Course Catalogue

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This course presents students with an introduction to the key purposes of writing across time and across topic. Taking three themes - rhetoric, power and science - the course presents the process through which writing has been used to standardise, establish, challenge, critique and undermine cultural/political power and scientific legitimacy. The course presents students with these three themes through a variety of media and challenges students to evaluate the purpose and impact of writing over time.

Students will have one class per theme each week. Theme 1, the Purpose of Writing and Rhetoric, covers key tools in the practice and craft of writing, as well as challenging students to consider the purpose of (their) writing. Theme 2, Power in Writing, takes students through discussions of where and how writing has been used to create, challenge, undermine or fight power. Theme 3, Science and Evidence in Writing, establishes the foundational principles on which scientific writing is built, and then presents some of the controversies and challenges to those principles.

The course teaches students to critique a variety of texts, consider the way in which their own writing is influenced by/can influence other texts, challenge/critique established thought/practice through analysis of sources, as well as draft, critique, and revise their writing in a variety of genres

Three lectures per week. One seminar per fortnight (chosen on MyCampus).

Students must be Northeastern University students on the partnership exchange.

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Students will submit:

■ Written assignment (75%):

■ 1,500-word critical essay (50%)

■ 800-word critique of a source (25%)

■ Set Exercise (25%)

■ Blog post / review of key concept from AI output (800 words)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to key concepts in the genre, craft and reception of text over time. The course teaches students to critique a variety of texts, consider the way in which their own writing is influenced by/can influence other texts, and challenge/critique established thought/practice through analysis of sources.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Analyse distinct types, genres and categories of text from a range of time periods;

■ Examine and debate the role(s) played by texts and textual genres under the themes of rhetoric, power and science;

■ Identify the strengths, weaknesses and mechanics of their own writing within a variety of genres;

■ Interpret the meaning of different genres and types of text to critique the underlying ideas.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.