Updates |
New Courses | |
Recent Timetable ChangesPlease note the following recent changes that differ from the printed timetable. These updates will be reflected on the FAS site soon.
Program EnrolmentThe Writing and Rhetoric Minor is now a Type 1 program. You may sign up for the program directly through ROSI. Students may take INI courses even if they do not wish to enrol in the Writing and Rhetoric Program.
First Year CoursesINI 103H and 104H count toward Writing and Rhetoric Minor requirements, whether or not they are taken in first year. First-year students who are interested in enrolling in the program in second year (or a later year) should take one or both of these courses in first year. (Upper-level students are also welcome to take first-year courses.) Any course that counts toward program requirements may be taken before a student formally enrols in the program. INI104H is not offered in 2012-13.
Note on Registration in "P" indicator coursesAre you having trouble enrolling in second-year and third-year INI courses? They may be restricted to W&R program students until early August. Try again on the day on which the course restrictions fall away (August 9th, 2012 @ 6 a.m.).
List of Innis College Writing and Rhetoric Courses on offer in 2012-13:INI 103H1F Writing Essays;
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New Course: INI 310H1F "Editing"Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 FCEs Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1) Class schedule: Fall term (September - December 2012). Mondays, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m., IN204. Instructor: Rebecca Vogan
Joint Course: JEI 206H1F "Writing English Essays"JEI 206H1F, Writing English Essays
Innis One course - INI 102H1F "Creative Writing and the Natural City"This course is part of the Innis One program. Please see the Innis One page and the College One Programs page for more information.
In this course, our topic is “the natural city.” The anthropologist Desmond Morris observed that the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo. If so, how can the cages be opened? One answer would be to remove the false distinction between “nature” and “city,” to explore how “nature” suffuses the city simply because nature is our living environment. Through course discussions and writing assignments, students will develop their conscious connection to the living environment in the city. They will work towards a major personal essay that explores their relationship to one natural element and artfully incorporates the techniques learned in class. Aims Methods Course readings will include a short text on writing with style; personal essays on aspects of our relationship to the natural world; articles about our concepts of and relationship to nature, consciousness, technology, and indigenous peoples; and one film. Prerequisite: Admission to Innis One Lecture: Wednesdays 12-3, IN204 |
Writing & Rhetoric
@ Innis College
The Writing and Rhetoric minor reflects the belief that strong skills in critical thinking and written communication are central to a liberal education. The mission of this unique minor is to facilitate the intellectual and academic development of undergraduate students and to provide them with a powerful tool that will prove useful in graduate schools, professional schools, and the workplace. This non-remedial program responds to the University's repeated calls for initiatives that address the written communication skills of students from across the disciplines.
Innis College has played a leading role in providing writing instruction at the University of Toronto for over thirty-five years. Innis College's Writing and Rhetoric Program is built on a foundation of long-standing Innis courses in academic and creative writing and on more recently mounted courses in professional writing, rhetoric, and media. The Writing and Rhetoric Program draws on relevant U of T courses in a range of disciplines. The program's design reflects three interrelated themes.
Writing:
Writing Studies as a discipline involves more than instruction in composition skills. Writing is related to rhetoric, logic, reasoning, and critical thinking. Writing is therefore most fruitfully studied, not in isolation, but in a multidisciplinary program such as the one Innis has designed. One of the main goals of the program is to ensure that students graduate with exposure to various modes of writing and with well-developed written communication skills. (Graduates of the new program could pursue postgraduate degrees in rhetoric, professional writing, medicine, law, communications, management, creative writing, journalism, and media studies, to name several possibilities.)
Rhetoric:
One of the oldest disciplines in the liberal arts, rhetoric is an evolving area of scholarship that has illuminated the making of meaning in a large number of academic fields. Today's "rhetoric" reaches well beyond notions related to the art of persuasion. Contemporary definitions of rhetoric focus on the relationship between discourse and social forces. For the purposes of the program, rhetoric will signify the patterns of communication identifiable in a variety of disciplines and environments. Students will be taught to recognize and use rhetorical strategies in their written work. The program is committed to the ethical use of rhetorical strategies, and therefore ethical decision-making is a component of program offerings.
Critical Thinking:
Innis writing and rhetoric courses all strive to teach students that good writers have learned to read and think critically. One of the tenets of the Writing and Rhetoric Program is shared by many of the University's Arts and Science disciplines: that problem-solving and creative, persuasive, and effective writing depend on the ability to analyze discourse critically. Students in the program will learn to identify strengths and weaknesses in the texts they study. They will learn that the critical analysis they engage in when they write is intimately connected to the rhetorical strategies they adopt, the emphases they impose, the tone they create, and the organizational plan they choose.