Course Description and Goals

How does visual perception impact writing, and what difference do personal ethics make in research? What does after-school tutoring have to do with local politics? Is there a one-size-fits-all definition of “subsistence”? What defines “power” and “disability” in language, society, and text? How can community organizations advance real systemic change? What are some fundamental arts of researching and writing for civic engagement? And what are the roles of social, gender, and rhetorical theory in answering any of the above? This semester, these and other questions will inform our work. ENG W240 invites you to use ethnography as your investigative lens by conducting interviews, doing observation, searching archives, and constructing visual representations of one local community agency where you choose to serve. It relies on the principle that how you take in information from the world around you does affect how you write. It also involves unpacking assumptions, challenging stereotypes, and learning new and varied methodologies for finding information in unlikely places. Finally, it considers service-learning in all its dimensions – practical, personal, and intellectual.

Think of this course as an opportunity to develop your written communication skills by exploring the different writing situations that face you as students at a major university and citizens in a larger community. Think of it as an opportunity to make – and not just report – new knowledge. And think of it as an opportunity to learn how reading and writing across several genres can help a community to question, formulate, and challenge its notions of what it means to “lead” and be “civically engaged.” As part of that process, this course will encourage you to:

• consider both visual and alphanumeric dimensions of “text”;
• shape your writing for multiple needs and contexts;
• access, evaluate, and use information from a variety of sources;
• move beyond summarizing facts to synthesizing complex ideas;
• understand argument as a way of explaining multiple perspectives;
• understand structure, language and style as ethical choices in your writing.