Course Description

WRT 205 is a writing course involving research projects that focus on an extended topic of inquiry. Through applied practice and ongoing reflection, students learn to distinguish situational contexts; develop positions in relation to research, purposes, and audience; and apply and integrate a variety of sources—live experiences, primary sources, secondary sources—according to genres and situated conventions. We will build off of your working knowledge that writing is always situated within specific contexts, for specific audiences, about specific topics, and with specific stylistic expectations, and that effective writers know how to recognize and adapt their writing to these varied situations.

Learning Outcomes for all WRT 205 sections                               (Revised as of December 2021)

1. Research Writing as Situated Process

  • Students will recognize and act upon the ways methods, processes, and contexts shape research and writing.

2. Researching and Evaluating Sources Rhetorically

  • Students will develop reading strategies for invention, rhetorical engagement with sources, and critical dialogue.

3. Research Writing Within and Across Genres

  • Students will recognize the role genre plays in determining research forms and practices.

4. Ethical Considerations of Rhetorical Choices in Research Writing

  • Students will reflect on and enact rhetorical choices that attend to ethical considerations in conducting and representing research across a range of contexts.