Advanced PWR Courses, 2012-13
PWR offers a select number of upper division courses for students interested in doing more advanced work with topics related to writing and rhetoric.
How many students are interested in advanced writing? Look at the results of our survey of 1,254 Stanford undergraduates.
Courses in 2012-13
Your American Life (PWR 91D)
Tuesdays 3:15-6:05 p.m., Meyer 183
Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz
Terms: Aut | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
If unable to enroll via Axess, please contact instructor ([email protected]) for waitlist
Have you ever been spellbound by a simple, true story, told live or on a broadcast like This American Life or The Moth Radio Hour? If you've ever tried to create the same kind of impact with a story of your own, you'll know that however simple a story might be, telling it usually requires a lot of skill. This class will give you that skill. Learn more about PWR 91D: Your American Life.
Public Science: The Art of Writing Science for General Audiences (PWR 91S, Section 01)
Mondays, Wednesdays 9:00-10:50a.m., Wallenberg 123
Instructor: Shay Brawn
Terms: Win| Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Climategate. Vaccines and autism. The Large Hadron Collider opening up a black hole in Geneva. You don’t have to look far to find dramatic and disconcerting examples of public responses to scientific research that betray fundamental misunderstandings of how research is done and what constitutes a significant result. In a recent PEW survey, 85% of scientists polled saw the public’s lack of scientific knowledge as a major problem for science. It has implications both for funding basic research and for determining how and whether scientific findings factor into public policy decisions. Learn more about PWR 91S 01: Public Science: The Art of Writing Science for General Audiences.
Goodbye One-Star Reviews and Dwindling Pageviews: How to Improve Apps and Websites with Usability Testing (PWR 91S, Section 02)
Mondays, Wednesdays 11:00a.m.-12:50p.m., Wallenberg 331
Instructor: Erik Ellis
Terms: Win| Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
The Oral Tradition: Myth, Folklore, and Fairy Tale (PWR 91)
Time and Location TBA
Instructor: Martin Shaw
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Writing to Reach Wider Audiences: Popular, Cross-Cultural, and Digital Communication (PWR 91)
Mondays, Wednesdays 3:15-5:05p.m., Wallenberg 125
Instructor: Alyssa O'Brien
Terms: Win | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Stories of Genius (PWR 91)
Time and Location TBA
Instructor: Fred Luskin and Jonah Willihnganz
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Make Them Laugh: Comedy as Persuasion and Argument (PWR 194)
Time and Location TBA
Instructor: Marvin Diogenes
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
Spring 2012
The Stanford Daily Show (PWR 91C)
MW 1:15-2:30 p.m., 160-127
Instructor: Helle Rytkønen
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
In this class, we will study fake news programs such as the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and the Onion.
But instead of writing about their use of humor to make a persuasive argument, we will produce The Stanford Daily Show, our own version of a fake news program.
For your final class project, you will research a topic of your own choice and write and perform it as if it were a segment from a “real” fake news show. As fake news segments often circulate virally through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, you will also have to carefully consider how to address your audience in different media. You do not have to be funny, an actor or even a fan of fake news to enjoy this class.
More information about The Stanford Daily Show (PWR 91C).
Contesting Citizenship: The Rhetoric of Social and Political Movements
(PWR 194A)
TTh 1:15-3:05 p.m., 160-123
Instructor: Patti Hanlon-Baker
Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DBSocSci | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)
How does the influence of one Muslim woman’s vlog via Facebook compare with that of an eighty-year old political organization?
This course examines how social and political movements in the US gain traction and enact change through rhetorical power.
Movements examined include the Civil Rights movement, feminism, the labor movement, LGBT movements, Occupy, and the Tea Party, with a focus on methods of rhetorical research, including archival work, analysis of primary artifacts and field study. Students conduct research on a social movement and compose work in public genres such as op-eds and social media.
More information about The Rhetoric of Political and Social Movements (PWR 194).
Winter 2012
Digital Rhetoric, New Media, and Transformations in Writing (PWR 91B)
Christine Alfano
3 units
When you see the word “Writing,” what comes to mind?Do you think of an academic essay assignment? A pen tracing words on paper? The words on the front page of newspaper? An article at CNN.com or Reddit? The stacked tweets and Facebook updates on your Tweetdeck?
Increasingly, our understanding of what writing is – as an act, a moment of expression or persuasion – has become unfixed from the printed page and has become associated with more fluid, electronic environments.
More and more, writing operates in multiple modes (word, image, sound) in this new media environment, so that some of the most powerful pieces of writing may not seem like traditional writing at all. Yet each of these texts is an example of writing – a moment of invention, drafting, revision, and communication-- governed by the evolving conditions of a new, digital rhetoric.
More information about Digital Rhetoric: New Media and Transformations in Writing (PWR 91B).
Fall 2011
The Art of Storytelling (PWR 91A)
Jonah Willihnganz (Director, Stanford Storytelling Project)
3 units
We live by and through stories: family stories, national stories, stories of personal transformation and spiritual revelation.
Stories are the medium of our lives, a vehicle for changing our lives, and thus understanding how they work and how to use them gives us enormous power, as almost any artist, politician, or executive will tell you.
In this course we investigate a variety of storytelling forms to build a repertoire of tools for telling the stories that are important to us, whatever form they take—oral, textual, visual, sonic, or some combination thereof.
