Writing 1: Writing Culture is not an introduction to writing. It is a course that challenges students to become new and more thoughtful writers even as they develop existing strengths. In Writing 1, students will:

Explore different approaches to writing about culture;

Pursue writing as a means of analyzing and critiquing culture, and of engaging with cultural images, artifacts, spaces, texts, discourses, etc.;

Experiment with new writing and revision techniques, especially through creative exercises that help them become more thoughtful and innovative about their writing (both as process and as product);

Determine which analytical methods and writing modes are best-suited for certain inquiries about culture, and how different disciplines treat cultural texts, build arguments about culture, etc.; and

Consider how cultural values and perspectives shape their own writing.

All semester long, Writing 1 students work on a research project that originates in their own close analysis of a cultural text of their choosing.  In this project, they draw upon writing strategies and analytical skills they have been developing, and upon research they have been doing, all semester long.  Recent projects have included work with a wide range of texts – hip hop songs, television sitcoms, magazine ads, Disney films, biographies of Henry VIII, and government census forms. 

In the context of Writing Culture, a “cultural text” is anything that can be read as a cultural artifact. For example, this image of an early classroom in Eads Hall, a building on WU’s campus, is one such artifact, and could be explored as an expression of cultural ideas about the education of women at the start of the 20th century.  Or it could be analyzed for its view of university culture – particularly if it were read in relationship to other photos in the university’s archive.   Or it could be considered as part of cultural narratives about technology in the workplace or the automation of writing.  Or it could be explored in some other way altogether.

Whatever questions students ask about their chosen artifacts, Writing 1 encourages them to consider their own perspectives by working with texts that are part of their culture – perhaps because the texts are linked to the university, St. Louis or their home town, or perhaps because the artifacts are part of their own cultural experiences, knowledge, or sense of identity.