WRT 105
Studio 1: Practices of Academic Writing
(3 credits)
Class Size: 15-20
Faculty: Jonna Gilfus, Associate Teaching Professor, Syracuse University
Administrative Contact: Sean Conrey, Associate Director, Project Advance
Please read this memo regarding recommended sequencing for WRT and ENG courses
Course Catalog Description
Study and practice of writing processes, including critical reading, collaboration, revision, editing, and the use of technologies. Focuses on the aims, strategies, and conventions of academic prose, especially analysis and argumentation. Shared Competencies Communication Skills.
Course Overview
Required of all students in one semester of their first year, Practices of Academic Writing is part of the core curriculum and the first of a series of writing courses that, together with the Writing Center and other program resources, comprise the lower division offerings at the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition at Syracuse University.
Each section of WRT 105 is a community of writers who meet together with the specific purpose of developing as critical readers, writers, and thinkers. Students learn strategies of critical academic writing in various genres, including analysis, argument, and researched writing. Students learn to develop ideas through the choices they make as writers—from invention to making and supporting claims to sentence level editing to designing finished print and digital texts.
The course challenges students to understand that effective communication requires people to be aware of the complex factors that shape every rhetorical context, including issues of power, history, difference, and community. Students explore the histories and knowledges that shape the positions from which they write and that inform the perspectives of various audiences, and they learn to recognize that writing as a true communicative act may potentially change the perspectives of both the writer and audiences. Developing this understanding helps students perceive ways in which their work as writers extends beyond the immediate requirements of the classroom and prepares them for effective engagement with issues in the workplace, local community, and global society. The writing course is a site of active learning where students have responsibility for their own progress and for that of their peers.
Pre- / Co-requisites
N/A
Course Objectives
- Writing as Situated Process Students will practice a range of invention and revision strategies appropriate to various writing situations.
- Writing with Sources Students will be introduced to primary and secondary research, utilize various library resources, evaluate sources, and synthesize and apply research in accordance with citation, genre conventions and ethical standards.
- Writing as Rhetorical Action Students will gain knowledge of rhetorical principles and practice addressing different audiences and situations.
- Writing as Academic Practice Students will build their familiarity with values, strategies, and conventions related to a range of academic contexts and disciplinary conversations.
- Writing as Social Practice Students will analyze, reflect on, and practice the dynamic use of language in diverse contexts and recognize issues of power, difference and materiality.
Laboratory
N/A
Required Materials
Writing Analytically, Rosenwasser & Stephen; 8th Edition
ISBN: 9781337559461 eText ISBN: 9781337672429 (Cengage, 800-354-9706, https://www.vitalsource.com)
OPTIONAL WRITING HANDBOOK:
Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research (National Tabbed Edition), Rebecca Moore Howard; 2nd Edition
ISBN: 9781259991554 (McGraw-Hill, Marjie Sullivan, 315-488-4167 or 800-338-3987)
SUGGESTED SUPPLEMENTARY READERS (Anthologies) Wide latitude is given for choosing the fiction and non-fiction texts students will read. If instructors intend to use a “reader,” the titles below have been approved.
Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers, 11th Edition; Bartholomae/Petrosky/Waite, 2014
ISBN: 9781319040147 eBook – 9781319091415 (Bedford/St. Martin’s/W.H. Freeman, 866-843-3715)
Everything’s a Text: Readings for Composition; Melzer & Coxwell-Teague; 2011
ISBN: 9780205639540 (Pearson)
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts, 2nd Edition; Joseph Harris
ISBN: 9781607326861 (University Press of Colorado & Utah State University Press, 720-406-8849)
eText – ISBN: 9781607326878 (Amazon, Kindle Edition)
“They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, 4th edition (2018); Graff, Birkenstein & Durst
ISBN: 9780393631678 eText – ISBN: 9780393664546 (W.W. Norton, 800-233-4830, https://www.vitalsource.com)
ARGUMENT/RHETORIC Anthologies:
Inventing Arguments, Mauk & Metz, Updated 4th Edition; Thomson & Wadsworth
ISBN: 9781337280853 (Cengage, 800-354-9706)
Everything’s An Argument, 8th Edition; Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz & Walters
ISBN: 9781319056278 (Bedford/St. Martin’s/W.H. Freeman, 866-843-3715)
Instructor Recommendations
N/A