In this course, you will learn how to effectively write for a variety of audiences and purposes, and in a variety of forms, so that you will be better prepared to identify and work across the writing contexts that you will encounter in your college courses, as well as outside of them (e.g. in your job). You will learn how to effectively conduct research based on a research question rather than on a pre-formed conclusion; to engage multiple source materials; to plan and revise your writing; and to assist your classmates in their own planning and revision strategies through the following practices: effective and substantive peer workshop, contributive discussion, and collaborative inquisition into the writing process and into how writing functions for yourself and for one another.
To offer you a way into these strategies and practices, you will be asked to choose a major sociopolitical issue based on our readings and to explore this issue/these issues in a variety of written and verbal exercises. Issues might include public discourse, race and gender identity, place-based identity, responsible and ethical media, and others. Of particular interest and relevance to this course are the issues based in, surrounding, and affecting indigenous communities, indigenous space and place, and the nuance between them along the lines of occupations, colonizations, and iterations of Us and Them. We will explore these issues in relation to our course beginning inquiry texts, to find (for yourselves) an entry point into discussion about—and action toward—ethical writing: about ourselves, about others, about stories, and about our world (local and global).
This course requires that you complete a minimum of 5,000 words of polished prose. Your assigned written work will exceed that requirement across numerous forms and genres, such as reading journals, short essays, and a research paper.