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Proseminar in Rhetoric and Technical Communication
An introduction to the scholarly issues, goals, and methods across the disciplinary areas represented in the Rhetoric and Technical Communication program. 1 credit, fall and spring.
Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies
key theoretical, pedagogical, and historical issues and events that have linked the fields of rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies.
Technical Communication and Technology Studies
key historical, pedagogical, practical, and theoretical issues in technical communication, scientific communication, and technology studies. Considerable attention is paid to practice and of technical communication and technology in academic and non-academic settings.
Communication in Cultural Contexts
This course surveys key issues in how cultural contexts and processes of communication affect representation, understanding, and practice.
Knowledge and Inquiry in the Humanities
a range of methods, methodologies, and approaches to research that inform scholarship in the RTC program, and provides grounds for future work. Approaches may include qualitative, ethnographic, quantitative, rhetorical, feminist, historiographic, hermeneutic, literary, and interpretive methods.
Organizational Communication Theoretical review of the role of communication in organizations. Emphasizes critical interpretive approaches.
Technology, Culture, and Communication
Examines philosophical and theoretical concepts for understanding the cultural role of technology such as causality, determinism, progress, identity, agency, articulation, assemblage, social space, control, and change.
Communication Theory Traces the development of communication theories. Emphasizes interactions among theoretical, political, historical, and socio-cultural factors.
Composition Theory
An introduction to such issues in composition theory as the relationships of thought to language, of spoken to written language, of reading to writing, of writing to learning, and of process to product.
Literacy Theory and Research A study of the social, cultural, and ideological implications of literacy practices using a variety of historical, theoretical, and ethnographic accounts.
Linguistic Analysis
The study of linguistic theories and methods for analyzing oral, written, and/or electronic texts. Topics may include how societies construct and are constructed through language; gender, ethnicity, power, class, and region in sociolinguistic variation; theories of discourse; pragmatics; semantics; and methods, ethics, and coding in data collection and analysis.
Reading Literature An introduction to theoretical perspectives on the reading of literature in the context of considerations of particular literary texts. Will also include some discussion of the reading of non-literary texts.
Intercultural Communication A critical examination of cross-language and cross-cultural equivalences and differences through the study of acculturation, values, traditions, role expectations, perceptions, stereotypes, and gender issues as well as other verbal and non-verbal problems and issues of communication. Emphasizes the dimensions of communication within a comparative cultural context.
Issues in Social, Legal, and Political Philosophy An introduction to diverse issues in social, political and legal philosophy. Topics may include: the justification of social and political institutions; liberalism and its critics; democracy and consent; analysis of basic political and legal concepts; the nature of law and legal interpretation; critical evaluation of legal practices and theories.
History and Theory of Rhetoric I History and theory of rhetoric, focusing on ancient times but extending into the Middle Ages.
History and Theory of Rhetoric II History and theory of rhetoric, focusing on modern times but extending back to the Renaissance.
Computer Applications in Technical Communication
An examination of how industry and educational institutions employ computers to create, design, and distribute information. Emphasis will be placed on such topics as interactive computer-assisted instruction, computerized telecommunications, word processing, document design, and graphics.
Writing Applications in Technical Communication
A writing-intensive course focusing on special writing assignments for professional technical communicators, such as company annual report narratives and internal magazine articles, especially articles focusing on scientific and technical research.
Writing Literary Nonfiction Writing and editing nonfiction for publication in Blue Ice Anthology, a general interest journal published in the Department of Humanities. Course includes study of theory and techniques of literary nonfiction.
Writing for Publication Practice in writing to the requirements of professional publications and in identifying the rhetorical considerations of writing for different publications.
Grammar and Editing for Professionals An examination of the text-based decisions professional editors make as they write and polish manuscripts for publication. This course will include readings in the theoretical and ethical dimensions of language, syntax, and linguistics. Through practice on real documents, students will obtain strategies for text editing, acquire a professional vocabulary for communicating effectively with authors, and sharpen their grammar and proofreading skills.
Qualitative or Quantitative Humanistic Research Methods
Course will address qualitative or quantitative methods. Field Methods in the Humanities: The three foundations of qualitative methods: participant observation, interviews, and cultural text analysis. Students will conduct preliminary research projects. Quantitative Methods of Inquiry: philosophical foundations of empirical research, structure of quantitative inquiry, modes of observation, and data analysis.
Backgrounds of Critical Theory Study of the major critical theories that have influenced contemporary theories such as feminist theory, postmodern theory, cultural studies, critical pedagogy, and discourse theory. The course focuses on primary texts in marxist theory, structuralism and poststructuralism, and phenomenology, and introduces students to the challenges of reading theoretical texts and texts in translation.
Critical Perspectives on the Environment Philosophical, rhetorical, literary or cultural studies approaches to the environment. Topics may include one or more of the following: environmental communication and advocacy; environmental ethics, law, and philosophy; environmental literary texts; etc.
Critical Perspectives on Science and Technology
Philosophical, rhetorical, literary or cultural studies perspectives on science and technology. Topics may include one or more of the following: philosophy of science, philosophy of technology, rhetoric of science, rhetoric of technology, etc.
Cultural Studies Introduction to the theoretical history, methods, and practice of cultural studies. Includes the influence of literary humanism, Marxism, structuralism, subcultural studies, feminism, postmodernism, articulation theory, Deleuze and Guattari.
Introduction to Visual Representation A critical survey of selected theoretical, philosophical, and methodological issues that inform various disciplinary perspectives on the study of the visual such as sociology, film and television theory, communication, and art history.
Literacy, Technology, Society, and Education
the linkage between technology and literacy in the United States and the ways in which this linkage has been established in public schools, workplace programs, or university settings.
Rhetorics of Difference/Alterity A critical examination of discourses, theories and representations of “otherness” or “difference” according to race, gender, sexuality, class, age, nationality, ethnic background, and other socio-cultural categories. May include discussion of issues of self-representation within and among groups, the rhetorics of exile or diaspora, colonial and post-colonial constructions of identity and difference, etc.
Theories of Language
Study of major theories of language that have influenced contemporary work on discourse, language, and literacy. The course focuses on language theorists from one or more of a variety of disciplines, such as philosophy, linguistics, literary studies, psychology, anthropology, and rhetoric.
Theories of Pedagogy
Contemporary theories of pedagogy that influence current approaches to teaching writing, including feminist pedagogy, critical pedagogy, liberatory pedagogy, and psychological and developmental approaches to pedagogy.
Independent Study Guided research under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. Open to master’s students in RTC only. Variable credit. Prerequisites: Students must file a plan of study and receive the Graduate Director’s and faculty member’s approval before registering for the class.
Directed Reading Directed reading in a focused area under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. Variable credit. Prerequisites: Students must file a plan of study and receive the Graduate Director’s and faculty member’s approval before registering for the class.
Internship
Work experience under the direction of a member of the graduate faculty. May be conducted on or off-campus. Work off-campus requires additional direction by an off-campus supervisor. Variable credit. Prerequisites: Students must file a plan of study and receive the Graduate Director’s and faculty member’s approval before registering for the class.
Oral, Written, and Visual Communication Pedagogies
A year-long study of pedagogical techniques, technologies, evaluation, and assessment. Topics may include practical strategies and theories for effective teaching of rhetorical analysis, reflective speaking practices, critical visual design, and composition. Required of all graduate teaching instructors in their first year of teaching.
Practicum in Teaching Technical Communication
GTAs who teach undergraduate classes in technical and scientific communication meet weekly with a mentor to discuss strategies for teaching the course, to read pertinent material, and to develop policy. Required of all GTIs new to teaching technical communication.
Practicum in Modern Language Pedgagogy Discussion and development of effective pedagogical practices and reading of research, scholarship and theory of modern language pedagogy. GTIs will observe modern language classes regularly and reflect on their own and others’ practices. Required of all GTIs in the RTC program in their first year of language teaching at MTU.
Thesis Individual research of scholarship under the direction of a graduate faculty advisor. Open to master’s students in RTC only. Variable credit.
Prerequisites: Students must file a plan of study and receive the Director’s and faculty member’s approval before registering for the class.
Special Projects Individual projects under the direction of a graduate advisor. Open to master’s students in RTC only. Variable credit. May be repeated for a total of 6 credits. Prerequisites: Students must file a plan of study and receive the Director’s and faculty member’s approval before registering for the class.
RTC
The study of rhetoric, technical communication, and the humanities. Variable credit;
Communication In-depth examination of topics in communication.
Composition In-depth examination of theoretical perspectives on composing. May include discussion of current-traditional, expressivist, social constructionist, and postmodern perspectives.
Literature Advanced study of topics in American, British, and world literature.
Modern Languages and Literatures Advanced study of topics in modern languages and literatures. May include intercultural studies of non-English literature and film around an integrated theme, the study of non-English fiction and non-fiction with special attention to theoretical and critical approaches, or more applied studies such as language for special purposes, second-language acquisition, and translation.
Philosophy Advanced study of selected topics in philosophy. Possible topics include philosophy of literature, philosophy of mind, continental European philosophy, analytic philosophy, theories of truth, philosophical issues in cognitive science, and contemporary feminist philosophy. Rhetoric Advanced study of rhetorical theory or history, such as women in rhetorical history, the sophists, nonwestern rhetorics, Aristotelian rhetoric, cultural backgrounds to the history of rhetoric, and rhetorical criticism.
Seminar in Technical Communication May include study of the theoretical backgrounds of technical communication, the history of technical communication, rhetoric of technical communication, technical communication program administration, and technical communication pedagogy.
Contemporary Critical Theories Study of particular contemporary theoretical perspectives that are influential in rhetoric and technical communication research. Topics might include cultural studies, theories of representation, feminist theory, marxist theory, postmodern theory or intensive study of influential individual theorists.
Gender Studies An inquiry into the ways in which gender is constituted within and affects rhetorical, representational, and communicative processes, situations, and structures.
New Media
A study of the design and evaluation of interactive texts on the computer, with emphasis on critical and theoretical issues raised by the visuality, shifting word-image ratio, and interactivity possible on computer screens.
Visual Representaiton A critical examination of selected topics in visual representation, with an emphasis on the theoretical, industrial, cultural, international and national, and aesthetic contexts that inform an understanding of particular visual media. May include genre studies of such visual forms as advertising or documentary, audience analysis, reception theory and theories of spectatorship, gender and visual representation, etc. Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor.