Rhetoric and Writing - New College of Florida

Students who pursue a secondary field AOC in Rhetoric and Writing will read and write about writing; writing is both a tool for thinking and communication, and also an object of study in and of itself.

About the Rhetoric & Writing Area of Concentration

The Rhetoric and Writing secondary field is the study of how writers interact with and consider texts, contexts, and audiences in order to construct knowledge and effect change. Successful writing is not only dependent on a writer’s knowledge and skill, but also on the writer’s ability to analyze rhetorical situations. To do so, students read and write about rhetoric and writing in order to think critically about their own texts and composing practices; subsequently, they often change many of their beliefs about writing, which then impacts their processes and strategies. Students in Rhetoric and Writing not only learn procedural knowledge (“knowing what”: e.g. what a thesis is) but declarative knowledge (“knowing how”: e.g. how to analyze the rhetorical situation to know how to develop the appropriate argument). As rhetorical analysis and written communication are both necessary components of many professions and fields of study, the writing beliefs and practices students develop throughout the program are then transferable to contexts beyond their undergraduate work. Rhetoric and Writing introduces students to the practical application not only through their coursework but also through required experiential learning.

Featured Course

WRTG 2850

Level Up Your Writing: A Writing-in-the-Disciplines RPG

This intermediate academic writing course invites students to gamify their writing processes as they explore and master academic disciplinary writing conventions. To guide our journey, the semester will be structured within the frame of a fantasy RPG (role-playing game). In what ways are challenges in our writing like monsters that need to be vanquished? How can we effectively build our experience as we explore the terrain of academic writing, including the idiosyncrasies of disciplinary [and RPG] “classes”? The content of the course will progress students through analyzing and developing writing in their anticipated AOCs, while the frame of the course will guide students through building XP, avoiding HP, and leveling up their scholarly writing along the way. Each week will progress through both informal and formal writing assignments (side quests and main quests); scholarly readings from fields of writing studies, linguistics, and the students’ own AOCs (scripts and scrolls); and group/pair work (party quests). This course builds on content in Writing about Writing and/or the SET SAIL first-year seminars, and is therefore better suited for second and third-year students who are diving deeper into writing in their AOC(s).

Rhetoric & Writing Curriculum