WRTG 3040

BUSINESS AND SOCIETY, Dr. Andrew Wilson

This section of WRTG 3040 examines the politics of popular culture and marketing, both globally and in our everyday lives. Major questions guiding our work will include: How our social values affect our purchasing decisions? In what ways does marketing and advertising target our social values as consumers? And most importantly, how can business be an instrument for social change? We will address these questions through independent research into various consumer subcultures. Designed as a workshop, this class will primarily read and discuss student writing in addition to giving each student a chance to share their writing with the class and improve it with their help. Through their writing, presentations, and class participation, students will leave this class with a stronger command over their writing and a deeper understanding of the communication skills necessary for meaningfully engaging in professional settings.

TOPICS IN WRITING, Dr. Jennifer Stewart

“Topics in Writing” is a section of WRTG 3020, 3030, and 3040 that is intended for non-native speakers of English who wish to enroll in an upper-division writing course. The course is taught as a rigorous writing workshop using advanced readings and materials, emphasizing critical thinking, analysis, and persuasive writing. Examples of assignments include daily writing activities in genres used in the contexts of technical, scientific, and professional communication. Course readings focus on communication in the arts, sciences, and professional fields. Future work in these fields will require you to write and speak clearly to an inter-disciplinary audience; accordingly, coursework will include practice in oral presentation. Assignments are tailored to meet the needs and career aspirations of individual students. The final project for this course takes the form of a technical, scientific, or professional genre that students will be likely to produce in their future workplaces or organizations.

WRITING ON BUSINESS AND SOCIETY, Dr. Sigman Byrd

This course aims to prepare you for thinking critically and responding effectively in writing to the challenges you will meet every day in the business world. The primary text will be your writing supplemented by background readings from the course textbook. Assignments will include a variety of professional documents through which you will practice critical thinking, reading, and writing skills and learn how to address the practical needs of different audiences in a variety of rhetorical situations as you plan, draft, revise, and reflect. Assignments will also be practical in nature and based on real-world scenarios, addressing communication and business ethics issues, corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues, as well as your career concerns. In addition, you will learn reader-centered writing strategies and apply them to your own work and the work of your classmates in a collaborative workshop setting. In essence, as you complete various writing tasks this semester, you will experience how business writing is fundamentally a cooperative effort between reader and writer, an ongoing negotiation between you and your colleagues, your employer and clients.