The following are course descriptions for the classes I completed as a part of the minor in Writing Practices at the University of Denver—

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THEORIES OF WRITING 

 

Year: Fall 2020

Course: WRIT 2000

Professor: Dr. Kara Taczak

 

This course introduced a number of theories of writing, providing an overview of complex issues and research into the state and status of writing and writers. It asked such questions as these: What is writing? Where did it come from? How did it develop--and did it do so the same or differently in other cultures? How do writers develop--and what accounts for differences? What are different types of writing, different situations for writing, different tools and practices--and how do these interconnect? What does it mean to study writing? How have major figures theorized writing, and what tensions emerge among their theories? What are relationships among thought, speech, and writing--and among image, film/video, and sound? How do such theories change our notions of what texts are and what texts do? We learned about various theorists, historians, and researchers to help answer these questions, and applied that knowledge to weekly journal assignments and our own theory of writing.

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THEORY, HISTORY, RESEARCH IN WRITING

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Year: Winter 2021

Course: Writ 2500

Professor: Dr. John Tiedemann

 

Titled “Rhetorical Cities: Athens, Rome, Denver”, this course examined the long history of the mutually constitutive development of cities and of rhetorical theory. Readings ranged from classical rhetorical theorists to more contemporary rhetorical theorists. In addition to engaging the topic through readings, we imagined how we could engage in the field, observing, interacting in, and analyzing the ongoing construction of the rhetorical city of Denver. Our work culminated in a quarter-long writing project about rhetorical cities in a genre of our choosing.

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APPLIED WRITING

 

Year: Spring 2019

Course: ENGL 2013

Professor: Vincent Carafano

 

This course explored the thrilling possibilities of fiction by examining (relatively) contemporary novellas that press on, expand, and sometimes shatter perceived limitations of genre and craft. Our classroom conversations took up the reworking of myth, the embrace of contradiction, the swelling miscellany of hybrid texts, and the ontological instability of worlds in Anne Carson’s The Autobiography of Red, Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star, Eric Chevillard’s Palafox, Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo, Stanley Crawford’s Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee. Along the way, we engaged stratagems of writing craft —including studies of Point of View, Plot & Tension, Worldbuilding, and Structure— through a consideration of Lance Olsen’s craft text, Architectures of Possibility. Our commitments included in-class writing exercises, reading responses, critical discussion, workshop, and a final Creative Portfolio. 

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WRITING CAPSTONE

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Year: Spring 2021

Course: WRIT 3500

Professor: Dr. Rebekah Shultz Colby

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This was the capstone class or culmination of the Minor in Writing Practices. It was meant to capture the writing experiences and instruction that I  have been a part of thus far at the University of Denver. The major project for this class was an ePortfolio, and I composed, produced, and designed activities along the way to contribute to this ePortfolio as well as my own learning. As part of the path to creating this portfolio, I completed a substantive revision of a previous writing assignment, learned about curation and circulation of writing, and conducted some analyses of my writing and writing process. The course culminated with a showcase of my portfolio.