ENGL 108 I: Writing Ready: Preparing for College Writing

This course will acquaint students with all aspects of podcasting in order to help them become dynamic storytellers and develop a more expansive understanding of writing in the digital age. It will enable students to think critically about the stories they consume and will give them a working knowledge of current trends in audio production and narrative techniques. Alongside learning how to consume podcasts rhetorically and critically, students will practice the art of brainstorming feasible and compelling story ideas, conducting background research, sound gathering, interviewing, script writing, audio editing with Audacity, and developing a narrative voice. Over the course of 10-weeks, each student will create one feature-length podcast on a subject of their choice.  In order to generate ideas and help students make sophisticated rhetorical choices, we will listen rhetorically to a wide variety of podcasts and speak with several different podcast makers and journalists about their process. This class will also function much like the collaborative atmosphere of a newsroom, where students will share their expertise, pitch and workshop their stories together, and work as assistants on each other’s projects. Students will also be asked to work together to devise the rubric with which their podcasts will be assessed. This course satisfies the W-credit and C-requirement.

FULL COURSE SYLLABUS AVAILABLE HERE.