Tag: Digital Writing

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

Continue reading

Course Recap – WRD 309: Persuasion in the Age of TikTok

Last year, we chatted with Professor Margaret Poncin Reeves about her upcoming course WRD 309: Persuasion in the Age of TikTok. Now that the course has ended, we wanted to share a recap from students’ perspectives as well. Here two students, education major NIna Odishoo and WRD major Miranda Kincer, share their perspective on this fasicnating course.  Why did you decide to take this course? Nina: I decided to take this course to fill a requirement, but I did have the choice to pick a few WRD courses. This one in particular intrigued me due to its title, as I find

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

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

Continue reading

Job Sleuth: Grant & Proposal Writing

When students decide to pursue a career in professional writing, grant writing might not immediately come to mind. However, knowing how to write grants and proposals is an important work skill even if you have no intention of pursuing that industry. That’s why Professor Lisa Dush’s WRD 526 Grant and Proposal Writing class for graduate students is popular year after year. Students from other departments flock to it too–not just the WRD folks.  So we asked Professor Dush to tell us a bit more about her class and how the skills you learn in WRD 526 can help prepare you

Continue reading

Six Books to Keep the Summer Interesting

Being that we are nearly at the end of the Spring Quarter, thinking about reading for fun might not be high on the priority list. But we are just a few short weeks away from summer break which opens up some time for reading what we want to read. Luckily we have some recommendations courtesy of the WRD graduate assistants as well as from experts on social media.  Don’t worry, these aren’t all high-level academic works. These recommendations will, however, keep your summer interesting and your mind curious.  For Fun: The Secret History – Recommended by GA Kristin Fleming Written

Continue reading

Research Opportunities for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

One of the best parts about pursuing a degree is finding scholarly tracks you’re passionate about. Sometimes that passion swells beyond the scope of a class or project and you want to take your research to the next level. Whether you’re an undergraduate or graduate student, oftentimes there are ways to pursue that research in a meaningful, productive way.  Whether you take your project to a fellowship or find funding to do more research on your own, there is a myriad of opportunities to take advantage of while you’re still in school. This article doesn’t talk about every single option

Continue reading

Going to Graduate School Later in Life

When finishing an undergraduate program, it can sometimes feel like that is the only time one can go into graduate school. But, for many students, heading right back into school after 12-16 straight years of schooling isn’t the right option. In fact, as of 2021, the average American graduate student was 33-years-old which is a statistic that has remained pretty stable for the last several decades. Beyond that average age, however, are folks who decide to go to graduate school later in their lives and careers.  Choosing to go back to school is a big commitment, even in a two-year

Continue reading