WR 121
Both explicit and implicit racism/bias exists in much of the structure, grading, and assignments of traditional writing courses. This course challenges you to rethink what you know about writing and aims to help you develop a flexible set of writing strategies that can help you in any writing situation: personal, academic, or professional. We’ll begin by studying a form of writing that most students are very familiar with: the five-paragraph essay. We’ll study where this form comes from (its context) and work to understand why it is problematic—what kinds of values it supports that we want to question. We will then turn our attention to other kinds of writing that might better help us achieve our writing goals as unique individuals—and challenge inequitable systems that we find ourselves in.
WR 121 is part of Oregon Common Course Numbering, and as such, is designed with a focus on transfer and articulation across the public institutions in Oregon. This focus on transfer is amplified in this particular iteration of the course, in its emphasis on applying what you learn to personal goals and larger initiatives that matter to you, allowing you to see yourself as a contributor to larger conversations.
This course is divided into three major units. Each unit culminates in a major project that will help you to consolidate your learning in the course. Some of these may challenge what you typically think of when you imagine writing in college. That’s okay! The goal for these assignments is not to produce a perfect piece of writing but to develop your rhetorical skills. The approach to grading will reflect the value of your learning over writing perfection. To help you gain/develop the skills needed to accomplish each major project, I will assign several supporting assignments and readings to be completed before each major project. Part of completing the readings will require you to use hypothes.is, which is a software you will access through our course D2L site that will allow you to annotate assigned readings and see your classmates’ annotations, as well as mine.
My online version of this class has been dynamically formatted to include interactive content, meaning you will be able to practice the skills you are learning as you are reading about them/watching them be explained.