An "Introduction to Writing Studies" Screen

Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike Rose. Boston and New York: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2001.

McLuhan, Marshall. Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. [sic]. 1962. U of Toronto P, 2000.

Plato. Symposium and Phaedrus. Dover Thrift Editions. New York: Dover, 1993.

The Subject is Research: Processes and Practices. Ed. Wendy Bishop and Pavel Zemliansky. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Heinemann, 2001.

Course Description and Objectives

"Writing Studies" is emerging as an increasingly important component of 21^st century English departments, complementing and expanding literary studies. While the study of literature, from Beowulf to Erdrich, is the most commonly understood function of English departments by both students and the general public, students and scholars in English departments are increasingly interpreting all kinds of "texts"–television, film, comic books, legal documents, technical and professional documents, letters and diaries–to name a few. Scholars and students are also studying closely how people write: similarities and differences in expert and novice writers, cultural differences and their impact on writing, collaboration and its role for writers, technology and its impact on writers. Creative writers have occupied an important place in the modern English department, too, teaching writing as creative expression and craft.

"Introduction to Writing Studies" (IWS) is being offered for the first time at NDSU. It is intended to complement the "Introduction to Literary Analysis" (English 271) course and the literary survey courses by offering a larger and wider historical overview of writing. It is also intended as an introduction to the kinds of courses offered in the department outside of the traditional period or genre literary courses. Students will be introduced to concepts and types of assignments that they might see again in English 320 ("Practical Writing"), English 322 and 323 ("Creative Writing I and II") , English 358 ("Intermediate Composition"), English 458 (Advanced Writing Workshop) and three courses currently with temporary numbers: "Visual Culture and Language," "Grants and Proposal Writing," and "Electronic Communication." The course will also attempt to introduce some very basic concepts from linguistics, and explain the place of linguistics within the department.

The specific goals of the course are:

To develop from the course readings a general understanding of the technological, economic, and artistic trends which have shaped writing in western civilizations.
To introduce two methods for studying writing: a historical and cultural methodology ("cultural studies" or the mosaic approach), and ethnographic/case study methods. The former approach typically studies writing that has already been produced; the latter focuses on writers at work and what people do with their literacy skills.
To introduce students to the wide range of genres and styles of writing they will be asked to work with as Liberal Arts majors or writing minors at NDSU.
To develop and extend students’ reading and writing skills, with a particular emphasis on reading academic prose and making arguments in a variety of genres and mediums.

This course tries to balance content and process, but it will not be as writing-intensive or as process-intensive as the 300 and 400 level writing courses. In other words, this is not a writing course–it is a course about the place of writing in our culture and community, and a course about ways of studying writing.