We believe that communication is power, that writing and speech are both a journey and a vital tool of participatory democracy. Therefore, we seek to teach students that writing and speaking should be relevant to their lives, not merely tasks to be performed following a prescribed set of rules. Therefore, we challenge students to begin their work in college by re-thinking any limited assumptions about writing and public speaking, sometimes replacing rigid rules from earlier courses with more nuanced guidelines.
We believe that writing and speech always happen within a particular rhetorical situation, so we spend a significant amount of time coaching students to address a specific audience at a particular moment in time and to have a clear purpose. By learning about these components of the rhetorical situation, students will be better equipped to make decisions regarding the organization, style, and voice of their work. This includes making thoughtful decisions about AI integration.
We believe that developing an individual planning process, adaptable in different rhetorical situations, is another vitally important step in growing as a communicator. We recognize and respect that our students come from different cultural backgrounds and with different attitudes, levels of preparation, habits, preferences, and personalities. While we introduce students to a variety of strategies to help with the creation of a piece of writing or a presentation, including ethical AI integration when appropriate, there’s no one-size-fits-all process that works for ev eryone all the time; every student has to discover what works for him or her. Clearly, all students bring knowledge and experience, including linguistic knowledge and technological literacy, to the class room. As a result, students have much to share with and gain from one another, so we emphasize the importance of time for revision and peer review, planning and practice.
We believe that grammatical and mechanical proficiency are also vitally important and that an understanding of the conventions of grammar and form are essential for students to have access to the multiple arenas in society. To that end, we devote class time to grammar, mechanics, and use of language. We encourage students to strive for technical correctness since, in some cases, mistakes in grammar can damage a writer's or speaker's credibility. We also devote attention to the similarities and differences in language and style in writing and speech, with the goal of giving students the tools to make confident choices in both types of communication.
We believe in developing AI literacy as an extension of critical thinking and ethical communication. Students learn to approach AI tools with clarity about their purpose and rhetorical situation, engaging meaningfully with outputs and carrying out rigorous evaluation of results. We teach students to use AI tools to enhance their thinking, not replace it.
We believe that all students are capable of becoming better communicators, whether they are writing and speaking to inform, to persuade, to motivate. Our goal is to give students a solid foundation in writing and speaking, which they will be able to build upon as they practice honing their skills and refining their skills in later classes. This foundation includes the ability to work productively with AI tools while maintaining intellectual independence—a skill increasingly vital for professional success. Because we see written and verbal communication as skills vital for life, not merely for the four years of college, we try to tailor our teaching practices toward the rhetorical situations real people may encounter in the workplace, in the community, and in their personal lives far beyond graduation.
THE MC WRITING FACULTY