WRDS 450
Writing Practices for Publics & Publications
Course overview
WRDS 450 is a research, writing, and communication course. WRDS 450 helps students turn previously developed research projects into larger, long-term writing projects that are intended to publicly engage with groups, such as scholars, activists, and intellectuals (e.g., research publications, conference papers, scholarship applications, research/grant proposals). WRDS 450 is primarily focused on developing a writing process that is conducive to larger, long-term writing projects and public-facing genres for communicating research. The course focuses on the writing processes that are intended to transform your writing through multiple stages—from prewriting; outlining; planning+ drafting; workshopping; to revising; editing; and presenting.
While WRDS 450 course sections can take on more specialized foci regarding publics and publications, this iteration of the course will specifically concentrate on the scholarly publication pipeline. Equally important is also this section’s attention to students’ establishment of a scholarly ethos (i.e., persona, habits, credibility) which means helping students develop as someone who is: knowledgeable of research and conversations within respective fields; knowledgeable of how a field is situated with respect to other disciplinary modus operandi; personally and ethically responsible when engaging with public material. To this point, students will develop a better understanding of the politics associated with publishing, the rhetorical situatedness of public information/conversation, and the responsibility of being accountable when communicating across communities.
This WRDS 450 section aims to cultivate effective writing strategies that help you (and potential collaborators) progress research projects and develop writing projects for venues such as public-facing publications, grant agencies, and/or scholarship/admission committees. During the term, we will cultivate and interrogate common field- or genre-specific expectations as they relate to writing for publics and publications. To do this, this section of WRDS 450 explores writing techniques, genres, and expectations seen within scholarly commonplaces like professionalization, presenting at conferences, and publishing (to some degree).
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
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- [LO1] Identify and research prospective writing venues suitable for communicating larger, long-term research projects to publicly engage with scholars, activists, and/or intellectuals;
- Identify and analyze the writing and communication conventions used in those venues;
- Critically evaluate the writing and communication conventions used in those venues;
- [LO2] Develop a work plan to communicate a larger, long-term research project in a suitable venue (see LO1);
- [LO3] Apply the writing and communication conventions used in specific writing venue to create a public-engaging, genre-specific document that communicates your larger, long-term research project to a target group of scholars, activists, and/or intellectuals.
- [LO4] Demonstrate and cultivate competence and credibility as a scholarly writer, by participating in iterative drafting, self-reflection, and revision of your own writing project and by providing constructive and inclusive peer feedback on peer writing projects.
- [LO1] Identify and research prospective writing venues suitable for communicating larger, long-term research projects to publicly engage with scholars, activists, and/or intellectuals;
WRDS 400
Writing and Communication Capstone
Course overview
This is a capstone course for students enrolled in the Minor in Writing and Communication. The course invites students to apply the approaches to writing and communication they have learned in the Minor in an independent and critical way. This course foregrounds critical perspectives that are informed by social justice, decolonial thought, and Indigenous world views. Throughout the course, students engage in critical discussion of key principles, concepts, issues, and questions in the field of writing and communication — especially as they relate to the academic, professional, or public domains in which students plan to participate in their future studies, service, or work.
The course includes a variety of learning activities and assignments that ask students to look back on their growth as writers and communicators during the Minor and look forward to opportunities and challenges that await in the writing and communication practices of their chosen field, vocation, or career. The course revolves around the completion of two major projects: (1) a writing portfolio that reflects on the student’s past work produced in the Minor and (2) a capstone project that centres around designing and producing an original text focused on the student’s future as a writer and communicator: a text that identifies and addresses opportunities and challenges of participating in and positively transforming writing and communication practices in a field relevant to the student’s interests.
By the end of the course, engaged learners will be able to:
- [LO1] Critically interrogate key principles about writing and communication introduced in the Minor (i.e., writing as a social and rhetorical activity; writing as a knowledge- and meaning-making activity; writing as implicated in decolonization, colonization, Indigenization, and reconciliation; writing as enacting identities and ideologies; writing as acting through recognizable forms and multiple modes).
- [LO2] Analyze, evaluate, and reflect on the writing and communication they produced during the Minor;
- Analyze how examples of their work reflect, embody, or address key principles about writing and communication explored in the Minor;
- Evaluate how examples of their work demonstrate proficient application (or interrogation) of these key principles, highlighting both strengths and opportunities for growth as a writer or communicator;
- Reflect on the writing and communication lessons that can be learned from these examples of their work;
- [LO3] Plan and complete a writing/communication capstone project which produces a short, original text (in an appropriate genre of the student’s choice) that imagines possible, future writing and communication practices in a field relevant to their own interests; this project will both
- acknowledge current writing and communication practices in the field, and
- identify opportunities to positively transform current writing and communication practices in the field.