Rhetoric and Writing Studies
The Rhetoric and Writing Studies program prepares students and teacher-scholars for active, engaged, and socially responsible citizenship in our twenty-first century democracy. We interrogate the means, methods, and practices of textual production in public/private, print/digital, and traditional/multimodal writing spaces. This program is committed to teaching practices which foster approaches to rhetorical citizenship that may guide ethical democratic deliberation and decision-making. Through the courses, training, and professional development our program offers, students and teachers utilize their rhetorical training to:
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Effectively identify, analyze, and discuss the credibility of information in a variety of modes, platforms, and genres.
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Apply their knowledge of writing in a wide variety of settings, including university, workplace, personal, and political.
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Produce writing that is rhetorically sensitive and effective with respect to considerations of audience, purpose, situation, and time.
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Identify, analyze, and evaluate how institutions foster inequity and injustice.
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Promote the values of justice, access and inclusion in keeping with our university’s land-grant mission.
Find out more on the Degree Options page.
Find out more on the Course Offerings page.
Faculty
An Cheng, Professor, Director of Rhetoric and Writing Studies. Dr. Cheng's areas of interest include the genre-based framework for teaching and learning research and professional writing, writing for research and publication purposes, and qualitative research.
Reva E. Sias, Associate Professor, Director of First-Year Composition. Dr. Sias' areas of interest include African American rhetoric and culture, cultural rhetorics, medical rhetoric, and writing program administration.