Rhetoric
All composing is designed, organized, represented, and evaluated for particular purposes, audiences, and contexts. Through course activities, students will develop their composing skills and their understanding of the the composing process. Students will be able to make observations about how a text is constructed and why it is constructed in that way.

Rhetoric of Nature
Rhetoric helps us to see patterns--standard tropes, metaphors, and frames in how a particular topic is discussed. Through the topic of nature, students will develop their skills at identifying these patterns. Students will also consider how the way that we discuss nature defines it, defines our relationship to it, and defines the ways that we think about it.

Revision
Revision is possibly the most important part of the writing process. During revision we refine what it is we are really trying to say, remove weak or irrelevant parts, reorder and reorganize our thoughts, and clarify connections between different parts of a piece of writing. Revision moves far beyond sentence level errors to reconsider the larger structure and purpose of the text.

Collaboration
This class engages students in a wide range of collaborative activities, including peer reviews, in-class group work, group projects, and using online collaborative tools. Successful collaboration depends on skills, knowledge and understanding, confidence, and reflectiveness. Students will develop both their collaboration skills and understanding of meaningful collaboration.