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Spotlight on AUC’s Writing Minor

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  4. Spotlight on AUC’s Writing Minor

Aliaa Hamad

One of my students discovered the writing minor—two weeks before her graduation. “What,” she shrieked, “We have a writing minor?!  How did I not know about this? I would have definitely minored in writing!”

Apparently, despite the fervent efforts of the Writing Minor Advising and Publicity Committees to promote the writing minor, this minor seems to be the rhetoric department’s best-kept secret. This may be because our students only associate RHET with our 1010 and 1020 courses, and they are oblivious to the diverse upper-division courses we have to offer.

But RHET instructors have an obligation to familiarize students with the full range of our diverse courses and in doing so, inspire a love of writing. It all starts with structuring assignments around the end goal.

I use these activities in my RHET and CORE classes to promote the writing minor:

1. I require my RHET 1010 students to design and present flyers for our upper-division courses. In my RHET class, we discuss the rhetorical situation and appeals as well as how they help us understand and create texts, and for the past eight semesters, I have been asking my students to apply the skills they learn by designing new flyers. I start by explaining to them the situation at hand and the purpose of designing the flyers: To promote our courses and encourage our students to register for them when they finish RHET 1020.

Then, I assign each pair of students an upper-division course and give them its course title and code. They research the course description and learning outcomes to establish a demographic in terms of who might be interested in taking it. I then have them decide what information, message, images and even colors they believe should go into the flyer. Before they submit their flyers and because the audience in the situation is AUC undergraduates, I tell them that they need to show the flyers to as many of our student population as they can, have them evaluate them, and make the changes they suggest in order to make them more appealing and effective first and then defend their choices in a presentation. I also explain that in order to grade the flyers, I will enlist the help of three AUC undergraduates and that the grade they receive will be an average of the two scores assigned by myself and the students.

2. I also have them evaluate the promotional videos we put together to promote the writing minor to assess how effective are the rhetorical appeals, and, if necessary, make their own videos to promote the minor and then present them for critique to the rest of the class who also analyzes the (effective) use of rhetorical appeals.    

3. I had my students appraise our campaigning strategies for promoting the writing minor, point out the shortcomings, devise an action plan, and come up with more creative ways to promote the writing minor and defend them to us in a presentation where they anticipate and refute all arguments that might reject them. I can always count on this assignment to be a crowd-pleaser and it never fails me; torn between popular trends and parental rules, our students are desperate for their individual voices to be heard. Over the years that I have assigned this project, I was pleasantly surprised to see how the writing minor suddenly became their own project. It was especially popular with business, marketing, and advertising majors

But there is more to this exercise than empowering students—although that’s just as important—there’s something in it for us instructors as well: We get to address all the learning outcomes of our courses.

To complete this assignment, it begins with analyzing the rhetorical situation, students need to identify the purpose of the activity and the message they are sending as well as be cognizant of who their target audience is and what they respond to, not to mention the context in which they are working. The presentation is an opportunity for them to flex their argumentative muscles; they need to support their claims—that their choices will serve their purpose—with evidence, and be ready to address their opponents’ arguments. More importantly, they need to understand who they are as authors and the power they have. They need to be aware of their strong points so they can put them to good use when they are thinking of ways to promote the writing minor and defend their choices.

4. My students create social media pages for the writing minor and post at least three stories each to promote the minor. We know our students are slaves to social media, right? So, what better way to get them motivated than to capitalize on that? They love working together in groups, making decisions together, creating artifacts, posting stories and the results are often awe-inspiring. Every single move they make is preceded by hours of planning and purpose. It really puts our students’ mindsets in perspective.   

5. I use any excuse to share pieces of the writing minor in my classes and structure assignments and/or discussions around them including requiring them to attend our Open Mic event. Be it short stories, reflective pieces, journal entries, feature magazine articles, social media pages, vlogs/blogs, podcasts, or videos/movies, they all have a place in my class. Depending on the theme of my class, I make sure I reach out to students who completed upper-division courses to share work that corresponds to that theme and have my students reflect on the work.

6. I ask my students to write an argumentative essay for AUC undergraduates to read and learn why they need to minor in writing. That way, they are not only practicing how to make an argument but how to cater to an audience whose needs and interests they are already familiar with.   

7. Finally, whenever I invite a student as a guest speaker, I make sure they’re a writing minor or an employer who emphasizes the importance of writing skills for new hires. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the years, it’s that students listen to each other. So, let them hear straight from other students how the writing minor has changed their lives. Invite former students to your classes and have them talk about the growth they experienced, thanks to the writing minor and upper-division courses. Better yet, invite graduates and have them share how the minor has helped them land and thrive at their coveted jobs! Have them record video testimonials if they cannot physically attend your class.    

We can do more to promote our writing minor, but this is where I leave you—to think of what works for your students. Please remember that you do not have to be serving on the Writing Minor Advising or Publicity Committees to be involved in promoting the minor. Whether you quiz your students on the writing minor, have your students follow and comment on our writing minor social media pages, pass along the writing minor flyers and material to them, urge them to minor in writing, or invite them to our Open Mic event where other minors read out the pieces written for their upper-division courses. Anything you do to spread the word about the minor will help!