Course Spotlight – WRD 286: Writing with Photographs

This upcoming Autumn Quarter, the WRD Department will be offering another iteration of WRD 286: Writing with Photographs. While the WRD Blog published a post outlining the course when it was taught by Professor Lisa Dush, this additional spotlight looks through the lens of Professor Justin Staley, who will now be teaching the course for the third time. Read on for Professor Staley’s perspective on this exciting class, including how it engages students in essential skills and practices “to understand that world more deeply.” What interests you about teaching Writing with Photographs? JS: Everything. WRD 286 was designed by Professor

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Course Spotlight – WRD 327: Content Writing

In the WRD Department, Spring Quarter is well underway—meaning that course registration for next quarter has begun! WRD will be offering several new courses at the undergraduate level, including WRD 327: Content Writing taught by Professor Tim Elliott. Here, Professor Elliott discusses his plans for the new course, including how it came about, course projects, and major takeaways. To start on the same page, how do you define “content writing” for your students? In this context, content writing means writing about a particular or specialized subject matter area, and then making that specialized subject matter accessible and engaging. Good content

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Alumni Perspectives: 2023 CCCC Convention

The 2023 CCCC Convention, themed “Doing Hope in Desperate Times,” took place in Chicago from February 15-18. Attendees joined the conference from around the country – and world – among whom were several WRD students, alumni, and faculty! WRD alumni Maddy Crozier (BA 2018; MA 2020) and Krissy Wilson (MA 2018) both presented original research at this year’s conference.  Crozier is currently a third-year PhD student in Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics at The University of Tennessee Knoxville, where she teaches first-year composition courses.  Wilson is a Senior Learning Designer at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies and an adjunct instructor at

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Student Perspectives: 2023 CCCC Convention

After several years of online and hybrid conventions, the Conference on College Composition and Communication hosted a primarily in-person convention this year in Chicago. Themed “Doing Hope in Desperate Times,” the 2023 CCCC Convention took place February 15-18. Many WRD students, alumni, and faculty attended, sharing their scholarship in various presentation formats. Here, MAWRD students Nan Denette and Maggie Rothrock offer insights on their convention experiences as first-time attendees and presenters. The Big Picture For both students, their first CCCC Convention yielded exciting ideas and new opportunities. Denette shared, “I was (pleasantly!) surprised how large the conference was, both in

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Community Engagement in WRD Courses

One of the WRD Department’s goals for students is to prepare them, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, to excel in the range of contexts in which they will go on to write. Practicing writing in a variety of contexts and genres, for a variety of audiences, is a key part of this preparation that is embedded into many WRD courses. Community-engaged WRD courses offer students the opportunity to deepen their learning by engaging with real-world audiences, learning more about their local communities, and producing meaningful writing with tangible impacts. Read on for perspectives from faculty in various roles

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Course Spotlight – WRD 309: Writing a Socially-Just DePaul

Dr. Erin Workman, WRD professor and Director of First-Year Writing, was recently awarded the Thomas and Carol Dammrich Faculty Innovation Award for her course design of WRD 309: Writing a Socially-Just DePaul. This undergraduate course will be offered for the first time in Spring Quarter 2023 and will culminate in a conference to share its work and findings with the larger DePaul community. Read on for Dr. Workman’s insights on the course, and find additional logistics here. Can you tell us a bit about this course? This special topics course on writing a socially-just DePaul will provide an inclusive learning community

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Event Recap: PLACE-based Writing, Research, and Teaching with Kenneth Walker and Carolina Hinojosa

On January 25, the WRD Speaker Series Committee welcomed Dr. Kenneth Walker and Carolina Hinojosa, from the University of Texas, San Antonio, for another installment of the Writing & Rhetoric Across Borders speaker series. In the virtual event, Walker and Hinojosa presented a Pedagogical Conversation on Environmental Rhetorics titled “Place, Liberation, Advocacy, Community, Environment: (PLACE)-based writing, research, and teaching in transdisciplinary rhetorical studies.” Read on for highlights of the insightful presentation and discussion.  To give context to PLACE-based pedagogy, Walker and Hinojosa explored community engaged projects across San Antonio. Three key aspects informed the presentation’s rhetorical lens: place-keeping, decolonization, and

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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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Winter Break Reading Recommendations

Although more reading may seem daunting now, at the end of the quarter, the month-long winter break is a great time to reinvigorate your reading muscles. We sought out some recommendations for what to read during break and have some options for readers of all kinds. Enjoy this list of our ten picks – and have a wonderful break! For Enlightenment How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy – Recommended by WRD GA Amanda Finn This book is a gorgeous examination of how we interact with our digital selves. As members of a 24/7 online environment (whether we actively

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HumanitiesX with Dr. Tim Elliott

DePaul’s HumanitiesX Experiential Humanities Collaborative is an ongoing project that utilizes community engagement and collaboration to help students learn through “interdisciplinary teams that apply humanities methods to real-world projects.” WRD professor Tim Elliott is one of the faculty leading a class in this year’s HumanitiesX 2022-23: The Environment: Crisis and Action. We sat down with Dr. Elliott to learn more about his upcoming HumanitiesX project for Spring Quarter 2023. What will your HumanitiesX class look like, and how did you get involved?? The course titled Writing and Social Engagement: Community Centered Environmental Advocacy will be engaging in a community environmental

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