Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Writing and Rhetoric

Department Faculty
Hannah Dickinson, Associate Professor
Geoffrey Babbitt, Associate Professor
Cheryl Forbes, Professor
Amy Green, Professor of Practice
Ben Ristow, Associate Professor, Chair 
Maggie M. Werner, Professor

The primary purpose of the Writing and Rhetoric Program is to offer rigorous courses at all levels that integrate the study of writing and the study of rhetoric. The courses help students across the Colleges strengthen their abilities to express themselves effectively in written discourse. They help students meet the challenges of the community curriculum, which puts effective written discourse at its center. Writing is both a way to learn course content and a result of learning: the mark of a liberally educated person.

Writing across the curriculum is also a central component of program offerings through the Writing Colleagues Program. This program prepares student mentors to help with the teaching of writing and reading through the program's work in first-year seminars and other courses and supports faculty members' use of writing in their courses.

Mission Statement

The Writing and Rhetoric Department is dedicated to supporting students as they develop their thinking, writing, and reading skills through a collaborative, process-based approach to the study and production of texts in a wide variety of genres. The department emphasizes the ways writing and rhetoric shape—and are shaped by—social worlds, providing students with analytical tools and theoretical frameworks to “read the world” and meaningfully intervene in it.

Offerings

For students interested in a concentrated study of writing and rhetoric, the program offers a self-designed major and minor, which require students to complete foundational courses in grammar and style, discourse analysis, and rhetorical analysis. Elective courses are offered at all levels. In addition, majors will create a concentration in conjunction with their major/minor advisor – to focus and extend the work of the foundational courses, electives, and a capstone seminar.

Writing and Rhetoric Major (B.A.)

11 courses
Learning Objectives:

• Initiate and execute projects of their own design through a process-based approach to writing. 
• Construct arguments that matter in the world using multiple forms of analysis including grammatical, discourse, and rhetorical analysis.
• Produce texts through a process of inquiry involving multiple research methods and theorize and explain their research choices. 
• Collaborate with others at all stages of a writing project, deepening their understanding of the relationship between collaboration and the writing process. 
• Understand language and writing as forms of social action that are shaped by—but can also intervene in—the production of social inequalities and social change.

Requirements:
One introductory course from among WRRH 100, 105, 106, 200, 335 or ENGL 190/290; three core courses 201, 250, and 360; a group of six electives (five in WRRH), one of which may be taken outside of WRRH; and the capstone (WRRH 420).

Transfer Credit. Students may take two courses (including study abroad, transfer, and courses in other departments) outside the major. All transfer credits require approval by the advisor and chair. Core courses and the capstone may not be taken at other institutions.

Concentrations. We see the essential benefit in having student and advisor co-create an academic plan that fits with the student’s desired outcome and for them to reference in professional contexts after HWS as their concentration. Naming the concentration is the work of the student and the advisor. Students, in consultation with their advisor select six electives that together constitute a coherent concentration in an area of the student’s interest. On the department website you can see examples of student-designed concentrations, which could include: 

• New Media Writing & Professional Journalism 
• Language as Social Action
• Creative Nonfiction 
• Social Media and Public Relations 
• Sports Media 
• Science, Technology, and Writing
• Rhetorics of the Body
• Composition Pedagogy
• Feminist Discourse Traditions
• Global Englishes & Multilingual Writing Practices
• Essay Tradition(s)

Writing and Rhetoric Minor

7 courses
Requirements:
One introductory course from among WRRH 100, 105, 106, 200 and 335; three core courses, WRRH 201, 250, and 360; two electives; and the capstone (WRRH 420).

Course Descriptions

WRRH 100 Writer's Seminar  This course is for students in any major who want to become successful as college writers. By honing skills in critical reading and thinking, students are introduced to analysis and argumentation in order to consider their ideas within the context of academic writing and their own lives. Students develop writing techniques through composing and revising narratives, analytical essays, and guided research projects. The course focuses on writing individually and in collaboration with peers, the instructor, and other student (Writing Colleagues or CTL Writing Fellows) support through an emphasis on the process of invention, drafting, and revision. Course times and themes vary with instructor. (Repeatable, offered every semester)

WRRH 105 Multilingual Writer's Seminar  This introductory English for Speakers of Other Languages course provides students with the opportunity to develop a foundational level of English literacy and communication skills. This course places an emphasis on writing in various genres including argumentation, narration, and summary, as well as various writing skills including cohesion, structure, grammatical fluency, and revision. Students will use their experiences at HWS to develop their English writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills, with priority being given to writing development. Students will improve their English skills through written responses to readings, essays written in multiple genres, and a presentation on an aspect in American culture or their home culture. The time and theme of the course may vary with the instructor. (Fall, offered annually)

WRRH 106 Multilingual Writers Seminar II  This intermediate English as a Second Language course provides students with the opportunity to build upon the English literacy and communication skills they acquired in WRRH 105. Through an emphasis on more advanced grammatical skills and academic communication skills, such as analysis, synthesis, primary research, and critical thinking, students will become increasingly familiar with using the English Language for effective communication in academia. Students will improve their English through weekly writing responses to readings, essays written in multiple genres, a presentation on a topic of the student's interest, and acting as a discussion leader in class once per semester to improve verbal communication skills. The time and theme of the course may vary with the instructor and semester. (Spring, offered annually)

WRRH 175 First Person Singular  What's up? What's happening? What's new? How you been? How you doing? We say these things every time we meet a friend - and we really want to know. Readers of memoirs ask these or similar questions, and memoirists give us the answers - beautifully. We're lucky that curious people have so many memoirs to choose from. And for the last several years we've had memoirs from all over the world, not just the United States. This course studies the contemporary memoir in a multicultural setting. Through the books we read, we travel to such places as Somalia, the Sudan, Iran, and North Korea. Students write critical essays about the memoir in general and the books we read, paying particular attention to the cultures they encounter in them. They also write their own short memoirs - vignettes from their life. The course ends with students writing a final essay on what they have learned about cultural difference and the impact culture has on the people who live within a particular border. (Forbes)

WRRH 200 Writer's Seminar II  This intermediate writing course offers students the chance to develop writing and research skills through reading and writing processes introduced in WRRH 100, with an emphasis on increased responsibility for engaging in critical analysis and argument and for developing research projects. Students become more familiar with academic standards and conventions, particularly with the ever-widening variety of research tools available to them. Invention strategies, multiple drafts and revision, peer responses, and editing are stressed. Texts are variable depending on faculty preference. (Staff)

WRRH 201 Grammar and Style  Grammar and Style provides a foundational knowledge of traditional English grammar and investigates the relationship between grammar and style. Style, as a canon of rhetoric, depends on the conscious control of grammar through the choices every writer makes. Working together and individually, we study the rules of grammar, diagram sentences, complete exercises, take quizzes and exams, and write grammatical analyses - everything designed to make students grammatically savvy writers. (Forbes, Green, Werner, offered annually)

WRRH 204 From Hoax to Truthiness: The Rhetorics and Ethics of Nonfiction Narrative  In this class, students will explore the art, ethics, and influence of nonfiction storytelling, with particular attention to nonfiction texts - some more "true" than others - of significant influence on the 20th and 21st century US. Students should expect to use case study analysis, theory and other scholarly reading, archival and contextual research, and their own composing process to analyze and argue for answers to course questions: Why and how do stories achieve power and influence? When does effective storytelling shift into misinformation or disinformation? Whose stories get told? What are the affordances and risks of the digital storytelling multiverse? How does one become an effective yet ethical manipulator of nonfiction stories? Final projects will be composed via HWS archival research for a public audience. (Hess)

WRRH 207 Introduction to Sociolinguistics  This course introduces students to the field of sociolinguistics: what sociolinguists study, the various methods they use to study language in use, and the questions sociolinguists use to determine their theories of language use. As such, the course looks at language use internationally and cross-culturally, as well as locally; theoretically and practically; and thematically, as in language planning and such issues as gender, age, race, ethnicity. Students keep daily journals, complete language exercises, write four short papers on an issue under consideration, and complete a final project analyzing a speech community of their choice (a sports team, a club, a class, a minority group), specifics to be determined in conversation between the student and the professor. (Forbes)

WRRH 209 Them's Fightin' Words: Civil Discourse from a Sociolinguistic Perspective  A recent Saturday Night Live sketch featured three couples out to dinner who attempt to discuss the lifting of the mask-mandate and other issues related to COVID-19. Each individual is able to get out a few words before their partner or others at the table remind them to be careful about the exact words they use and what they say. We see each one inflicting (fake) self-harm or trying to hide or disappear altogether due to the uncomfortableness of the conversation. Who hasn't been in this position at some point in the last few years? In this course, we will talk about the theory of civility in today's contentious society and the sociolinguistic factors that influence that contention, including gender, ethnicity, social class, and age. Students will confront these issues in readings, case studies, documentaries and problem sets. They will complete a series of debates and video podcasts on such issues as Take a Knee and the Pledge of Allegiance, Renewable Energy, and COVID-19 and Mental Health, applying in both cases the theories of civility and sociolinguistics. Students will carry out field work by interviewing people representing different sociolinguistic categories in Geneva about their comfort in addressing controversial issues. (No prerequisites, offered Maymester, Forbes and Travalia).

WRRH 210 Introduction to Print Journalism  This course introduces print journalism. It focuses on the basics of reporting and feature writing (business, sports, local government, and the law). Participants should expect to produce several pages of accurate, detailed, and well-written copy a week and be prepared for extensive and numerous revisions. Students also work on typography and layout. As the major project for the semester, students in teams write, edit, design, and typeset a newspaper. (Repeatable) (Forbes, Babbitt, offered annually)

WRRH 211 Introduction to Public Relations  Public Relations is an important part of creating a successful business and requires strong writing and an astute understanding of the market place. Using journals, discussion questions, and, most importantly, case studies, students learn the basics of public relations by practicing it. (Forbes, offered annually)

WRRH 212 Marketing Concepts  Marketing Concepts focuses on three areas: investigating failed marketing programs, creating marketing programs for local businesses, and creating launch programs for students' own business ideas. Students work in groups for development and feedback. (Forbes, offered annually)

WRRH 215 Literate Lives: Rhetorics of Marginalized Education  William Smith and Hobart Colleges occupy a unique and at times contested place in the history of marginalized literacy practices and education in America. This course will examine that history and its rhetorics through a contextual lens comprised of primary, secondary, and theoretical texts. In particular, students will explore women's and other marginalized groups' literacy and educational practices (in all of their forms: reading and writing, but also social, cultural, and political literacies) in 19th century America with an eye towards the establishment of William Smith College in 1908. In part by reflecting on their own literacy and educational experiences, students will then consider the social, cultural, and political implications of those practices from the 20th century through to today. The course will also make use of the substantial archives in the Warren Hunting Smith Library. (Green, offered alternate years)

WRRH 218 Getting Dressed: Discourses of Fashion  Discourses of fashion are a more and more a central, yet unexamined, fact of life for HWS students and Americans in general. This course takes a critical look at that discourse, using the sociolinguistic theories of James Paul Gee in his discussion of big D Discourses, Big C Conversations, and Figured Worlds. Added to this is the cultural analysis of Roland Barthes I essays and a book. We consider the social, economic, and political ramifications of style. (Forbes)

WRRH 219 Feature Sportswriting  Glenn Strout, series editor of Best American Sports Writing, argues that sports writing is more about people and what concerns us - love, death, desire, labor, and loss - than about the simple results of a game or competition. This course builds from the premise that sports writing offers readers and writers important ways of making sense of our worlds. Whether we are reading Roger Angell's description of a baseball, considering a one-eyed matador, watching a high school girls' softball team, or contemplating a one-armed quarterback, we immerse ourselves and our readers in making sense of the world. We explore such questions as Why are sports so deeply imbedded in our culture? What are the ethics of sport? How do sports disenfranchise certain populations? To answer these and other questions, students keep journals, write weekly sports features, and produce a mid-term and final portfolio. (Forbes, Ristow)

WRRH 221 Going Places: Travel Writing  "Journeys," writes Susan Orlean, "are the essential text of the human experience." That experience is at the heart of this course. As Orlean says, though, a journey need not be to an exotic place, though she has been to many such places. But a piece about a journey, a piece of travel writing can come from somewhere just around the corner, down the street, up a flight of stairs, any `there-and-back-again' that you might take. The only requirement is that the writer be the traveler first, then the writer pay attention. Students read exemplary travel writers, write their own travel pieces, keep a reading journal and observation notes to prepare for their formal essays. (Forbes)

WRRH 240 Writing and Culture of Reading  Academic, intellectual culture is a culture of the word, of reading and writing, of print. This course explores the dynamics of this culture through a close interrogation of the writing and reading practices of intellectuals, ourselves included. Through the course of the semester students keep a reading journal, write several critical essays, and complete a final project. (Forbes, Green, offered alternate years)

WRRH 250 Talk and Text: Introduction to Discourse Analysis  This course investigates one of the fundamental theoretical ways language is studied today. Students study the theories of discourse analysis and practice those theories by analyzing spoken and written texts. Analysis of the various kinds of texts in our culture - from interviews to courtroom testimony, from political speeches to radio and TV talk shows - leads into discussions of conversational style, gender, linguistic stereotypes, and intracultural communication. (Dickinson, Werner, offered annually)

WRRH 310 Digital Journalism: Reporting Online  This course is designed as a stand-alone or a follow-up to WRRH 210, the introduction to print journalism. Students read two online newspapers daily, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, write and rewrite at least one story a week, learn the principles of writing for an internet audience, and design and publish their own blogs and online newspapers. There is a fee for this course. (Forbes, Babbitt, offered annually)

WRRH 311 Introduction to Publishing  This course focuses on the principles and practices of magazine and book publishing. It explores the way rhetoric functions in publishing and how "gatekeeping" functions in this industry of ideas and cultural influence: who decides what and who gets heard. The issues of gender, race, and class are central. Students study general interest and special interest magazine publishing; general trade book, academic or special interest book publishing; and the history of American publishing from the colonial era. Participants keep a reading journal; write several critical essays about the major issues in magazine and book publishing today; and complete a major semester-long project, individually or in teams (for instance, editing a book-length manuscript or producing a magazine). (Forbes, offered annually)

WRRH 313 Sports Media Seminar  The last century has seen a radical transformation in media representations of athletics and the figure of the athlete. Sports media has evolved over the same period from print journalism to a host of evolving new media, including podcasts, documentary film, and now, social and interactive media. Athletes are not passive spectators to the narratives that construct them, and they take political or social justice stances, argue for fair labor conditions, and advocate for themselves and others on multiple platforms. Sports media is a lucrative, global enterprise, and this seminar analyzes the way that sports are represented, distributed, and consumed in our contemporary moment in the U.S. Students read, write, view, and produce essays and scripts in written and video form, and they learn about careers in journalism, sports communication, television/film production, and podcasting.

WRRH 320 Op-Ed: Writing Political and Cultural Commentary  This course explores the roll of the columnist, the editorial writer whose columns appear opposite the editorial page in newspapers. Each week students write a column, making an argument about current issues related to politics, society, or the environment, to name a few. The course requires a great deal of independent research. The course is conducted as a workshop, in which each week three students volunteer to read their column aloud and have the whole class discuss it - raising questions, issues, looking at strong and weak points in the argument. Attendance is mandatory and students are expected to rewrite their columns as they prepare to turn in a mid-term and then a final portfolio. Course readings include a variety of editorial columns, especially those in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. (Forbes, Babbitt)

WRRH 325 The Science Beat  This course is designed for students interested in writing about science, in science journalism, or in strengthening their research and writing skills. Students produce weekly articles, read and discuss articles by major science writers, and read and discuss each other's articles in a workshop. (Forbes)

WRRH 327 Literary Journalism: The Art of Reporting and Nonfiction Narrative  Literary journalism blends factual reporting with narrative and stylistic strategies common in literature. Literary journalists are bound by many of the same standards as other reporters, but they have the additional goal, as Ben Yagoda puts it, of "making facts dance." The literary journalist might, therefore, suppress direct quotation - a staple of traditional journalism - in favor of scene and dialogue. Or, rather than withdrawing the writer's point of view to achieve objectivity, the story might foreground the reporter's voice and experiences. This course will explore specific ways in which journalism benefits from literary techniques. Our approach will be twofold: we will examine the genre historically, and we will critique student work during regular workshops. Although we will begin by identifying the genre's roots in the 18th and 19th centuries (including works by Defoe, Boswell, Dickens), we will spend the bulk of the semester steeped in 20th century and present-day practices. "New Journalism" (including works by Capote, Mailer, Didion, Thompson, Wolfe) will be a cornerstone of our study, as will today's cutting-edge practitioners (such as Coates, Beard, Rankine, and Wallace). Students will both emulate and resist these writers in their own work. (Babbitt, offered alternate years)

WRRH 328 Small Press Book Publishing: Book Contest and Acquisitions Editing  In this course, students will help publish a book. We will focus on small press acquisitions editing through the facilitation of Seneca Review's first biennial Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Contest. The editors of Seneca Review will have narrowed down manuscript submissions to approximately 15 semi-finalists. Over the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity both to learn about and to engage in the acquisitions editorial process by reading, discussing, and evaluating each of the semi-finalist manuscripts and by ultimately helping select five finalists. The TRIAS resident will meet with the class several times and serve as the contest judge. Students will work in small groups to pitch one of the finalist manuscripts to the judge. By engaging in the book publishing and acquisitions process, students will grapple with such questions as: How do lyric essays and hybrid texts work in conjunction with one another in a book-length manuscript? What makes a creative manuscript good and how do we weigh it against competing manuscripts with different strengths? And how can we distinguish between manuscripts that cross the threshold into the realm of literary excellence and those that do not? (Babbit, offered alternate years)

WRRH 330 New Media Writing: Theory and Production  New media technologies are currently exploding writing possibilities in thrilling multimodal, multimedia, and multidisciplinary ways. This course will explore new media writing through theory and practice in literature, creative writing, and journalism. Throughout the semester, we will build a firm theoretical foundation in theories of new media and technology (through writers such as Heidegger, Baudrillard, and Haraway). To complement our theoretical inquiry, we will study new media works in genres such as journalism, literature, and art (including work by Strickland, Goldsmith, and the Nieman Storyboard), as well as some criticism responding to those works and their methods. Major assignments will include academic blogs responding to assigned materials, a video essay, an audio collage, a multimedia online document, and the curation of a creative Tumblr series. Students will respond critically to each other's new media projects in regularly held workshops. (Babbitt, offered alternate years)

WRRH 332 Food for Thought  In this course, students study food writing from a number of perspectives: as a journalistic subject, a sociological subject, a cultural subject, a historical subject, a psychological subject, and a scientific subject. Readings and writing assignments reflect each of these approaches. Thus, the readings provide needed background information and serve as writing models. Students learn to write about food in various genres though intensive practice and imitation. Because food writers need to translate the varied sensory experiences of eating into words, this course will also include tasting events in order to develop sensory, observational, and descriptive writing skills. These tastings will be conducted in a lab style setting where we will prepare and taste meals and ingredients from a variety of cultures (Burma, Persian, Chile, Turkey, India, and Northern China. (Forbes)

WRRH 333 Digital Rhetoric and Writing with New Technologies  Digital Rhetorics analyzes the rhetorical and cultural impacts of established and emerging new media artifacts from YouTube videos and Instagram posts to viral memes. Students produce content for digital platforms (blogs, digital portfolios, memes, etc.) while building an understanding of how rhetorical history and technological innovations impact the consumption of online content and the communities that are formed in digital space. Although the course discusses the importance of digital literacy and how to use some online programs and newer technologies, the class concentrates on how new media and virtual interfaces impact our global culture and the individual user. Students have the opportunity to develop analytical and creative skills through a diverse set of writing (and design layout) assignments. These new digital writing and design skills will be utilized and valued as students complete a service-learning component for the course with a local non-profit organization. (Ristow)

WRRH 335 Writing Colleagues Seminar  This rigorous and writing intensive course is designed for students who plan to work in the Writing Colleagues Program. The course contains unique, challenging writing assignments while examining current theories of composition and rhetoric. Students read and discuss scholarship pertaining to linguistic diversity, multilingual writers, and the emerging scholarship on curriculum-based peer tutors. Students investigate writing as a process and discuss the ways reading impacts and remains interdependent to writing. In addition, students have the opportunity to train and practice techniques and new skills as Writing Colleagues with their peers and within a five-week practicum component, usually with a students enrolled in an introductory level writing course. Prerequisites: First-year students and sophomores are accepted following nomination, application, and an interview process. (Dickinson, Ristow, offered each semester)

WRRH 360 Power and Persuasion: Rhetorical History, Theory, and Criticism  Power and Persuasion focuses on rhetorical history, theory, and practice with an emphasis on analytical methodology. Rhetorical analysis includes a broad range of methods that are based on different theories of and approaches to rhetoric. Therefore, the learning of methods will be informed by rhetorical histories and theories, and students will be inquiring into the ways that theories can change as they are put into practice, and how practice can challenge and enrich theory. The process of analysis will improve both close reading and critical thinking skills, will improve understanding of what makes arguments effective and the ways that they are constructed according to purpose and audience, and will improve students writing by revealing the many ways that writers use language in purposeful ways. (Ristow, Werner, offered annually)

WRRH 364 Suffrage and Citizenship in American Discourse  This course examines how American citizenship is and has been constituted, in its official documents as well as in its cultural rhetorics, by exploring the history of suffrage and disenfranchisement in the United States. There was no Constitutional definition of citizenship until the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, almost a century after the Declaration of Independence. Through their interaction with a variety of discourses and practices, students will learn how citizenship was constituted in America's past and as well as investigate the ways in which citizenship is practiced today. In particular, students will interrogate the ways in which literacy practices, educational opportunities, and the criminal justice system have helped to define who has the right to full citizenship in America. This course will study that history and its rhetorics through a contextual lens comprised of primary, secondary, and theoretical texts that consider the social, cultural, and political implications of the practice of citizenship from the 18th century through to today. (Green, offered alternate years)

WRRH 420 Writer's Guild  As the senior seminar that acts as a capstone to a major or minor in WRRH, this course requires students to write extensively, to think critically about their own and others' work, to synthesize old writing and produce new arguments about it, and to pursue publication. WRRH 420 is structured around two major components. The first, the capstone portfolio, is designed to help students synthesize their learning as a WRRH major or minor. The second, a substantial publishable work, requires students to learn and follow the publishing process: choosing a text, selecting a venue, analyzing the venue, revising the text for that venue, and submitting the piece for publication. In addition, students will engage in many smaller steps along the way including proposing their ideas, workshopping in writing groups, and presenting their work in a public forum. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor based on a portfolio draft. (Staff, offered each spring)

WRRH 450 Independent Study

WRRH 456 1/2 Credit Independent Study

WRRH 490 Writing Colleagues Field Placement  Writing Colleagues must enroll in WRRH 490 every semester they are in a course placement. In addition to attending their placements, helping professors develop writing assignments and activities, reading student essays, and working one-on-one with writers, Writing Colleagues enrolled in WRRH 490 must also attend monthly professional development meetings, meet bi-weekly with the WC Coordinator, submit a weekly WC journal, and contribute to the community's writing culture through other writing assignments and activities. These activities are designed to support Writing Colleagues as they continue to strengthen their own reading and writing skills and develop as Writing Colleagues. (Dickinson, Green, Ristow, offered each semester)

WRRH 495 Honors

WRRH 499 Writing & Rhetoric Internship