Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric and Contemporary Issues

A black and white photograph of a woman with two small children leaning on her shoulder. The woman in this 1931 iconic Depression-era photograph is Florence Christie Owens.

This photograph of a destitute mother, Florence Christie Owens, from the Great Depression is an example of visual rhetoric of photography and film, which, combined with print media, help raise awareness of social problems and advocate for change. (Photograph by Dorothea Lange; in the public domain via The Library of Congress.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

21W.011

As Taught In

Fall 2015

Level

Undergraduate

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Course Description

Course Description

This course seeks to provide a supportive context for students to grow significantly as writers by discovering and engaging with issues that matter to them. Writing on social and ethical issues, we can see ourselves within a tradition of authors such as Charles Dickens, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George Orwell, Rachel Carson, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., who have used the power of the pen to inspire social change.

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Related Content

Andrea Walsh. 21W.011 Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric and Contemporary Issues. Fall 2015. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


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