdy introduces us to the idea that the online encyclopedia, often devalued in educational spaces, can serve as a starting place for research and a process guide to research-based writing. By
You Are Good for Wikipedia Read More »
Sarah Seeley, Kelly Xu, & Matthew Chenn Melzer Volume 4 Chapter Description This chapter is a collaboration between a professor (Sarah Seeley) and two former students (Kelly Xu and Matthew Chen). We begin with a discussion of a key concept: the discourse community. In doing so, we illustrate why it is necessary to examine the
Read the Room! Navigating Social Contexts and Written Texts Read More »
Ashley J. Holmes Volume 4 Chapter Description This essay challenges students to use public writing to embrace their role as an “academic citizen” (i.e., someone who takes the writing and research we do in college and puts it to practical and civic use in our communities in the hopes of contributing toward positive social change).
Public Writing for Social Change Read More »
