Writing Studies Minor

June Johnson Bube, PhD, Director 

Objectives  

The Writing Minor provides students with foundational analytic study and applied training in written communication. It develops students’ skills and versatility as writers as they study the field of writing and rhetoric in its historical, theoretical, and cultural contexts. The courses offered in this program introduce students to a rhetorical understanding of the relationship among language, literacy, culture, identity, and power. Students engage in a sustained study of writing as they explore rhetorical traditions, the material impacts of writing, including the roles of technological advances, and writing and rhetoric’s role in ethical deliberation, civic engagement, and social change. Students in the program learn dexterity as writers by practicing diverse skills in argumentation, professional writing, creative nonfiction, personal essays, and others. As they learn to tailor their writing to different rhetorical situations, they hone their writing process and ability to produce clear, coherent, effective prose.

The Writing Studies Minor is appropriate for undergraduate students from a great variety of majors across our university, but particularly for students planning career paths in law, business, teaching, the arts, the non-profit world, or government. This minor both enriches students’ undergraduate experience and contributes to professional formation by giving them a competitive edge in graduate school and the job market.