Department of Writing Studies
Welcome to the web site for the Department of Writing Studies. Part of the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts, we are an academic department with nationally recognized strengths in teaching and scholarship in rhetoric, writing, and technical communication. We opened our doors in summer 2007, a new department created as part of the University of Minnesota’s strategic planning process. With 19 tenured or tenure-track faculty, over 20 full-time instructors, and degrees from the bachelor's to the doctorate, we bring together three formerly separate groups of faculty and programs in writing.
The department touches the lives of every undergraduate on campus, teaching over 200 sections of first-year writing as well as courses in technical writing and communication, rhetorical theory, and environmental communication. Graduates from our B.S. and M.S. programs are prepared for successful careers in scientific and technical communication and are in high demand by companies both local and national. Our M.A. and Ph.D. graduates pursue careers primarily in academic settings, becoming college professors and instructors.
We are also the administrative home of the Center for Writing, which provides face-to-face and online writing assistance as well as other programs of interest. Faculty and staff in both the Center and the Department enjoy many collaborative relationships including funded research to study how writing is most effectively taught in different academic disciplines.
We hope you find what you are looking for on our web site. If you have any questions, please email or call us. Or stop in and visit us in Wesbrook Hall, located on the Minneapolis campus.
Sincerely,
Laura J. Gurak, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Featured Items
Graduate Student Publications!
Jeff Ward has had an essay published in Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. From the University of Michigan Press:
This collection is a timely intervention in national debates about what constitutes original or plagiarized writing in the digital age. Somewhat ironically, the Internet makes it both easier to copy and easier to detect copying. The essays in this volume explore the complex issues of originality, imitation, and plagiarism, particularly as they concern students, scholars, professional writers, and readers, while also addressing a range of related issues, including copyright conventions and the ownership of original work, the appropriate dissemination of innovative ideas, and the authority and role of the writer/author. Throughout these essays, the contributors grapple with their desire to encourage and maintain free access to copyrighted material for noncommercial purposes while also respecting the reasonable desires of authors to maintain control over their own work.Both novice and experienced teachers of writing will learn from the contributors' practical suggestions about how to fashion unique assignments, teach about proper attribution, and increase students' involvement in their own writing. This is an anthology for anyone interested in how scholars and students can navigate the sea of intellectual information that characterizes the digital/information age.
Greg Schneider and Dr. Matthew P. Meyer co-authored "Being-in-The Office: Sartre, the Look, and the Viewer" in The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series). From Blackwell:
Just when you thought paper couldn't be more exciting, this book comes your way! This book - jammed full of paper - unites philosophy with one of the best shows ever: The Office. Addressing both the current American incarnation and the original British version, The Office and Philosophy brings these two wonders of civilization together for a frolic through the mundane yet curiously edifying worlds of Scranton's Dunder-Mifflin and Slough's Wernham-Hogg.Is Michael Scott in denial about death? Are Pam and Jim ever going to figure things out? Is David Brent an essentialist? Surprisingly, The Office can teach us about the mind, Aristotle, and humiliation. Even more surprisingly, paper companies can allow us to better understand business ethics. Don't believe it? Open this book, and behold its beautiful paper…
Join the philosophical fray as we explore the abstract world of philosophy through concrete scenes of the unexamined life in The Office. You may discover that Gareth Keenan is secretly a brilliant logician, that Dwight Schrute is better off deceiving himself, that David Brent is an example of hyperreality, and that Michael Scott is hopelessly lost (but you probably already knew that!).
April 17th, 2008Reconfiguring Rhetorical Studies - Panel Discussion April 10th
UMTC RSTC Alum David Beard and Colleagues from UMD & UMC present "Reconfiguring Rhetorical Studies - Panel Discussion": A talk with Mark Huglen, David Beard, and David Gore
David Beard, assistant professor in the Department of Writing Studies at UMN Duluth, will discuss "Truth and Argument in the New Rhetoric: Toulmin, Richards, and the Epistemic Movement." In this excerpt from a chapter of his in-progress monograph on I. A. Richards and the Anglo-American Roots of the New Rhetoric, Beard demonstrates that the New Rhetoric needed to be fully interdisciplinary, integrating literary critics, philosophers of language, and speech teachers, to achieve its full bloom.
Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:00 PM
Room 125 Nolte Center for Continuing EducationAll are welcome.
March 12th, 2008Spring FYW Events / Professional Development
Grading and Responding to Student Writing Workshop
Wednesday, February 27
12:30-1:30 pm, 305 Lind
Will BushApproaches to Teaching Argument
Thursday, March 6
11:00 am-12:00 pm, 12 Nicholson
Nick Hengen
Tim GustafsonStrategies for Facilitating Discussion
Thursday, March 27
11:00am-12:00 pm, 12 Nicholson
Matt Kimlinger
Katie LevinApproaching the Job Market
February 14th, 2008
Wednesday, April 16
12:30-1:30 pm, 305 Lind
Sara Berrey
Tom Reynolds