Maddison Williams
Practices in Writing
The practice in writing minor is a conglomeration of classes that look at different styles and genres of writing and how to right rhetorically effective in any written situation. I got to try creative non-fiction and technical writing, and better hone my academic writing while pursing this minor.
WRIT 3500 Capstone: Writing Design and Circulation
In my writing capstone, I compiled all of my writing from the last three years of undergrad into a single, presentable website. In conjunction with compiling all my work, I was able to go back through my different wiring pieces and revise them to produce a more finished version. The largest revision, I made in this class was a complete revision of one of my pieces that resulted in a complete change in genre.
COMN 2400 Landmarks in Rhetorical Theory
This course moved through the history of rhetoric in speech and in writing, starting with early Greece and ending in the modern-day. We analyzed classic Socrates' teaching and applied them to modern movies to analyze how rhetoric is used in cinema today. The course specifically focused on the relationship between what is true and what is good.
Topics in Applied Writing: Green Rhetoric
For my topics in applied writing course, I chose to take Green Rhetoric. This course focused specifically on writing about nature, climate change, and specific environmental problems. Green Rhetoric was primarily focused on writing for “the public good”. The course also revolved around the improvement of editing, revising, and curation of the pieces written in the class. I produced an op-ed about bee populations in North America and a creative non-fiction piece about a solo hike I took 2 years ago.
Professional Writing
Professional writing facilitated a better understanding of the technical writing genre. I was able to practice and hone my professional writing skills in genres that are typically used in the workplace. The skills I honed in this class include writing rhetorically effective emails, memos, instructions, visual data, social media presences, and many others. I had my first experience with the technical writing genre in this class, and have now had extensive practice in how to write technical writing effectively.
WRIT 2000 Theories of Writing
In this course, I explored multiple different writing genres and writing styles. The course covered many different topics centered around what writing really is including: What is writing? Where did it come from? How did it develop--and did it do so the same or different in other cultures? How do writers develop--and what accounts for differences? What are different types of writing, different situations for writing, tools and practices--and how do these interconnect? What does it mean to study writing? How have major figures theorized writing, and what tensions emerge among their theories? What are the relationships among thought, speech, and writing--and among image, film/video, and sound? How do such theories change our notions of what texts are and what texts do? While answering the questions throughout the course, I was able to better find my voice as a writer by working in genres that I have never worked with before including creative non-fiction, audio-verbal recording, and many others.