Cynthia Medrano is a 2015 alumnus of the major in Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse. She is currently an Associate Technical Writer at Relativity and will pursue her Master’s in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana this fall. Cynthia was chosen as a 2018 Spectrum Scholar which is a program that provides mentorship and financial aid to racially and ethnically diverse students pursuing librarianship. Medrano says she took many incredible WRD classes that “developed my knowledge of what writing is, the different environments writing exists, and the ways I can use writing, rhetoric, and discourse to understand how the world works and how we communicate.”
Finding Community
“The WRD department is relatively small,” says Medrano. “There were only 50 students in the program my last year so that makes the community tighter knit and more personal. I was lucky to be able to take grad level classes too as independent studies, including International Writing Centers and Programs, which was amazing. I got to build a relationship with a woman in Turkey who ran a high school writing center and Skype with her to learn more about her program.”
Medrano credits WRD professors for guiding her during her time at DePaul.
“I had a really hard time my senior year and without their help I probably wouldn’t have graduated. They always made time to meet with me and gave me the space to be honest about what I could achieve so that I could focus on graduation while still doing school work I was proud of.
Some of Medrano’s favorite WRD classes included Feminist Rhetorical Practices and Writing in Workplace Contexts, which she said was very beneficial.
“It could get really dry at times, but it’s so practical. To this day, I credit my email skills to Writing in Workplace Contexts—both in writing and deciphering what people might mean when they email me, or even in crafting questions to get more clarification. No matter what job you have post grad, it’s guaranteed you will have to write, and this class exposed me to those genres.”
After DePaul
As an Associate Technical Writer at Relativity, the genre knowledge acquired in WRD aided Medrano in transitioning from nonprofit writing to technical writing.
“I knew how to pinpoint what made the writing technical by comparing existing documentation and following the style guide so that I could create my own documentation,” says Medrano. “The writer’s tools workshops classes are also immensely helpful. I took one on HTML and coding that translated well in my role as I learned how to use our authoring tool, create GIFs, and edit images.”
“I think the WRD degree called out to me because it provides the tools for learning how to communicate in a world that wasn’t designed for me, and reclaiming it for my own success,” Medrano said.
“It can be very lonely and confusing to be a first-generation student, especially as you try to make meaning of your experiences and how you fit in at college or post-graduation at your job. It can be frustrating because often you aren’t surrounded by people who can relate and you have to be a little louder so you’re not left behind or ignored. Sometimes you have to explain a little more to your parents about what exactly you’re doing in school. That can be fun, though because you get to practice sharing information and different rhetoric with a new audience. It’s also impacted my career in that I want to give back and act as a resource for people like me. I have all the tools from WRD, from surviving college, from enhancing my skills in the workplace, and now I am getting ready to put them all to use as I go back to grad school.”
Advice for Students
The advice Medrano has for new WRD majors and those who are undecided on whether or not they should major in WRD is that “writing is everywhere and it isn’t just writing books and articles.”
“I can’t tell you the number of people that just assume I am a novelist, not that it wouldn’t be great, but technical writing can also be fun,” says Medrano. “Writing can give legitimacy to our lives, and that is so cool to think about! My advice would be to research different jobs, and take out the mindset that you’re getting a WRD degree to be “a writer,” or you’re getting a marketing degree to be “a marketer,” or a biology degree to be “a biologist.” Post-grad life is heavily influenced by the skills you develop in your chosen program, and figuring out how you can transfer them, whether it be in your personal, creative, or professional lives. I’d also say to take those writer’s tools workshops because they are two credits and so useful. You can easily take one during a quarter, the work won’t be overwhelming, and you can get a taste for what the rest of the WRD program is like. A WRD degree is an amazing way to synthesize ideas, and it can be applied to so much beyond what you might originally have thought.”
* NOTE: This post is written by WRD Student Assistant, Charlene Haparimwi.