News from DePaul University's Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse
The Course Cart for Spring and Summer 2017 classes opened this week, and registration begins February 5! If you’d like a comprehensive list of WRD’s course offerings, visit the Student Resources page at WRD’s website. There, you can plan your class schedule with detailed course descriptions at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Any questions about what classes to take? Email your program director or contact the department at wrd[at]depaul.edu.
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This week, WRD was able to speak with current BA in WRD student Elise Jackson. She has plans to pursue a career in speech therapy after graduating from DePaul, and in this spotlight, Elise speaks about how the WRD program is helping her prepare for the future. Tell us about your career plans in speech therapy after graduating from DePaul. After graduating from DePaul, I plan to apply to a handful of graduate schools in the Chicago area that offer a Speech Language Pathology graduate program. Right now, I hope to attend either Northwestern, which is my first choice, or
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As students and scholars of rhetoric, we understand that others’ conceptions of what is good or true are influenced by their beliefs and values. But how can we apply this understanding? How can we use our rhetorical knowledge to more effectively traverse difficult conversations, like those happening on our campus and in our city during this contentious election season? In a talk sponsored by the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse, given on Friday, October 7, Professor Krista Ratcliffe of Purdue suggested rhetorical listening as a teachable tactic to help students—and everyone—learn how to listen to and participate in conversations
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Two weeks ago, the WRD Department joined other schools around the nation to celebrate National Day on Writing (October 20). Founded by the National Council of Teachers of English, this day aims to draw attention to the fact that no matter who you are, writing is an integral part of your life. To help with the day’s celebration of all things writing, WRD faculty, staff, and students went out on campus to ask DePaul, “Why do you write?” We received all sorts of responses, from writing out of necessity (my professor makes me) to writing for self-expression and to create
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WRD 111 is designed specifically for international students and was taught this Autumn Quarter by Margaret Poncin and Douglas Sheldon. The course has two main goals—to introduce students to the city of Chicago and to help students transition into the academic culture of the United States. As a result, WRD 111 instructor Margaret Poncin says, “students visit museums, architectural landmarks, and neighborhoods as part of their research for class assignments.” How is exploring Chicago paired with an introduction to U.S. academic culture? One class project required students to do just that—get out in the city and utilize concepts learned in
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It’s time to start thinking about Winter. The Course Cart for Winter 2017 classes opened this week, and registration begins October 13! If you’d like a comprehensive list of WRD’s course offerings, visit the Student Resources page at WRD’s website. There, you can plan your class schedule with detailed course descriptions at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Any questions about what classes to take? Email your program director or contact the department at wrd[at]depaul.edu.
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The Sixth Annual WRD Awards Party was a great success thanks to the participation of WRD majors and minors, MA in WRD graduate students, and MA in NMS graduate students! This year’s party was held on Friday, June 3 in the Lincoln Park Student Center. As always, it was a great evening to honor WRD and NMS graduates, enjoy food, listen to live music, and catch up with classmates, alumni, and faculty. Photos from the evening can be viewed below. The award winners and Pi Epsilon Pi inductees are listed below: Best Undergraduate Essay “Feliz Cumpleaños!” by Wendy Ramirez Best
Continue readingProfessor Jason Schneider is the newest tenure-track member of the WRD faculty. Having taught at DePaul as a Visiting Assistant Professor since 2012, he moved into his current position of Assistant Professor in the department during fall quarter. With an MA in applied linguistics and a PhD in rhetoric from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Schneider felt immediately at home in the WRD program. Today, Schneider wears many hats here at DePaul. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in teaching English as a Second Language and coordinates the graduate certificate program in TESOL. Over the summer, he oversaw the creation of WRD 111, a new course for
Continue readingLast Thursday the WRD Department welcomed Kate Vieira, who spoke with students and faculty about her research on “Money and Bodies: How They Matter for Writing.” Vieira has conducted a great deal of research on literacy in immigrant communities and the families left behind. More recently, her focus has been on writing from the body, and how writing can aid physical, mental, and emotional healing. Her argument in her presentation for the DePaul community? That there are more connections between these strands of research than we might think—and that the root of this connection lies in the materiality of writing. Writing is
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If you were on the third floor of DePaul’s Schmidt Academic Center during the first week of April, you might have noticed that the hallways were not quite as bustling as usual. From April 6-9, several WRD faculty members traveled to Houston, Texas to attend the annual Conference on College Composition and Communication, or CCCC—the largest academic conference dedicated to writing and the teaching of writing. Curious about the work that WRD professors shared at CCCC? Here’s a peek: Julie Bokser, along with Sarah Brown, Michelle Navarre Cleary, and Kathryn Wozniak, presented on “Identifying and Eliciting Students’ Metacognitive Development” Sarah Read and WRD
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