The scope of ENGL 420/520 Introduction to Writing & Cultural Studies will include examination of regional, national, and international themes related to cultural rhetorical studies. The intellectual operating space of this course rests at the intersection between rhetorical studies and cultural studies to promote study of how writing (text) and the performance of identity and struggle for power happens through legitimate social institutions as well as outside sanctioned social institutions. Combining literacy studies, rhetorical analysis with theoretical inquiry this course will promote the study of public discourses related to self-representation and the transition from political and social marginalization to civic inclusion.

This course will serve the needs and interests of students pursuing degrees within and outside the department of English whose professional, civic, and academic lives demand strong, versatile writing skills that extend across diverse discourse communities. It will allow students to engage in critcal and rhetorical analysis as well as close readings of various kinds of texts, and to produce scholarship in the discipline of English not limited to traditional genres and canonical categories.  The emphasis is a way not just to link to diversified writing contexts, but to respond to them through the production of multiple writing genres.

This course aligns and promotes each of the three strands within English Studies: Rhetoric & Writing, Literature, and Creative Writing. Cross-disciplinary concentrations will be articulated by the needs, interests, and goals of students themselves. 

Course Assignments:

• Class Discuss Leader
• Reader Response Log
• Exploratory Research Proposal
• Genre Analysis Portfolio

ENGL 420/520 Required Texts:

Berger, Arthur Asa. Cultural Criticism: A Primer of Key Concepts. Sage Publications, 1995.

Devitt, Amy J. Writing Genres. Southern Illinois University Press, 2004.

Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray, eds. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms. Bedford, 1997.

Nystrand, Martin and John Duffy, eds. Towards a Rhetoric of Everyday Life: New Directions in Research on Writing, Text, and Discourse. University of Wisconsin, 2003.