English

Three ways to get feedback:

1–Submit your essay at this online form by clicking here and get feedback in your email within 2 business days

2–Schedule a time to visit our physical space (first floor in the library) by creating an account at WCOnline (here) and signing up for a time to stop by. (We accept walk-ins, too.)

3–Use WCOnline to schedule a time for a live, virtual session from a distance.

Selected videos on our YouTube channel:

We open January 29, 2024!

We’d love to talk to you about your writing in our bigger, cozier space. We’re now in the lower level of Scarborough Hall (room 9), across the hall from classrooms and near the water fountain. If you see the door open, stick your head in and say hi!

Introduction to the Writing Center

The Writing Center is a place to talk about writing. We believe that we become better writers when we seek feedback and reflect on our writing at all stages of the writing process.

We’re for everyone. You should come if you think of yourself as a strong or a weak writer, and whether you just got a new assignment or want to discuss a complete draft.

Our peer writing consultants will ask you questions and make suggestions to guide you, but you’ll stay in charge of your writing. Our consultants are readers and responders, not graders or evaluators, and they’re not experts in every genre of writing. Yes, they provide the crucial feedback of a real reader, but they don’t have all the answers. This basic assumption should help everyone involved with the Writing Center:

• consultants shouldn’t feel that they have to know all conventions of writing in all genres
• writers visiting the Writing Center shouldn’t feel that they are being judged, that their writing will be magically fixed by a consultation, or that they are losing any of their authority over their work
• classroom instructors shouldn’t worry that consultants will give their students advice at odds with their values or assumptions about writing

COVID-19 Updates for the Writing Center

Can you still get help on your writing, even with fears of COVID-19? YES! Here’s how:

Written Feedback through Email: As always, you can submit drafts of your writing through this online form. Our peer consultants (undergraduate students like you!) will read and respond to your writing via email. Give us 48 business hours to respond (that is, if you submit writing Thursday at noon, you might not get a response until Monday at noon).

Face-to-face Writing Consultations: As always, you can visit our physical space in the library (on the main floor). While we’ll accept walk-ins, we prefer that you use WCOnline to schedule a time to stop by. Be sure to check our schedule first to make sure we’re here (available in the right bar if you’re on a desktop, or below if you’re on mobile). Just log in, make sure you’re looking at the Writing Center schedule, and click a free slot to make an appointment! You can even upload your writing in advance if you want the consultant to look at it before you stop by.

Virtual Writing Consultations: When we’re open, we can also schedule virtual sessions through WCOnline using the same system you use to reserve a face-to-face consultation.

You can also reach peer consultants through email at writingcenter@rockford.edu, and you can contact Writing Center Director Kyle Stedman at kstedman@rockford.edu.

What to Expect

1. The big picture: With one of our peer writing consultants, you’ll discuss the writing project (including the assignment itself and any notes from your professor), your goals for the session, and your strengths and weaknesses in approaching this kind of assignment.
2. The text: If you have a draft of your writing, you’ll then discuss it with the consultant, focusing on the goals you discussed together. (If you don’t have a draft yet, that’s okay; we can help you discover ways to get started.) Many consultants will ask you to read your work aloud with a pen in your hand.
3. Question and answer: Don’t be surprised if the consultant asks you a lot of questions–that’s what they’ve been trained to do! You might be asked to explain big-picture and sentence-level choices you made in your draft. For example, you might be asked, “Can you help me understand how these two paragraphs relate to each other?” or “How would you rephrase this sentence if you were explaining it to a friend?”
4. A report: Together with the consultant, you’ll write a report of your visit, including brief notes on what you discussed and what some of your next steps could be. The consultant will then email a copy of the report to you and, with your permission, your instructor.
5. Optional follow-up: If you’d like another visit to continue your conversation with this consultant later, be sure to set up an appointment. We encourage you to visit often, at various stages of your writing process.

Apply to be a Consultant

Students: are you a stellar communicator, both in writing and out loud? Professors: who are the best communicators in your classes?

We accept informal nominations (including self-nominations) for new Writing Center Consultants throughout the year. Send nominations or questions to Dr. Kyle Stedman at kstedman@rockford.edu.

For more details, including a position description and primary responsibilities, visit our full job description.

To Apply:

If you’re ready to apply, follow these steps:

1. Select two pieces of writing you completed for college-level classes.

2. Attach these two pieces to an email to Dr. Kyle Stedman (kstedman@rockford.edu). In the body of your email, explain why you chose those two pieces of writing, why you’d like to be a consultant, and what particular qualities you can bring to the position.

3. Successful students will then be contacted for an interview, at which point they’ll need to have a current Student Employment Work Authorization Card, available from the SAS office on campus.

Writing-Intensive Course Documents

• Writing-Intensive Course Proposal Form and Requirements (DOCX)
• FAQ about Writing-Intensive Courses (DOCX)

Online Resources

• The WAC Clearinghouse: a resource-filled website, including practical and theoretical ideas for everyone, regardless of experience
• The Statement of WAC Principles and Practices
• WAC at UW-Madison: a site full of resources for schools of all sizes
• Bad Ideas about Writing: an open-access book filled with short chapters that debunk major myths about writing instruction, written for a general audience
• Bad Ideas about Writing, the podcast: Kyle Stedman’s ongoing podcast project to read each of the 63 chapters in the book

Welcome to RU’s page on Teaching Writing! Maintained by Writing-across-the-Curriculum Director Kyle Stedman, this page is an ever-growing collection of resources to support writing instruction in all disciplines.

This page was inspired by but goes beyond the writing-intensive courses that our faculty voted to allow in May 2019. That is, we expect many to come here simply to find the form and guidelines for writing-intensive courses (over on the left)–but we also hope to build a culture of teaching writing that extends to all courses, not just those officially stamped as WI courses.

Here are our suggestions for how to get involved in that growing culture of writing:

• Browse resources: Click around on the nationally recognized sites shared on the left and the Google Docs from past workshops on teaching writing. 
• Suggest next steps: What’s an area of teaching writing that you’d like more support on? A workshop you’d like to attend? A curated list of research on that area? Contact Kyle Stedman with your suggestions!
• Join us! Our Writing across the Curriculum program is supported by an ad-hoc committee that guides our initiatives and brainstorms new areas for growth. Contact Kyle Stedman to add your voice to the group.

Spring 2024 Forum Series Schedule*

Click here for the Spring 2024 Forum Series Schedule

*All dates and times are subject to change; this page will be updated regularly throughout the semester so please check back often.

General Information on the Forum Series

The Forum Series’ central programming focus is geared toward students, but includes events to which the Rockford and regional area communities are invited and welcome. Lectures and performances are concerned with intellectual, social, and cultural matters of general interest to deepen and broaden students’ education at Rockford University and to showcase the many talents on our campus. Events are always free for students, faculty, and staff, and very often free to the general public. Performing arts events usually have ticket fees for the public; see specific event information for details.

Forum Series Student Requirement for Semesters before Spring 2020

Since the Spring 2020 semester, there has been no Forum attendance requirement for RU students (ending a decades-old practice); up to and including the Fall 2019 semester, students were required to attend 2 events per semester. Any student intending to graduate must still make up any failed Forum semesters before they can get a diploma, following the same guidelines that were in place pre-COVID for any failed Forum semesters through Fall 2019.  The detailed guidelines for making up failed Forums are included below, but here’s a brief overview of the process:

1. Check your transcript to see if you have the grade of F for CLFS 050 (the Forum requirement “class”).
2. If you failed any semesters but aren’t sure how many events you missed (either one or both of the two required events), contact the Forum administrator, Dr. Catherine Forslund (cforslund@rockford.edu).
3. Watch videos of events from the semester you failed, either by checking videos out in the library or by emailing Professor Forslund to ask for temporary access to a Canvas course that houses a select number of digitized videos.
4. Write a two-page essay following the detailed guidelines below, and email it to forum@rockford.edubefore the first Monday in November or April.

If you have any questions, please contact Forum administrator, Dr.Catherine Forslund at cforslund@Rockford.edu

Forum Series FAQs

Q: What is the Forum Series?
A: The Rockford University Forum series presents speakers from a variety of disciplines and performers of stature in the arts. The series is designed to provide a shared experience for students while broadening their education at the University. The Forum Committee, comprised of faculty and student representatives, selects the events.

Q: Are all students required to attend all the Forum series events?
A: Students are no longer required to attend Forum events; however, attendance is strongly encouraged to expand everyone’s educational experiences. Students need a passing grade for any semesters of Forum (CLFS 050) before Spring 2020.

Q: Is a ticket required for Forum events?
A: It depends on the event. If required, student tickets are free with a Rockford University ID card; one free ticket per student. Tickets for plays, musicals, dance and choral concerts can be obtained at the University Box Office, located in Clark Arts Center, emailing boxoffice@rockford.edu.  If you are not a student, tickets can be purchased by calling 815-226-4100, or visiting ticketor.com/rockforduniversity. Tickets for athletic events are free for students, faculty, and staff; general public tickets are available at each game.

Q: What happens if the requirement to attend two events a semester was not met before spring 2020 semester?
A: Students who fail to fulfill the Forum requirement by the end of any semester up through Fall 2019 will receive an “F” for that semester for CLFS 050. When a student has a failed Forum for any semester, the only way to make up the requirement is to submit an essay via e-mail to the Forum Committee based on event recordings (available in the library) from the semester failed (and only from an event you did not attend). If students have any existing failed Forum grades, essays are due no later than 11:59 p.m., the first Monday in November or April, to the Forum Committee at Forum@Rockford.edu. Make-up essays will only be accepted via e-mail. They can be submitted at any time, but will not necessarily be reviewed at the time of submission. Essays are not reviewed over the summer.

Beware: You must make up all failed Forum grades before you can graduate. If you plan to graduate in the fall, your make-up essays are due by the first Monday in November or April; if you plan to graduate in spring, they are due by the first Monday of April. Because essays are not reviewed over the summer, summer graduates must also submit essays by the first Monday of April.

Essay Submission Guidelines:
Copies of the Forum essays must be submitted to the Forum Committee via e-mail. The Forum Committee will only accept and pass essays that meet the following minimum requirements:

1. A minimum of two full pages, double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1” margins, word-processed. Headers are not part of the page count.
2. It must be based on viewing or listening to a recording of a Forum event that the student did not attend from the semester in which the “F” was received. Recordings are available in the Howard Colman Library and are for in-library use only.
3. The heading of the essay must include the following: student’s full name, the semester being made up and the name of the event/speaker listened to or watched.
4. The essay must clearly show the student has listened to or viewed the entire recording. In the essays, the committee is looking for a balance of summary and critical thought. That is, the essay must both summarize the entire event and respond to it, perhaps with explanation, reflection, or commentary on the content/meaning/message of the event.
5. If your essay is not written professionally, following the rules of standard written English, it may not pass. Therefore, please carefully edit your sentences for style, grammar, and punctuation.

If the Forum Committee receives an essay with writing quality issues, the essay may be returned with a request for you to visit the Writing Center. If you are concerned about the quality of your writing, please visit the Writing Center before turning in your Forum essay. The Writing Center consultant will provide you with a report that you can attach to the electronic submission of your essay to the Forum Committee.

The essay-writing option is the only way to remove failed Forum grades from past semesters. The Forum Committee reserves the right to deem an essay acceptable or unacceptable. If the essay is not accepted, it must be rewritten and resubmitted (by a deadline set by the committee) in order to remove the Forum failure. Save a copy of the essay until any grade changes are finalized.

If there are any questions about the Forum policies, please contact the current Forum Administrator, Dr. Catherine Forslund at cforslund@rockford.edu

Notice: Failure to complete the Forum Series requirement bars a student from the dean’s list or distinguished scholars list and from receiving their degree.

For a quick, slightly dated, and partial explanation of how to make up failed Forum semesters, you can also watch the video below. Please remember that Dr. Forslund is now the person to contact with questions, not Dr. Stedman who made this helpful video back before COVID:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
RHETORIC COURSES

Note: These FAQs are answered here for your convenience.  The answers are not provided to replace or supersede the Rockford University academic catalog. 

Q. What is the all-university rhetoric sequence?

A. The rhetoric sequence comprises three courses:  two 100-level courses, and one 300-level course. The two 100-level, three-credit courses of the sequence are:

• RHET 101, Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric
• RHET 102, Rhetoric and Research Writing

The 300-level, three-credit course of the sequence can be satisfied by:

• RHET 351, Applied Rhetoric
• Courses offered in other majors that have been formally approved as Writing-Intensive (WI) courses (beginning Fall 2022)

Q. Can I graduate from Rockford University if I do not fulfill the rhetoric sequence?

A. No. The rhetoric sequence is an all-university, general education graduation requirement. To earn the B.A., B.F.A, B.S., or B.S.N. degree, all-university general education requirements must be fulfilled. 

Q. May I waive the all-university rhetoric sequence requirement?

A. Please refer to the Academic Catalog for instructions on seeking a waiver of any degree requirement. 

Q. What is the “Upper-Division Rhetoric Requirement”? 

A. The “Upper-Division Rhetoric Requirement” is a phrase that refers to one of two things: RHET 351, or any other course that has been formally approved as a Writing-Intensive (WI) course (beginning in Fall 2022).

Q. What are the prerequisites for RHET 101?

A. RHET 101 has no prerequisites. 

Q. What are the prerequisites for RHET 102?

A. To enroll in RHET 102, the prerequisite is completion of RHET 101 with a final grade of C or above or by departmental approval of transfer credit.

Q. What are the prerequisites for RHET 351?

A. RHET 351 has two prerequisites, both of which must be met in order to enroll: A grade of C or above in RHET 102 or equivalent, and forty-five hours of college coursework.

Q. How do I know which Rockford University courses can satisfy a rhetoric requirement? 

A. All courses in the rhetoric sequence as taught by the English Department use the four-letter course designator “RHET.”

The course description for courses that fulfill the rhetoric requirement also include the course listing code “Rh” (fulfills rhetoric sequence requirement). 

Courses that have been formally approved as Writing-Intensive and are taught by departments other than English will also be marked with the course listing code “WI” in their course descriptions.

Q. Is there a test I can take to place out of any rhetoric classes? 

A. Yes. If you received a 4 or 5 in the Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition exam, you will place out of RHET 101.

Q. May I use transfer courses to fulfill the 100-level rhetoric courses?

A. Yes. If you are a new transfer student, registering for the first time at Rockford University, your transcript will be reviewed to determine whether or not you have fulfilled the requirements for RHET 101 and/or RHET 102.

If you are a continuing student at Rockford University and want to take a course at another school to satisfy the RHET 101 or 102 requirement here, you must have approval on file with SAS before you take the course. To secure approval, pick up a “Transfer of Credit” form at SAS and return the completed form with the appropriate authorizing signatures to SAS before you take the course. 

Q. Can transfer courses fulfill the 300-level rhetoric course (RHET 351 or another formally approved Writing-Intensive course)?

A. No. Transfer credit is not accepted to satisfy the upper-level required writing course.   

Q. When is the best time to take the rhetoric courses?

A. For most students, two options seem to work equally well. Most students take RHET 101 and RHET 102 in their freshman year and RHET 351 at the end of their sophomore or in their junior year. Some students take one course per year: RHET 101 in freshman year, RHET 102 in sophomore year, and RHET 351 in junior year.

Q. What if I am not a very good writer? 

A. At Rockford University, we set high standards and work with you to achieve them. To complete RHET 101 and RHET 102, you have to earn a “C” or above in each course, but should you happen to fall short in either, you can repeat the course. If you think you might need to take advantage of this repeat opportunity, do not put off taking these courses. In other words, especially when you are not confident about your writing skills, take these courses as early and as soon after each other as possible. As any smart coach knows, steady and focused practice works. 

Q. How do I get help with writing outside of class?

A. Three great resources are available:  

• Take advantage of one-on-one discussions with your professor about your writing. Your professors hold office hours that they set aside to work with their students.
• Check out free peer tutoring available in the Writing Center.  
• Visit the Center for Learning Strategies in Starr Science, which provides yet another approach to individualized instruction.

Q. Are all the sections of a rhetoric course the same?

A. Yes and no. Every rhetoric course has a core syllabus that explains the shared descriptions, policies, goals, requirements, or assignments that students taking any section of that course may expect. Uniformity is greater in RHET 101 and 102 than in RHET 351 courses. For example, RHET 101 and 102 use the same readings and the same core assignments.

While all the RHET 351 courses share core goals, types of assignment, and policy, they deliver this core through different content. The RHET 351 courses provide an interesting menu from which students may choose the topic in rhetoric that they will be investigating over the course of the term. The best way to learn about the focus of recent, current, and future RHET 351 course sections is to search the Self Service “Find Courses” screen for “RHET 351.”

Q. How do I take a rhetoric course that includes community-based learning (CBL)?

A. Refer to the individual section descriptions of RHET 351 in Self Service to determine if it contains a CBL component. 

Q. Which 300-level course fulfills the all-university, general education rhetoric requirement? 

A. All RHET 351 courses fulfill the 300-level, all-university, general education requirement. 

Additionally, beginning in Fall 2022, some Rockford University departments will begin offering Writing-Intensive (WI) courses that are accepted as upper-level writing courses for graduation; students who take these WI courses will not be required to take RHET 351 as well. Check with your department chair to see if your department offers a course that has been formally approved as a WI course.

Q. When are RHET courses offered?

A. RHET 101 and 102 are offered during fall and spring semesters, though there are generally more RHET 101 sections offered in the fall and more RHET 102 sections offered in the spring. RHET 351 is offered equally in fall and spring semesters. RHET 102 and RHET 351 are occasionally offered in the summer, when staffing allows.

Q. What if I want to take a rhetoric class that is closed?

A. The course instructor cannot add you to the waitlist or to the roster of a class; you need to add your name to the waitlist through Self-Service. Once you are waitlisted, plan to attend class as if you were enrolled; otherwise you risk being dropped for non-attendance. When spots open in a section, students are enrolled in accordance with their position on the waitlist (first on the waitlist, first off the waitlist). The English Department discourages over-enrollment in rhetoric classes.

Q. What can I do if I am dissatisfied with the content, grading, or teaching in a RHET course?

A. We hope that speaking to the course instructor will address your concerns, but when it does not, you are strongly encouraged to speak to the English Department Chair (listed on the English Department homepage) or to the Arts and Humanities College Dean (listed on the College of Arts and Humanities homepage)

Q. What if I have more questions about the rhetoric sequence?

A. Please contact any full-time faculty member of the English department with your questions and suggestions.

RHETORIC CORE SEQUENCE SYLLABI

RHET 101: Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric

Course content
The first of a three-course sequence, Rhetoric 101 Introductory Rhetoric introduces students to reading, summarizing, and composing strategies as well as rhetorical concepts necessary for college and beyond. Knowledge and practice with rhetoric is foundational to this course because writers work best if they grasp the contexts, purposes, and audiences of their writing. Assignments in this course are sequentially designed to give students practice understanding how texts affect readers, thus providing students opportunities to compose effective and purposeful texts themselves. Required course: student must achieve a grade of “C” or above to meet this requirement.  Required unless entering with an Advanced Placement score of 4-5 or departmental approval of transfer credit.  Scheduled: Fall/Spring, yearly. Meets: Rh

To pass RHET 101, students must complete all required assignments as stated on the course syllabus. Students will be expected to participate in workshopping and conferencing activities.

RHET 102: Rhetoric and Research Writing

Course content
The second course of the rhetoric sequence, RHET 102: Rhetoric and Research Writing, introduces students to research and information literacy strategies while reinforcing and expanding on the rhetorical concepts introduced in RHET 101; in addition to reading and responding to linguistic-centered text (such as words written in an article or book), RHET 102 introduces students to multimodal reading and composing strategies, emphasizing that writing (especially the writing we engage with in the current digital age) means attending to visual, aural, spatial, gestural, and algorithmically-arranged design, just as much as alphabetic text. The coursework culminates to a final portfolio that includes an analysis essay, an annotated bibliography, a substantial research project, and a reflective essay. Required course: student must achieve a grade of “C” or above to meet this requirement. PRQ (Pre-requisites): Grade of “C” or above in RHET 101 or departmental approval of transfer credit. Scheduled: Fall/Spring, yearly. Meets: Rh

To pass RHET 102, students must complete all required assignments as stated on the course syllabus. Students will be expected to participate in workshopping and conferencing activities.

RHET 351: Applied Rhetoric

Course content
RHET 351 Applied Rhetoric is the third course of the rhetoric sequence. Students demonstrate their skills in rhetoric by applying rhetorical principles of argument to a focused topic, which varies by section. RHET 351 builds on RHET 102 by assigning rhetorical analyses, research reviews, and a research project; however, these assignments are completed in the context of the section’s focus and with an emphasis on both oral and written arguments. Required course. PRQ: Grade of “C” or above in RHET 102 or equivalent and 45 hours of college course work. Transfer credit will not be accepted to meet the RHET 351 requirement. Scheduled: fall and spring, yearly. Meets: Rh.

To pass RHET 351, students must complete all required assignments as stated on the course syllabus. Students will be expected to participate in workshopping and conferencing activities.

Note: Beginning in Fall 2022, some Rockford University departments will begin offering Writing-Intensive (WI) courses that are accepted as upper-level writing courses for graduation; students who take these WI courses will not be required to take RHET 351 as well. Check with your department chair to see if your department offers a course that has been formally approved as a WI course.

Section description
The course and section descriptions are posted/published in the course schedule. A sampling of offerings follows:

“Environmental Rhetoric”: This course offers students an opportunity to study rhetoric on a variety of topics related to the environment, including conservation, animal rights, environmental justice, and the local foods movement. Readings for the class will range broadly from creative non-fiction and advertisements to film and poetry. With a grounding in these texts, students will then move on to develop their own research projects related to environmental rhetoric. This section of Rhet 351 should be a good match for students in the sciences and those concerned with the challenging environmental issues that we are faced with today. This course includes a CBL component.

“Rhetoric of Professional Communication”: This course addresses the high-stakes world of professional communication by giving students practice in many professional genres, both written (in emails, memos, reports, and resumes) and spoken (in presentations). Our work in these genres will be shaped by an emphasis on design (including the effective use of colors, fonts, and other visual elements), both in print and online. We’ll approach these genres through the lens of rhetoric, the classical art of communicating effectively through attention to purpose, audience, context, and genre. Students will compose rhetorical analyses, redesign flyers, research effective professional communication strategies, and work with a group to create documents for a local nonprofit organization.

“Dystopia: The Rhetoric of Dark Futures”: The twentieth-century has produced many dreadful visions of the future. These visions, whether dystopian or apocalyptic, create a powerful discourse of dehumanization brought about by loss of privacy, restricted civil rights, uncontrolled technology, human bio-engineering, and in some cases, nuclear or environmental annihilation. This course examines the genre of dystopia with a view to understanding its rhetoric, common traits, ideological modes, and historical specificity, including the new culture of “alternative facts”. Although the term “dystopia” predates 1900, dystopia became a recognizable literary and cultural genre during the twentieth century and has not lost its hold on our imagination in the twenty-first, as evidenced by recent films, novels, and animation. This rhetorical discourse consists of cautionary tales, social and political criticism, and thought experiments about scary futures that tell us more about the conditions in which they are made than about any anticipated future. While hopefully not prophetic, the rhetoric of dystopia deserves our attention as a primary register of current social fears and anxieties.

“Gender and Rhetoric”: This course offers students an opportunity to study Rhetoric on a variety of topics related to gender, including gendered media, gender in the workplace, gendered communication, and gender in the socialization process. The course will also examine the role of Rhetoric in the development of women’s and men’s movements in the United States. Readings for the class will range broadly from speeches and advertisements to essays and film. With a grounding in these texts, students will then move on to develop their own research projects related to Gender and Rhetoric. This course includes a CBL component.

“The Rhetoric of Sports”: Consider: Michael Jordan’s tongue; Monica Seles’s grunt; John Madden’s bus; Tiger Woods’s apology. The evolution of sports rhetoric over the past two decades, with 24 hour cable and Internet coverage, permeates a good deal of the current cultural lexicon. Whether or not one considers him/herself a sports fan, the aforementioned names invoke some mix of verbal and visual cues. This class, within the context of classic rhetorical theory, and along with an anthology of Sports writing from the past century, will examine the visual and verbal arguments present throughout the 20th century as Sports solidified its hold on American culture. Students will read, analyze, the write on the arguments inherent in selected examples of sports writing and iconic sports images throughout the 20th century; in so doing, the class will consider the language of the sports themselves, including terminology, slang, and phrases employed both on and off the field; we will also consider the larger implications of the evolution of sports to broader issues of American identity as it pertains to issues of morality, gender, race, and class.

“Rhetoric of Change”: Leaders strive to think locally and globally about the world, and they take action to change it. “Change” is one of the most popular campaign pitches for politicians. In this course, we will approach the rhetorical persuasiveness of such calls to action. Eric Fromm distinguishes the rebel from the revolutionary precisely to the degree to which the rebel has an agenda that can be understood as a cogent rhetorical argument. Calls for change can come in many forms, including films, essays, slogans, Op-Ed pieces, and protest art. While working with primary sources from the Library of Congress and also various secondary sources, we will apply classical rhetorical theory to study various calls to action. Students will collaborate on a presentation wherein they use primary sources from the Library of Congress to investigate targeted texts about civil rights. The final project includes an extended research essay that analyzes rhetorical arguments used in achieving a particular societal change in recent history. If they prefer, students may demonstrate their abilities to effectively wield rhetorical strategies in other ways. They may put forth an argument for how a particular change occurred, or they may produce an extended, researched argument that calls for societal transformation.

“The Rhetoric of Social Media”: This course focuses on social media’s ethical role in our relationships, identities, and politics. Throughout the semester, we will take a sustained look at a range of topics related to social media, including cyber-bullying and trolling, the spread of misinformation and propaganda, mental health, corporate surveillance, and the blurring of personal/professional identities. Students will use rhetorical knowledge to analyze and compose using their own social media accounts, to create a redesigned mock-up of an existing platform, and to compose a research-based project on a social media issue of their choice. While the class includes a number of writing assignments, students will also have the opportunity to compose digitally using different media forms (e.g., images, sound, videos). No particular technological proficiency is required for the class, but students should express a willingness to experiment, play, and compose with new and unfamiliar technologies.

RHETORIC COURSE SEQUENCE

FACULTY

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS

Colleen Holmbeck Poetry Prize

The Colleen Holmbeck Poetry Prize is sponsored by the English Department of Rockford University and the Academy of American Poets. Named in recognition of a 1956 RC graduate and advocate of the arts on our campus, the prize offers a monetary award of up to $100. Winners are also listed in the Academy’s Annual Report.

Senior Seminar Award

A yearly award voted upon by the English Department given to the best Senior Seminar project.  Includes recognition and English Luncheon and a small gift.

Jeremy Ingalls Memorial Scholarship

Established in 2013 by Colleen Kitzmiller Holmbeck, Class of 1956, and her husband, John. The scholarship is given to an outstanding student with junior standing who is majoring in English.

ENGLISH MAJOR CAREER PATHS AND INTERNSHIPS

English continues to be one of the premier majors for graduate programs in law, medicine, business administration, international relations, library science, education and journalism. English is a respected major in the business and professional community for entry-level management. We also enjoy a strong partnership with the education department as we jointly prepare students for teaching English at the secondary level. And our internship program offers English majors opportunities to consider different career options.

• Career Development

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT PROGRAMS OF STUDY

Degree Requirements

All students majoring in English are required to take the core and supporting courses plus credits from Literature, Creative Writing, and Rhetorical Studies seminar courses. To graduate with a degree in English, students must earn a cumulative GPA of 3.0 in the major’s required courses.

Secondary Education Licensure (Grades 6-12)

Students interested in becoming licensed to teach English at the secondary level must complete all English major degree requirements, Education 363, a minor in secondary education, and additional General Education requirements for state licensure. For further information, see the Education Department section of the Academic Catalog.

Majors and Tracks/Concentrations:

• English Major, B.A.

Minors:

• English Minor

Additional Information

• Search course offerings and descriptions
• Academic Catalog