Writing Across Genres, Contexts, and Mediums: Composing for college, work, social media, and more.
Using a genres-based approach to understanding writing, this course teaches students to recognize the ways in which different situations and settings call for different forms of writing. Moreover, the course helps students practice what they learn by having them write several small, “low-stakes” compositions for differing audiences and purposes.
Conceptually, the course extends the skills learned in Composition I. More pragmatically, the course aims to enable students to be more successful and influential in their ongoing studies and in other present and future contexts like the workplace, sites of volunteerism and/or activism, and even social arenas, including personal and public forums on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.
The course’s subject matter will thus include an even-handed mix of social, professional, and academic writing. Accordingly, there will be a balance of fun and seriousness in the course’s content—both in terms of what the students learn about and what they are asked to do. Ultimately, students should come away from the course having learned some fundamental skills that will enable them to write more effectively no matter what situation they find themselves in.
There will likely be one textbook to purchase for the course: How Writing Works by Jordynn Jack and Katie Rose Guest Pryal. This book can be rented for as little as $30 on Amazon. All other materials will be supplied.
The course is entirely online, and there are no mandatory synchronous sessions, so it will fit with most people’s schedules, whether they are working or traveling. No special skills required, save for a basic knowledge of how to use email and the web.
If you have questions, please email the instructor, Dr. Darin Payne, Associate Professor of English and current Director of the department’s Composition and Rhetoric program. He can be reached at darinp@hawaii.edu.