COOK FAMILY WRITING PROGRAM

Design Thinking and Communication (DTC), is a required two-quarter course for all first-year students at McCormick. It is also available to any Northwestern undergraduate student interested in design. Every section is co-taught by an instructor from the Writing Program and an instructor from engineering. Part of the Engineering First® curriculum, the course immediately puts students to work on real design problems submitted by individuals, non-profits, entrepreneurs, and industry members. In DTC, all students design for real people and communicate to real audiences.

Expository Writing is designed for any student who wants a strong introductory course in college-level writing. Students write three or four extended pieces of expository writing, developing each through a process of planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Students also complete several briefer exercises in which they experiment with specific writing techniques or use informal writing as a tool for exploring ideas. Class meetings are conducted as seminar discussions and workshops. In addition, the instructor meets regularly with students in individual conferences.

Expository Writing is designed for any student who wants a strong introductory course in college-level writing. Students write three or four extended pieces of expository writing, developing each through a process of planning, drafting, revising, and editing. Students also complete several briefer exercises in which they experiment with specific writing techniques or use informal writing as a tool for exploring ideas. Class meetings are conducted as seminar discussions and workshops. In addition, the instructor meets regularly with students in individual conferences.

This seminar is designed for students who want to advance their ability to write clearly, thoughtfully, and effectively in many situations, both in college and beyond. We will consider the activity of writing from several perspectives, aiming to increase each student’s understanding of, and control over, writing viewed as (1) a way of speaking; (2) a process of composition; (3) the deliberate construction of sentences; and (4) an instrument for thinking, learning, and imagining. We will also read widely, allowing students to analyze and emulate writing techniques evident in the work of other writers. Throughout the quarter, students will be able to relate their work in the seminar to their own individual interests and goals.

This course is designed to help you write more clearly, coherently, and complexly about what’s important to you. You’ll write some short exercises and you’ll write and revise several essays, after feedback from classmates and from me. We'll explore a range of writing strategies for finding and developing material and shaping it into essays. We’ll take seriously the idea that writing can change us and can change the world, and we’ll aim to create interesting, illuminating, possibly transformative essays.

Practical Rhetoric is a course designed to prepare good writers to work as peer tutors in the Writing Place. The course covers composition and tutoring theory and techniques for working with writers at a range of levels, in a range of disciplines, and at various points in the writing process. The course will also give you an opportunity to learn techniques for working with international student writers for whom English is a foreign language. Enrollment is by permission only, for students who have applied to be Writing Place tutors and have been accepted into the program. For information about applying to be a tutor, go to: http://www.writing.northwestern.edu/working-at-the-writing-place/undergraduate-students/.