Rhet/Comm is designed to welcome students into the academic world by developing critical thinking and university-level writing skills that will serve them throughout their years at Habib. This course invites students to engage in writing as a form of personal expression, inquiry, knowledge-making, and intellectual contribution. Together, we will look at the role that persuasion and persuasive discourse play in contemporary communication, culture and society by examining various forms of persuasive conversation, with the goal of understanding an issue of the student’s choosing by looking at the arguments made around that issue.nThrough an exploration of a variety of texts, students will learn about the differences between various genres of academic writing, as well as ideas about how to write well across disciplines. Students will also learn how to plan and structure compelling arguments, to analyse evidence critically, to make use of summarising and synthesising skills, to communicate their findings to a wide range of audiences, and to give, receive and integrate feedback into their work. Lastly, since this is Foundational Writing course, students will leave this class with a thorough understanding of academic integrity at Habib University, and the conventions of referencing and citation styles in academic writing.nNote that this is not a grammatical or basics of English writing course. Students who require assistance in grammar or structure are encouraged to make use of the university writing centre to improve these skills.
