2024-2025 Catalog

Interdisciplinary Writing

Overview

Writing classes provide students with the intellectual and technical frameworks that enable them to approach course materials and disciplines critically. Writing well is not a skill-set to be mastered, but an intricate interaction of cognitive and rhetorical processes performed for a variety of purposes, in multiple circumstances, and for diverse audiences. This minor allows students to practice these processes in a range of writing situations, and exposes students to comparative approaches to modes of writing: prose, creative nonfiction, playwriting, poetry, journalism, screenwriting, professional writing, and multimedia.

The interdisciplinary approach of this minor helps students develop strong writing skills, techniques, and practices through varied pedagogical styles and methods. A main benefit of this minor is that students will have opportunities to learn from faculty in different disciplines, gaining knowledge of those disciplines while writing in various genres. These courses provide a strong writing foundation for students interested in any number of academic and career fields.

Requirements

Minor

The Interdisciplinary Writing minor is a five-course program consisting of one required 200-level core class (CWP 295) and four electives, described as follows.

Note: Typically students will complete the minor with no more than 3 courses from any one department; however, students may complete the minor with 4 courses from any one department with IW minor chair approval.

Required Course

CWP 295Argument and Rhetoric Across the Disciplines

4 units

Electives

The below courses are offered regularly in the Interdisciplinary minor, though some may not be offered every year. Check Course Counts for the available courses each semester.

AMST 265/CWP 265Feminist Rhetorics and Social Change

4 units

ARTS 301Writing Art and Writing as Art

4 units

BLST 240Black Women Write Social Justice

4 units

CTSJ 215Language and Power

4 units

CWP 235Visual Rhetoric: Communication through Pictures and/or Words

4 units

CWP 250Topics in Writing with the Community

4 units

CWP 275Popular Science Writing

4 units

CWP 285Principles of Journalism I: Covering News Across Media

4 units

CWP 286Principles of Journalism II: Narrative Nonfiction: True Stories Told Well

4 units

CWP 287Rhetorical Fault Lines: Journalism, Persuasion, Propaganda

4 units

CWP 301Creative Nonfiction

4 units

CWP 395Theory and Pedagogy of Writing

2 units

ENGL 280Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction Writing

4 units

ENGL 281Creative Writing: Poetry

4 units

ENGL 290Introduction to Literary Methods

4 units

ENGL 380Creative Writing: Advance Fiction Writing

4 units

ENGL 382Advanced Creative Writing

4 units

FREN 350Theory and Practice of Translation (Thème et Version)

4 units

MAC 220Introduction to Screenwriting and Narrative Practices

4 units

MAC 222Creating and Writing Television/Streaming Series

4 units

MAC 320Advanced Screenwriting and Narrative Practices

4 units

THEA 101From Page to Stage: Introduction to Reading and Writing for Performance

4 units

THEA 201Voices in American Theater

4 units

THEA 204Comedy and Social Change

4 units

THEA 380Playwriting

4 units

Students may also apply MAC 250 as an elective for the Interdisciplinary Writing minor if they have enrolled in the "The Video Essay" section of the course.

Students may also apply CTSJ 395 as an elective for the Interdisciplinary Writing minor if they have enrolled in the "Writing Trauma" section of the course.

Transfer Credit Policies

Courses approved for transfer by the appropriate department or program will be considered to apply toward the Interdisciplinary Writing minor. Students should reference the Transfer Credit section for details.

Faculty

Julie Prebel, chair

Associate Professor; Director of Writing Center and Programs

B.A., University of California, Berkeley; M.A., California State University, San Francisco; Ph.D., University of Washington

 

Other faculty associated with the Interdisciplinary Writing minor can be viewed here.