Department of Writing and Rhetoric

378 O’Dowd Hall (248) 370-2746
Fax: (248) 370-2748

Chairperson: Marshall Kitchens

Professors: Alice S. Horning, Ronald A. Sudol

Associate professors: Wallis May Andersen, Barbara B. Hamilton, Marshall W. Kitchens, Margaret B. Pigott

Assistant professors: Elizabeth Allan, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Greg Giberson, Lori Alden Ostergaard, Jim Nugent

Special instructors: Cathie Breidenbach, Bernadette Dickerson, Catherine Haar, Kasia G. Kietlinska

Lecturers and Special Lecturers: Glen Armstrong, Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter, Theodore Bolak, Marilyn Borner, Timothy Briggs, Matthew Burkett, William Byrne, David Calonne, Anne Chapple, Catheryn Cheal, Laura Colbeck, Jennifer Coon, LaWanda Dickens, Joseph DiGaetano, Suzanne Drapeau, Laura Duprey, Matthew Ferguson, John Freeman, Laura Gabrion, Natasha Gavroski, Christina Hall, Paul Gelinas, Lisa Hine, Andrew Kos, Kathleen Lawson, Sabahat Masood, Catherine McQueen, Shaun Moore, Arthur Orme, Sherry Perdue, Cornelia Pokrzywa, Leba Rautbort, Rebecca Rivard, Cathy Rorai, William Rouster, Marilyn Shapiro, Bethany Shepherd, John Simecek, Kathy Skomski, Craig Smith, Jeremy Stephison, Carol Trupiano, Stewart Tucker, Helen Zucker

Chief adviser: Greg Giberson

The study of writing and rhetoric prepares students to read, write and think critically in local, national, global and virtual communities. Students gain experience evaluating and analyzing information and cultural debates, and they learn to compose a variety of texts for multiple audiences, media, and purposes.

Students who take courses in writing and rhetoric learn to perform the kinds of collaborative work in written communication that will be required of them for full participation in an increasingly global and high-tech society, whether they choose to focus on professional writing in business, industry and nonprofits; or on production work in new media; or on academic writing in preparation for graduate studies.

The department’s First-Year Program helps students develop fundamental skills in producing and understanding written texts, develop fluency and flexibility in writing for a variety of audiences and situations, and become critical readers and skilled writers of print, digital and visual texts that incorporate the work of others appropriately for audience, topic and purpose.

The department supports a larger culture of writing including the Oakland University Writing Center, the Meadow Brook Writing Project, the Writing Excellence Awards and the Community Book Project.

Writing foundations

Most students satisfy the university general education requirement in the writing foundations area by completing WRT 160 with a grade of 2.0 or higher. Please consult the Writing Requirements section in the general education area of the catalog for alternate ways of fulfilling this requirement.

Placement

The ACT English score is the main mechanism used to place students in the writing foundations course (WRT 160 ), and in any courses that students might need as a prerequisite to WRT 160 as follows:

ACT English scores of 28 or higher place students in WRT 160 Composition II.
ACT English scores of 16-27 place students in WRT 150 Composition I.
ACT English scores of 15 or below place students in WRT 102 Basic Writing.

Students may submit a placement packet comprised of two essays in response to specific directions available from the writing and rhetoric department office, 378 O’Dowd Hall (248-370-2746) or on the website (http://www2.oakland.edu/wrt/placementpacket.cfm). Placement by ACT score or placement packet does not yield any course credit regardless of where students are placed.

Departmental honors

Graduating seniors may apply for departmental honors. To be considered, students must have completed 24 credits of writing and rhetoric program courses at Oakland University with a GPA of 3.60 or higher in the major.