Author: Leo Swearingen

Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 551: Teaching Apprenticeship Practicum

Overview of WRD 551 & TAP WRD 551 functions as the companion course to WRD’s Teaching Apprentice Practicum (TAP), a program that gives MA in WRD and ENG students the unique opportunity to teach a section of WRD 103, one of the two courses in DePaul’s First-Year Writing Program. As they teach using a shared syllabus, TAP instructors meet weekly in WRD 551: Teaching Apprenticeship Practicum during Autumn Quarter to discuss composition pedagogy,  share classroom experiences, and prepare for upcoming WRD 103 class meetings. WRD’s Director of First-Year Writing, Prof. Erin Workman, teaches WRD 551 and summarizes the class as

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Exit Requirement Q&A

The first presentations for the new exit requirement will be given in Spring Quarter 2024.  Learn more about why the decision to change the exit requirement was made and get some insider knowledge on what the Graduate Committee is hoping you will achieve with your presentation. I sat down for a question and answer session with MAWRD Director Jason Kalin, who helped illuminate some information that will be helpful going forward in your own presentations.  Decisions about the graduate program are made by the Graduate Committee, which is a subset of the tenure-line faculty. The Graduate Committee comes to a

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Spring Break Reading Recommendations

With Spring Break on the horizon and Winter Quarter nearly behind us, it’s a better time than ever to look out for reading that invigorates the soul and keeps you excited for upcoming Spring Quarter classes.   We heard from 5 MAWRD students and got their reading recommendations for you to enjoy during your Spring Break!  The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham — Recommended by MAWRD GA Grace Von Lehman This is a powerful, reverent reflection on being intimately curious about nature and understanding human life as an element of nature

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Student Spotlight — Miranda Kincer and Creating Knowledge

Throughout 2023, WRD student Miranda Kincer worked on and published scholarship in DePaul’s undergraduate journal, Creating Knowledge. Her piece, “Tony Stark as an Icon for Alcoholism and Recovery: How Details in Iron Man #182 Reveal the Detriment of Alcohol Addiction” won out in the competitive landscape of student works, where only one piece is published per university department. Representing WRD, Miranda reflects on her time before, during, and after publication. Read on to hear about Miranda’s experience of publication and gain insights into how and why you might publish work as well. What inspired you to write this piece and

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Course Spotlight — WRD 281: Writing Censorship

From book burning to academic regulation, censorship is a historic phenomenon with modern reverberations. With controversy around censorship and freedom of speech on DePaul’s own campus in 2016 following the protest of a conservative speaker, it is pertinent to consider our own place in the conversation of regulated expression. This upcoming Spring Quarter, online asynchronous WRD 281 Writing Censorship aims to prompt and answer important questions about how censorship functions.  Read on to hear from WRD 281’s own Professor Erin MacKenna-Sandhir and learn more about what WRD 281 Writing Censorship will entail. 1. What are your goals for the course

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Course Spotlight — WRD 288: Rhetoric and Popular Culture

At the intersection of The Avengers and Aristotle, WRD 288 Rhetoric & Popular Culture emerges to explore how pop culture shapes and is shaped by the art of persuasion. Taught this Spring Quarter by Professor Justin Staley, this course is your ticket to entertainment and enlightenment in one. Read on to hear from Professor Staley and learn more about what the course entails. Are there any artifacts or events in pop culture the class will be taking a look at?  What’s fun about this class is the wide range of artifacts and events we examine, or that students can examine

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Course Spotlight — WRD 283: Environmental Writing

Scheduled intentionally in Spring Quarter as changes in the environment become more easily perceptible, WRD 283 Environmental Writing, taught by Dr. Jason Kalin, offers more than just Social, Cultural, Behavioral Inquiry (SCBI) credit. It offers a chance to grow along with nature into new perspectives. What is Environmental Writing? In this course, environmental writing is writing about the environment and nature, but from the rhetorical perspective that the environment and nature are not just something “out there” or external to humans. The class tries to impart the perspective that we are not separate from our environment. Rather, we are nature

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Course Spotlight — WRD 523: Editing

As course registration is soon to open for Spring Quarter 2024, learn more about WRD 523 Editing taught by Dr. Tim Elliott. Here, Dr. Elliott reflects on WRD 523 and what it offers to students who enroll.  Course Goals and Learning Outcomes WRD 523 is a class that opens doors. Students will learn how to edit all different kinds of writing, from resumes and cover letters to documentation from a local partner organization. In class we’ll learn an array of concepts and strategies, like rhetorical grammar, technical writing principles, style guides, and more. But the lessons students will learn in

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Student Spotlight: Nan Denette

This October, MAWRD student Nan Denette presented at a conference at the University of Memphis, discussing her findings on how we can use existential rhetoric to more effectively combat climate change. Learn more about her fascinating work through this exclusive interview, where she discusses not just her research but her experience presenting. What topic did you present on and what inspired you to present on it? My presentation was titled “Anthropos & Anthropocene: Existential Rhetorics in the Age of Ecological Disaster.” I focused on two fictional texts—Paradise Lost by John Milton and White Noise by Don DeLillo. Paradise Lost narrates

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A Closer Look: Updates from the WRD Equity Committee

In the aftermath of the 2020 killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade at the hands of the police, a collective cry for action resonated within the Writing, Rhetoric, & Discourse Department. Motivated by a poignant letter written by concerned students and alumni, the WRD department was called upon to actively champion diversity, equity, and inclusion. This compelling call to action culminated in the establishment of the WRD Equity Committee. The Committee’s Goals: Since its inception, the Equity Committee has emerged with a series of goals aimed at transforming the WRD department’s approach to antiracism and inclusivity. Some of

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