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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Graduating Student Spotlight: Amanda Finn

As the quarter draws to a close, the MAWRD program will graduate four students. Before these students move into new phases of their educational and professional careers, we wanted to hear about some of the meaningful experiences WRD has created for them. So, we caught up with Amanda Finn, one soon-to-be graduate, on her time in the program, her plans after graduation, and her best advice for continuing WRD students. Amanda, you came into MAWRD after writing professionally for several years. Did your time in the program shift any parts of your writing career?  For me, being in grad school

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Teaching Apprenticeship Program Q&A with MAWRD Students Steven Reese and Maggie Rothrock

MAWRD students who are interested in pursuing a Ph.D. or teaching career are encouraged to apply for the Teaching Apprenticeship Program (TAP) during their time in graduate school. This program gives grad students the chance to teach WRD 103 – Composition and Rhetoric and gain a full teaching experience for a quarter. They are also paid a stipend for their work.  We caught up with the two graduate students (Margaret Rothrock and Steven Reese) participating in TAP this autumn quarter to learn a little more about their experiences in the apprenticeship.  What were you expecting from your TAP experience? Maggie:

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Faculty Spotlight: Monica Reyes

Although they spend significant time working with their students, the professors in the WRD department are still scholars at heart–often working on their own projects in addition to teaching. Dr. Monica Reyes is no exception. Her courses like Multicultural Rhetorics and Feminist Rhetorics encourage students to think outside the box for their own personal scholarship. Let’s check in with her to see what she’s been up to.  What are you working on right now? I am currently working on my single-authored book with Routledge. My book, Rhetoric and Storytelling within the U.S. Asylum Process: Shelter Rhetorics, examines the U.S. requirement

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Course Spotlight – WRD 532: Content Strategy

Registration is now underway for Winter Quarter 2023! As our next installment in the Course Spotlight series, we’re highlighting another graduate class being offered next quarter, WRD 532: Content Strategy. I sat down with instructor Dr. Lisa Dush to learn more about the course and what students can look forward to learning. The Main Idea (and Major Assignments) As Dush wrote in the course description: “In WRD 532, we will explore the practice of content strategy in professional settings. You will learn how to assess existing organizational content, collaboratively develop a content strategy, and create guidelines and governance documents to

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Course Spotlight: WRD 309 Persuasion in the Age of TikTok

One of the incredible things about studying rhetoric and discourse is how our modes of communication are always evolving. That means that even social media is part of our social discursive lives. What better way to explore how these incorporations impact our cultural rhetoric? Professor Margaret Poncin Reeves is teaching an upcoming class all about the topic with a special focus on TikTok.  Read on to see what the course has in store for Winter Quarter / WQ23! What inspired you to teach WRD 309? Two things: The first is the topic of the cross-listed course, which is LSP 275:

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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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