Writing and Public Engagement - Minor

The writing and public engagement (WPE) minor is designed to help students hone the arts of persuasive writing and storytelling in diverse public-facing genres and media. Through a unique curriculum offered by the Program for Writing and Rhetoric and the English Department, students learn how to leverage a wide variety of technologies to design, produce and distribute multi-modal compositions; write in professional settings and with community partners; and write individually and collaboratively for social change. From forwarding public arguments to designing social media content to composing for nonprofits, this minor enables students to learn valuable skills, practices and tools that are crucial for communication, work and civic engagement in the 21st century.

Requirements

Requirements for the minor in writing and public engagement include:

1. Earn 18 credits in ENGL and WRTG courses with grades of C- or better. At least 12 credits must be in upper division, and at least 9 credits must be ENGL designated courses.

2. Students may apply no more than 9 credit hours of transfer work, including no more than 6 upper division credit hours, towards a minor. This is a college residency rule for an 18-credit minor.

3. Students may apply one lower- or upper-division Creative Writing or Literature ENGL course of their choice to count towards the minor.

4. Students must maintain at least a 2.00 (C) GPA in all courses counting toward the minor.

5. All courses applied to the writing and public engagement minor must be from the Department of English (ENGL) or the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (WRTG).

6. English majors (Creative Writing or Literature and Cultural Studies) are not eligible to declare/earn this minor.

7. Must have completed the 3-­credit lower-­division Written Communication requirement as required by all schools and colleges at CU Boulder prior to declaring the minor.

Required Courses and Credits

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the program, students will be able to:

• Synthesize and apply theories of writing, rhetoric and publics with critical race, decolonial, queer and other critical theories to a variety of rhetorical situations central to public life.
• Use a wide range of research methods‐including but not limited to rhetorical criticism, genre analysis, archival research, action‐oriented research, iconographic tracking, case studies, ethnography, oral story telling to investigate and address a variety of complex contemporary cultural, political and environmental issues on local, national and transnational scales.
• Design, create and deliver persuasive compositions in a variety of genres, modes and media for diverse public audiences and rhetorical goals such as argument, advocacy, activism, policy change, community organizing, productive dialogue, networking and awareness raising.
• Put writing into practice with a variety of other strategic tactics to engage effectively in political and nonpolitical actions central to public life.
• Analyze, organize, create and circulate documents and artifacts that contribute to identity construction, institutional and cultural memory, organizational structures, public assemblage and policy making.
• Understand and manipulate how writing and information circulates and gets taken up in an era of misinformation, data overload, intense political division, racial intensity and algorithmic injustice.
• Design and manage an online presence for both self and community organizations through digital content and social media writing.