The emphasis in the course I’ve entitled “How Thinking Like a Writer Will Help You in the Real World” will be on lengthening the process of discovery, making a habit of thinking through writing, and revising with professional audiences in mind.  As a class we will keep a weekly commonplace book, read about major conflicts in curriculum reform, and examine “invention strategies” of historical figures from Aristotle to Einstein and beyond.  Furthermore, we will use writing to learn/writing to discover techniques to a.) write a chreia elaborating on the students’ philosophies of education, b.) write an epideictic essay in which they praise or blame a major theory in their disciplines, c.) construct a collage essay on a subject of their choice while we discuss the conventions of academic writing versus narrative writing, and d.) compile a final new media essay that will become part of an electronic portfolio to help them with their future job searches.  This course will also implement my love of the history of rhetoric—specifically as it helped shape institutions of higher education—and a core concern for the future of the humanities.

• Syllabus (+ Schedule)
• Electronic Portfolio Guidelines

• College Philosophy Chreia (not available)
• Epideictic Textbook Essay (not available)
• Collage Essay
• New Media Essay
  • (Sample New Media Essay - .mov file )
• Style Activity

• Zinsser, William. Writing to Learn. 1988.
• Fletcher, Ralph. Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer's Notebook. 1996.
• Root-Bernstein, Robert & Michele. Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. 2001.