Following the creation of a new linguistics concentration, the English department is creating a new concentration called Rhetoric and Professional Writing (RPW), which will replace the Language, Writing and Rhetoric (LWR) concentration for all incoming students in fall 2020.

Similar to LWR, RPW will still require students to complete the English core of 18 credit hours, six credit hours of English electives and maintain at least a 2.0 GPA. However, students will need to complete the RPW concentration of 21 hours. In addition, there will be a co-requisite that requires students to have completed an internship, entrepreneurship or a special project for a class.

Jason Swarts, director of undergraduate studies, explained the degree changes and requirements for RPW.

“What we are doing is regrouping those classes and revising some of those classes,” Swarts said. “The first thing we are doing is regrouping courses that are considered to be foundational to different career and professional tracts in rhetoric and professional writing. The next grouping is called Methods, [Strategies] and Context of [Rhetoric] and Professional Writing. These are courses that are meant to build on the core concepts.”

Swarts said within the RPW concentration there will be two cores. The core concepts will require students to take two courses that teach the basics of writing, like ENG 214 “Intro to Editing”. The Methods, Strategies and Context of Rhetorical and Professional Writing core requires students to take three classes that build off the concepts students have learned.

No classes will be removed. Instead, the English department will add more classes centered around RPW. For example, ENG 493 will be a special-topics course focused on RPW, with the curriculum changing each semester, Swarts said. In addition, some classes will be modified to fit the curriculum better, such as ENG 317. Instead of “Designing Web Communications”, it will be called “Network Communication”. This course will focus on working with online communities, like managers, in addition to web design.

Besides classes being added and changed, there will be a new co-requisite for students to graduate. Undergraduates will now need to have completed an internship, entrepreneurship or a special project for one of their classes, similar to an honors contract for the Honors Program. Swarts says this requirement will help students prepare for professions related to their degree.

The LWR faculty, including professors and advisors, were heavily involved with the creation of LWR. Helen Burgess, associate professor of English, describes what the LWR staff hopes to achieve with the RPW concentration.

“[The LWR faculty] sat down and started to talk about what we wanted, and one of the things we wanted was to make it much more clear for students on how you can apply this in the world,” Burgess said.

Swarts understands not everyone in LWR knows what they want to pursue as a profession. However, he hopes that RPW will expose students to different areas of professional writing and help them determine what job they want.

The RPW concentration was created after linguistics formed its own major. Swartz believed the linguistics major would make the language aspect of LWR redundant, so Swartz and other LWR faculty decided to create a new concentration. Swartz also used feedback from alumni to determine what changes to make.

Burgess describes how the LWR faculty discussed the RPW concentration.

“Once we all come up with some ideas, or more philosophies on what we wanted to do for students,” said Burgess. “Then that gets written up in a document. It gets sent to the undergraduates studies committee, which I am also on … Then I think it gets sent to the chair committee, and it kind of keeps going up the administrative chain.”

Burgess also clarified what role the advisors had in the process. Besides suggesting what students they would want, they also determined what was possible. For example, the professors wanted students to submit a portfolio of all of their work, but the advisors said it would be laborious and there isn’t enough staff.

The RPW concentration will admit incoming students beginning in fall 2020. Students already in LWR will not have their degree requirements changed. However, they can transfer to RPW if they so choose.

“Rhetoric is the theory, and professional writing is the practice. Which, I guess aligns with the whole ‘think and do,’” Burgess said.