ENGL 481 1U - Composition Theory & Practice

Campus: Urbana-Champaign

Description:

Study of the history and theory of written composition. This course explores basic rhetorical principles, various theoretical perspectives in the field of composition/rhetoric, and helps students form practical approaches to the guidance of, response to, and structuring of student writing. Course Information: 3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Prerequisite: One year of college literature or consent of instructor.

Special Instructions:

The constellation of skills that comprise composition-invention, selection, combination, construction, framing, curation, reasoning, argument, presentation, delivery, and so on-have been taught in Western worlds since classical time. This course will review the long and rich history of composition theory in order to understand what composition has been (e.g., an craft, an art, a civic action, a moral exercise), who composition has served (e.g., citizens, lawyers, preachers, social climbers, students, activists), and what composition has helped people accomplish (e.g., persuasion of others, expression of self, disruption of social order). We will consider how these historical theories of composition inflect the approaches to teaching composition that have emerged in the last fifty years, including pedagogies grounded in process theory, expressivism, social constructivism, feminism, multimodality, and multiculturalism. In light of these historical and contemporary contexts, we will a

Option 1

Course Level: Graduate

Credit: 3

Term(s): Fall , Spring