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Web Component, Video-based course
22 half-hour videos
26 lessons
Video Preview / Course Demonstration
Preview Video
Courseware Demo
Replaced by The Writer's Circle: Composition I
Focusing on the techniques of expository writing and emphasizing current knowledge of the writing process, A Writer's Exchange includes the content widely taught in first semester English composition courses throughout the nation, as well as the traditional elements of rhetoric.
Instructors will be able to select the types of writing assignments they wish to use, as well as control the degree to which the assignments are based on personal experience or on observation and reading. Writing assignments and instructions are provided in the course videos and in the text.
The text includes student and professional essays from a range of disciplines representing expressive, referential, and persuasive writing. Both text and video take a multicultural approach, by including both student and professional examples from a variety of cultures, and the videos feature writers and academic experts who are representative of the cultural diversity of this discipline.
Lesson Titles/Descriptions
- Rhetoric Heritage, Modern Applications - Approaches rhetoric both as an academic discipline and applies art, introducing key terms and concepts that will be used in subsequent lessons: rhetoric, the cannons of rhetoric, the rhetorical situation (writer, reader, subject), and historical framework, the lesson explores the territory of rhetoric, both oral and written.
- The Psychology of Writing - Summarizes the research of the past twenty years on the psychological and cognitive processes involved in writing and relates current cognitive models of this process to the classical canons of rhetoric. The lesson discusses internal and external psychological and social influences on the writing process.
- Writing with an Expressive Aim - Introduces one of the three major aims of writing, the expressive - defining the expressive aim, illustrating commonly used techniques for achieving that aim using knowledge by participation and knowledge by observation, exemplifies common types of expressive aim writing, and models reading and responding to expressive aim writing.
- Writing Narration - Prepares the student to write a paper using narration to achieve an expressive aim. The lesson motivates the student to incorporate narration into expressive aim writing by providing examples of such writing accompanied by extensive analyzes of both written product and writing processes and by suggesting specific guideline for writing effective narration.
- Writing Description - Explains the use of describing characters and places in expressive writing by the use of multiple examples of both student and professional writing. The lesson models the analysis of the use of description in expressive writing and provides guidelines for writing effective description.
- Starting a Collaborative Writing Group - Introduces the element of collaboration into the writing process, motivates the student to collaborate with peers as well as with the instructor in producing text, and offers guidance in responding to others’ writing and in integrating collaborative responses into a finished text. The lesson focuses on sequential collaboration.
- Discovering Ideas: The Canon of Invention - Introduces the first of the five canons of classical rhetoric, offering insights from contemporary psychology into the task of generating ideas for writing. The lesson explains how to analyze audience from the classical, psychological and social perspectives. The lesson explores techniques for discovering information through personal knowledge as well as through research.
- Organizing Ideas: The Canon of Arrangement - Introduces the second of the five canons of classical rhetoric, to form a context for the presentation of current methods for organizing text.
- Writing with an Informative Aim - Introduces the kind of writing students most often encounter in the academic and work world: writing that communicates information and explains a topic. The lesson describes the characteristics of referential aim writing, prepares the student to write with this aim, and allows the student to analyze and respond to a text with this aim.
- Introducing Explanation Writing - Elaborates the analysis of one of the major uses of referential aim writing, explaining a topic. Several examples of referential aim writing are examined and analyzed with attention both to process and to product.
- Writing an Explanation Paper - Continues the presentation of explanation as a use of the referential aim in writing. The lesson examines explanatory texts in both academic and work contexts. Students continue to draft their own explanatory essay, and they respond analytically to other students' texts.
- Collaborating on an Explanatory Paper* - Focuses on collaborative response to other students' explanatory essays and the incorporation of peer responses to the student's own essay.
- Polishing Ideas: The Canon of Style - Gives concrete instruction on this canon of rhetoric by encouraging the student to develop his or her own range of styles to suit a variety of writing tasks. This lesson explains internal and external influences on style and gives specific advice for analyzing and improving writing style.
- Revisiting for Style* - Allows the student to use the information presented on style and to try out some of the techniques for improving style presented in that lesson.
- Writing Under Pressure - Focuses on writing that must be done "on the spot," whether in the work world or in the academic world. The lesson explains why such writing is sometimes necessary and offers help in adjusting to the constraints involved in these often stressful writing tasks. Help in writing essay tests is provided.
- Reading, Writing and Thinking Analytically - Introduces another of the major uses of referential aim writing, analyzing a topic. Several examples of referential aim writing using analysis are examined and analyzed with attention both to process and to product.
- Writing an Analytical Paper - Continues the presentation of analysis as a use of the referential aim writing. The lesson examines analytical texts in both academic and work contexts. Students continue to draft their own analytical essays.
- Personal Dynamics in a Writing Group - Provides a theoretical as well as a practical approach to collaborative writing. The lesson explains why collaboration improves individual writing skills, as well as how to work effectively in a collaborative writing group. The dynamics of group interaction and the contributions of computers to collaborative writing are also stressed.
- Writing with a Persuasive Aim - Introduces the final aim of writing, and the lesson explains the differences between adversarial and conciliatory persuasion, showing students how to evaluate a specific rhetorical situation to determine which of the major purposes of persuasion best suits the task. Finally, the lesson helps students begin the process of writing with a persuasive aim.
- Writing an Evaluation - Presents evaluation as one of persuasive aim writing. The lesson examines specific uses of evaluation in work, personal and academic writing with attention both to process and to product.
- Developing and Supporting a Thesis - Introduces an important purpose of persuasive aim writing, declaring a position on an issue. Several texts with this aim are examined and analyzed with attention both to process and to product. The lesson also includes suggestions for writing papers with this purpose.
- Writing a Thesis / Support Paper - Continues the presentation of declaring a position on an issue as a purpose of the persuasive aim in writing. The lesson examines texts with this purpose in academic, business and public contexts.
- Proposing a Solution to a Paper - Presents solving a problem as one of the major purposes of persuasive aim writing. The lesson examines specific texts using the problem/solution purpose in work, public and academic settings and suggests methods for writing such texts.
- Writing a Problem / Solution Paper - Emphasizes the use of logic, the evaluation of evidence and the appeal to audience in a problem/solution paper. The lesson includes suggestions for writing a problem/solution paper and also for critical reading of persuasive texts with the purpose of proposing a solution to a problem.
- Revisiting a Persuasive Paper* - Students apply what they have learned in the preceding lessons on writing with a persuasive aim. They may review video and text material as needed and finish their last writing assignment.
- Portfolio: The Canon of Delivery* - Students practice skills in timed writing they learned in Lesson 17. They review text and video material on timed writing, practice writing within a specified time limit with prompts comparable to those on their final on-campus writing assignment, and write an essay in a controlled environment on the campus.
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* Indicates lessons without accompanying video
Design and Production Team Content Specialist - Harryette Brown has a distinguished career as an instructor, course consultant, campus and district coordinator of English telecourses, as the faculty content specialist for the award-winning The Write Course, and as the developer of material for the audio course, The World of F. Scott Fitzgerald. With degrees from Southern Methodist University, her other accomplishments include publications on teaching writing to distance learners and on Milton. She has appeared frequently at national conferences on College Composition and Communication, including the National Council of Teachers of English.
Project Manager - Paul Bosner brings to the course experience that spans a career of 41 years, the first 20 years of which were spent with CBS-TV in New York City. His distinguished career continued through work for PBS stations in Dallas, Austin, and St. Paul; for the Instructional Television Centre in Israel; and for Television & Educational Classics in London, England. He is the producer/director of the telecourses, The Write Course, The Business File, The American Adventure, Government by Consent, The Sociological Imagination, and Living with Health. He holds a BFA degree in broadcast film/television from SMU.
Producer/Director - Hector de Luna began his career in broadcasting in 1980 and has served in the capacity of producer and/or director in the production of television programs, public service videos, commercials, and educational training videos. Mr. de Luna has received the Associated Press Best distinction six times and been recognized for his commitment to broadcasting excellence with numerous other honors, including two Paragon Awards, the Medallion Award, and two Addy Awards. He received his BS degrees in Radio/TV/Film from the University of Texas in Austin.
Producer/Director - Phillip Johnson brings his experience from contributing as producer and writer on Government by Consent, and as producer/director of Government by Consent: A Texas Perspective and Retraining the Workforce. Mr. Johnson began his career in video production in 1974, progressing through the ranks of television news, from reporter to executive producer, at stations in Minnesota, Louisiana, and Texas. During this time, he was also employed by NBC as that organization's Dallas-based regional coordinator. He holds a BS degree in journalism and mass communications from Bemidji State University in Minnesota.
Instructional Designer - Nora Busby has been involved in instructional design since 1977. She has designed training programs for business and industry, and has worked with community college faculty on curriculum development projects. She has most recently focused on designing courses for delivery via telecourses, live interactive televised instruction, and interactive video discs. She served as the instructional designer for the telecourses Government by Consent, The Sociological Imagination, and Living with Health. She holds an MS degree in instructional design and development/educational media from Florida State University.
Research Associate - Kimberly Allison is currently a doctoral student at Texas Woman's University where she has taught freshman composition and worked as a freelance researcher. She has just completed the second edition instructor's manual for the forthcoming Motives for Writing.
Advisory Committee
National Advisors
- Dr. Joanne Bryant, Troy State University at Montgomery
- Dr. Sam Dragga, Texas Tech University
- Dr. Tahita Fulkerson, Northwest Campus, Tarrant County Junior College District
- Dr. Gwendolyn Gong, Texas A&M University
- Professor Carol Johnson, Texas Woman's University
- Dr. Phillip Sipiora, University of South Florida
- Richard F. Tracz, NILRC Representative, Oakton Community College
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Local Advisors
- Professor Martina Agbanyo, El Centro College
- Dr. Rea Bell, Richland College Professor
- Harryette Brown, Eastfield College
- Dr. Susan Faulkner, Cedar Valley College
- Professor Dorothy Good, Brookhaven College
- Professor Dee Dee Hinojosa, Brookhaven College
- Dr. Paul Hunter, North Lake College
- Dr. Mike Sink, Mountain View College
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