Courses – WRD Blog

May 17, 2025 Leo Swearingen

Course Recap — WRD 508: Discourse & Style

In Winter Quarter 2025, Dr. Antonio Ceraso taught WRD 508 Discourse & Style. In this class, students approached written style from a rhetorical perspective, examining how style on a micro and macro level can work to accomplish persuasive goals. By exploring methods and terminology for analyzing style and reading a wide range of genres, students ultimately worked to develop their own stylistic repertoires. The class focused on analyzing the relationship between stylistic choices, rhetorical purpose, and rhetorical effects. Throughout the process, students reflected on and articulated their stylistic decision-making as integral to the writing process. Considering their own writing in

May 7, 2025 Leo Swearingen

Course Spotlight — WRD 264: Language, Self, and Society

How do our personal language experiences fit into larger social frameworks? This Autumn Quarter 2025, Professor Margaret Poncin Reeves seeks to answer just that in WRD 264: Language, Self, and Society. I sat down with Professor Poncin Reeves to discuss in detail what this course entails—read on to learn why you should enroll! What are your goals for the course and what can students hope to learn? In this course, students will think about how their personal language backgrounds connect to larger societal patterns. The course is primarily focused on the U.S., but investigates the diversity of language in the

January 28, 2025 Callie McNorton

Course Spotlight – WRD 543: Teaching ESL Writing

*originally published in 2017 *revisions made for accuracy regarding SQ 2025 Students in Dr. Jason Schneider’s WRD 543: Teaching ESL Writing course learned to better understand the theoretical and practical issues connected to writing studies in an increasingly diverse world. WRD 543 is a graduate-level course, open to all MA in WRD students, and is offered every other year. It provides concentration credit for students in DePaul’s Teaching Writing and Language concentration of the MA in WRD and counts for Methods credit for those students pursuing the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate. Structured around readings and

January 21, 2025 Leo Swearingen

Course Spotlight – WRD 360 Topics in Rhetoric: Privilege, Discourse, and the Second Amendment

In Spring Quarter 2025, Dr. Michael Gallaway will be teaching WRD 360 Topics in Rhetoric: Privilege, Discourse, and the Second Amendment. This class enters debates on who is allowed to do what, particularly when it comes to enacting citizenship through the right to bear arms. Read on to learn more about what this class entails and hear why you should enroll this Spring Quarter! Course Goals and Learning Objectives This course emerged as an extension of the Lived Civics Initiative that DePaul started a few years ago, wherein the University was awarded a grant to examine the ways that people

May 16, 2024 Leo Swearingen

Course Recap – WRD 540: Teaching Writing WQ 24

In Winter Quarter 24, WRD 540 Teaching Writing, taught by Dr. Erin Workman, met to help students develop their understanding of how to teach writing. Students from both the MAWRD and MA in English programs and with different educational and professional goals took the class, which inspired a range of discussions and directions. I met with two students from the course, Reina Ashley Nomura (“RN”) and Lindsay Wilson (“LW”) to gather their perspectives about what the course offers, what they achieved, and their directions moving forward. Reina Ashley Nomura is a student in the MAWRD program, and Lindsay Wilson is

May 15, 2024 Grace Von Lehman

Updated Course Spotlight: WRD 364 Chicago Women Rhetors

Chicago has a long history of women speaking and getting things done. Who are the women who have made their mark on our city? What did they say, how did they say it, and do people know about them? WRD 364 Chicago Women Rhetors guides students to answer these questions and more, offering the opportunity to both study history and write it. Read on to learn more about this unique course, which will be taught in Autumn Quarter 2024 by Dr. Julie Bokser. Course Overview Summarizing the course, Dr. Bokser shared, “It’s at the intersection of rhetoric – feminist rhetoric,

May 9, 2024 Grace Von Lehman

Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 377 Writing and Social Engagement: Writing Across Americas

In the upcoming Autumn Quarter, Dr. Maria Prikhodko will be teaching WRD 377 Writing and Social Engagement. While WRD 377 focuses on various themes depending on when it is offered, the upcoming iteration of the course repeats the Spring Quarter 2022 theme, “Writing Across Americas,” and will include collaborative opportunities with a Chicago nonprofit and with students from Brazil’s Unichristus University. Read on to learn more about the course, which offers students a unique opportunity for international connection and global citizenship education. Overview Grounded in DePaul’s mission of preparing all students for global citizenship and success, this course introduces students

April 26, 2024 Grace Von Lehman

Course Recap – WRD 531: Digital Storytelling

This past Winter Quarter, Dr. Lisa Dush taught MAWRD’s sixth iteration of WRD 531: Digital Storytelling. This course gives students the opportunity to craft short digital personal experience narratives (DPENs) and to learn about how such narratives are circulated for organizational and community-building purposes. Exploring the processes, norms, and ethics of digital storytelling, this course enables students to better conceptualize and execute digital storytelling projects in both personal and professional contexts. I had the opportunity to take WRD 531 this past quarter, and below I share some of the main class components and takeaways articulated by Dr. Dush, MAWRD student

April 24, 2024 Grace Von Lehman

Updated Course Spotlight – WRD 264: Language, Self, & Society

As a social practice that we engage in each and every day, language holds a great deal of power in how we understand and move about our world. It constructs how we live, function, and relate to other people. In the upcoming Autumn Quarter, Dr. Jason Schnieder’s course, WRD 264: Language, Self, and Society, delves into this dynamic relationship. Read on to learn more and hear about WRD 264 from Dr. Schneider’s perspective. The topics of your class–language, self, and society–can encompass many different relationships. Is there a primary one you are focusing on? Not a primary one, but the

January 25, 2024 Leo Swearingen

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