This course will utilize a combination of classroom activities (collaborative work on exercises and assignments, revising and editing workshops) and lecture/seminar. Under the instructor’s guidance, students will learn to integrate discourse theory into actual writing practice and will produce typical workplace writing tasks for particular purposes and audiences.
Discourse Theory
The student will:
- examine and summarize applicable theories, including, among others, those provided by Kinneavy, Flower and Hayes, Bitzer, MacKinnon, and Selzer
- analyze the distinctions between various genres and modes of discourse: persuasive, informational expressive, instructional
- analyze the specific characteristics of genres and rhetorical situations
- produce written samples of specific genres
Context, Audience and Purpose
The student will study the rhetorical situations of non-academic texts, and:
- establish the characteristic identity of potential readers for particular purposes and exigencies; establish the social/cultural context of the reader; clarify the expectations to the reader
- clarify the textual and subtextual requirements of particular genres and rhetorical situations; identify the focus of the text: writer-based versus reader-based; direct versus indirect; purposeful versus reflective
- analyze the typical reader's response:
- acquisition and retention of information
- need for visual aids
- relationship of style and organization to reader efficiency
- importance of diction
- produce written examples
Workplace Writing Conventions
The student will:
- examine genre and social context
- examine specific writing situations
Developmental & Coherence Strategies
The student will:
- use standard developmental strategies, including definition, sequence, description, comparison, contrast, analysis, and example
- analyze effectiveness of text in relation to sentence and discourse level coherence (readability): a series of exercises to be completed from Vande Kopple’s Clear and Coherent Prose
- study and practice summary strategies
Students will be introduced to composing and rhetorical theory and will apply relevant theoretical concepts to the production of typical workplace writing tasks: developing material in relation to context, purpose, and audience; and utilizing organizational and coherence strategies to ensure readability.
Evaluation will be as follows:
| Summary | 15% |
| Rhetorical Analysis | 15% |
| Definition by Comparison/Contrast | 20% |
| Text Analysis | 15% |
| Instructions (Genre Analysis) | 20% |
| Instructions Sample and Analysis | 15% |
| 100% |
Textbooks and materials to be Purchased by students:
Vande Kopple, William. Clear and Coherent Prose. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1989.
Readings in the Rhetoric of Professional Writing (Course Ware Reading Package)
Acceptance into program or permission of coordinator.