4 Syllabus Statement: Writing for Community Change
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.”
– John Donne, 1624
Welcome! This semester, our course theme is writing for community change. Communities can be defined as groups of people who share the following:
A Place: groups of people who live/work/play near one another (Lewiston, LC State, place of employment, etc.)
An Action: groups of people who create change in the world by building, doing, or solving something together (Idaho Food Bank, Meals on Wheels volunteer, etc.)
An Interest: groups of people coming together based on shared interests, experiences, or expertise (LC State’s International Club; book club, sports team you belong to, etc.)
A Circumstance: groups of people brought together either by chance or external events/situations (rider of public transit, LC state student, Clark Hall resident, etc.)
By now, you’re probably thinking about some of the communities to which you belong. Some of these communities may be large (think: State of Idaho), and some may be small (think: college dorm). But no matter the type of community, most of us want similar things. We want our communities to be safe and sustainable, to be built on trust and mutual respect, and to help foster our personal growth.
Our course is divided into six learning units. Early in the semester, you will choose ONE topic from the following list, and over the subsequent months, you will explore this topic and how it affects your community through a variety of lenses.
List of topics to choose from:
- homelessness
- mental health
- commercial fishing
- instant replay in sports
- recycling
- sex trafficking
- student loan forgiveness
- technology addiction
- technology privacy
- texting and driving
- artificial intelligence
Please note I have uploaded digital resource folders onto Canvas for each topic/issue. These folders contain valuable source material, including government sources, pros/cons, poems, songs, videos, art, and more. In each folder, you will also find a list of possible directions/angles for your topic to help you focus. For instance, if you’re interested in “mental health,” you can possibly explore one of the following: mental health of teens, mental health of children, mental health days in school, social media and anxiety/depression, etc. If you choose “technology addiction,” you can explore smartphone addiction, gaming addiction, Fitbit addiction, etc.
The learning units are comprised of:
- an identification of your community + multimodal personal narrative & reflective memo + topic proposal;
- a visual analysis of one image related to your topic: a PSA, advertisement, or artwork;
- a synthesis of two different types of sources related to your topic: song/artwork; article/video, etc.
- a series of eight individual (informative, unbiased) article summaries about your topic;
- an argumentative paper where you take a position and propose a solution to your issue + a call-to-action letter on your issue;
- a reflection of your journey (your writing process, critical thinking, active engagement & advocacy for community change) + a portfolio with of your major writing assignments—so save all of your rough drafts and final versions of your essays.
