Category: Course Spotlights

Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 500: Proseminar

What To Expect From WRD 500: Proseminar Every Autumn Quarter, the WRD Department offers WRD 500 Proseminar, the only required course that every MAWRD student must take. The course is designed to introduce students to the theories, concepts, and writing of graduate-level work in writing studies.  This year, Dr. Monica Reyes will lead Proseminar on Mondays from 6:00 to 9:15 pm. We checked in with Dr. Reyes in order to help new WRD students understand what to expect from WRD 500. The Value of a Required Course Because all MAWRD students take Proseminar within the first half of their program,

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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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Course Spotlight – WRD 550: The Community-Engaged Writing Classroom

In the upcoming Spring Quarter, Dr. Monica Reyes will be teaching another iteration of WRD 550: The Community-Engaged Writing Classroom.  This course offers theoretical and practical instruction about how to connect writing students with communities for advocacy and learning. Students will learn from WRD faculty who have taught community-engaged courses and develop ideas for community-centered student projects suitable for writing classrooms. Below, Dr. Reyes shares her thoughts on the upcoming course, encouraging students from a variety of interests in teaching to enroll.  What kinds of students do you think would benefit from this course? This course would be fitting for

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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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Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 531: Digital Storytelling

This upcoming Winter Quarter, Professor Lisa Dush will be teaching another iteration of the popular graduate course WRD 531: Digital Storytelling.   In this course, students will analyze current digital storytelling practices, genres, and techniques that organizations use to share information and gain support online; then, students will create their own original digital story collections and projects. This course will engage students in new digital writing processes while applying their rhetorical awareness and creativity. WRD 531 is ideal for students in MAWRD”s Professional and Digital Writing concentration, those pursuing a SWAN certificate, and other graduate students looking to add to their

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WRD 540 Teaching Writing: Updated Course Spotlight

With class enrollment quickly approaching, hear from Dr. Erin Workman on WRD 540: Teaching Writing, the course that she will be teaching this Winter Quarter 24. Here, Dr. Workman offers her insights into this year’s installment of the class and what students can look forward to. We delve into an in-depth exploration of what this course entails, its recent modifications, and the myriad of opportunities it opens up for its students. Course Overview Join our WRD 540 community to learn more about current approaches to teaching writing that center antiracist and antiableist teaching practices. Through engaging with composition studies research

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Course Spotlight – WRD 550: Online Instructional Design and Pedagogy

As registration begins for Spring Quarter 2023, the WRD blog is excited to showcase several brand-new course offerings, beginning with Sarah Brown’s graduate course WRD 550: Online Instructional Design and Pedagogy. As an MAWRD alumna, Brown has worked in instructional technology and faculty development at DePaul’s Center for Teaching and Learning for over a decade, and she has taught several courses in the WRD department. In 2021, Brown received the Excellence in First-Year Writing Teaching Award from WRD. Here, she shares more about her plans for the course and what students can look forward to learning.  As we get started,

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Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 540: Teaching Writing

As registration begins for Winter Quarter 2023, the WRD blog is excited to showcase several upcoming course offerings, beginning with Dr. Erin Workman’s graduate course, WRD 540: Teaching Writing. Here, Dr. Workman offers her insights into this year’s installment of the class and what students can look forward to.   What has changed in the Teaching Writing course since its last blog Spotlight? A lot! WRD 540 was last offered in-person-only in WQ20, and our finals week meeting was moved online in accordance with the university’s response to the pandemic. In WQ21, WRD 540 met synchronously online, and in WQ22,

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Course Spotlight: WRD 511 Rhetorics of Displacement Update

During Spring Quarter 2021, Professor Monica Reyes taught WRD 511: Rhetorics of Displacement which was a hit with students and will be coming back for Winter Quarter 2022. We caught up with Reyes to talk about how this class differs from the last time she taught it.  Are you doing anything differently for this iteration of WRD 511: Rhetorics of Displacement? Yes! Students responded so positively to the course the first time I taught it in Spring [of] 2021, so the bones of the course are still the same. I still have units/themes centered around various rhetorics (like those in

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