WRD 250 Writing with the Community

This course encourages an engaged and dynamic approach to writing studies as it places writing in real-world contexts by partnering Oxy students with community organizations (in Los Angeles and Pasadena). Through these partnerships students will identify local cultural and social concerns-specifically on the topics of homelessness poverty and immigration which represent the interests of our particular community groups-and will use writing and rhetorical tools for analyzing and addressing these issues. In this class we will explore a wide range of research and writing strategies common to both academic environments and the work place situations of our community partners such as: primary or field research secondary or library-based research and both individual and collaborative writing projects. This course will allow students to see community nonprofit organizations plus the cultural social and political issues and rhetoric surrounding them from the inside out. The work of this class is thus both scholarly and practical motivating student learning by enlivening and enriching students' approaches to academic work.