The following student magazines were produced during the Fall 2007 semester by John Carroll University’s Arrupe Scholars. I taught this section of EN 111. While the course was similar to other EN 111 sections in terms of writing instruction, the Arrupe course focused on issues of citizenship and social justice, consistent with the aims and goals of the Aruppe scholarship program. As in other sections of EN 111, students learned and practiced skills to produce college-level writing, specifically the rhetorical choices involved in college writing so that they could then apply that knowledge to a variety of academic, public, and private contexts.
The writers in this course created student magazines that addressed issues of citizenship and social justice. The intended audience for these magazines is the John Carroll University community. Student writers worked together in small groups throughout the semester developing, planning, writing, editing, and producing their magazine. Each journal features essays that explore issues of citizenship and social justice that students and faculty at John Carroll University would find relevant and noteworthy. The writers in this course were charged with determining the main focus of the magazine, selecting which essays should be included, as well as developing the content, layout, and production of their magazine.
At the end of the semester, each journal was read by two members of the John Carroll community outside the classroom: Dr. Drew Morse, Director of the Writing Center, and his assistant director, Jonathan Rosati, Graduate Assistant in the English department. They selected the strongest magazine, and the winning group received a prize. Ultimately, placing these Arrupe writers in a rhetorical situation where the academic reader becomes a real, viable audience allowed these writers to take control over their writing process and to recognize that their writing matters to readers outside the classroom.
I hope you enjoy reading these magazines as much as we have.
Dr. Tom Pace,
Director of First-Year Writing
Department of English |
