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WRITING MAJOR
The writing major is offered by the Department of Writing &
Speech in the College
of Fine Arts and Communications. The 36-hour writing major is
designed for future educators, pre-professional students, editors,
technical writers, and students intending to continue to graduate
school in English, rhetoric, composition, education, linguistics,
or creative writing. The primary objective of the degree is to prepare
students for the information rich workplace where communication
and thinking skills are necessary.
All
majors will take the core courses listed below. The writing
core insures that all writing majors develop an understanding of basic rhetorical
and linguistic processes and theories important to written
communication as they write creative, technical, professional, and practical texts.
- Introduction
to Creative Writing
(WRTG
2310)
Introduces students to
creative writing theory and practice in all genres: fiction, poetry,
creative nonfiction, and playwriting/screenwriting.
- Introduction
to Linguistics
(WRTG
2320)
Introduces students to sound structure, word structure, and
sentence structure; meaning and function of language; language
and culture; language and thought; linguistic variation; history
of writing systems; and language acquisition. Prerequisite: WRTG
1320.
- Writing for New
Technologies (WRTG 3305)
Upper-division workshop course for writing majors and minors and
students in other programs. Focuses on academic and professional
forms of writing. Student will use advanced strategies for print
and electronic writing and examine how to shape the composition
process for specific writing tasks and purposes. Prerequisite: WRTG 1320. Fall, spring.
- Technical
Writing
(WRTG
3310)
Instructors use case study and real-client involvement to apply
theories of audience, purpose, and context to the rhetoric of
professional writing. Students create and design documents dealing
with instructions, specifications, international cross cultural
issues, persuasive/informative long and short proposals, and
reports. Writing projects stress learning to write effective and
technically concise documents as they may apply to students'
future work environments.
- Contemporary Composition:
Theory and Application (WRTG 4305) An
upper-division elective for writing majors and minors and students
interested in teaching writing. This course examines composition
theory and pedagogy through both readings and direct observation
of composition classrooms. The first half of the course
concentrates on the history of contemporary composition theory and
the key issues fundamental to the development of the disciplines.
The second half of the course concentrates on how these theories
are applied in today's composition classroom. Students will
analyze the composition teaching they observe and relate it to
theories discussed. Prerequisite: WRTG 1320. Spring.
- Persuasion
(SPCH 3312)
Recent research and techniques in persuasion in
rhetoric, social psychology, advertising, public opinion, and
evidence in relation to attitude change.
-
Evolution of Rhetorical Theory
(SPCH
4311)
Principal rhetorical theories from ancient to modern times and
the application of these theories to the analysis of outstanding
speakers throughout history.
-
Writing
Majors must take fifteen hours of electives selected
from upper-division courses in the Writing Program or, with
approval of the Writing and Speech Department's Curriculum Committee, from courses
offered by other departments. Electives may be drawn from but
are not limited to courses from the following list:
- Introduction to Dramatic Writing
(WRTG 2315)
- Creative
Writing: Poetry (WRTG 3300)
- Creative
Writing: Fiction
(WRTG 3300)
- Creative
Writing: Non-Fiction (WRTG 3300)
- Creative
Writing: Writing for Children
(WRTG 3300)
- Creative Writing: Screenwriting (WRTG
3300)
- Forms of Scriptwriting (WRTG
3320)
- Forms of Poetry (WRTG 3325)
- Forms of Nonfiction (WRTG 3330)
- Forms of Fiction )WRTG 3335)
- Teaching
& Tutoring Writing (WRTG
3315)
- Rhetoric and Composition (WRTG
3301)
- Rhetoric
and Cross-Cultural Communication (WRTG
4320)
- Semantics (WRTG 4315)
- Sociolinguistics
(WRTG 4325)
- Linguistics
for Educators
(WRTG 4330)
- Modern Grammars
(ENGL
3312)
- Beginning Reporting and Editing
(MCOM
2300)
- Writing for Public Relations
(MCOM
3310)
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