During the Fall 2005 semester, we will be exploring ways of making meaning through writing by creating individual projects and re-vising (as in re-seeing, re-working, and re-imagining) them for various media.

Some goals for students completing this course are quantifiable. These goals include developing and improving skills in:

• research (evaluating sources)
• grammar (learning how it functions as a system and how to write grammatically)
• documentation (understanding what to cite, how to cite, and why; using MLA documentation)
• structured academic writing
• organization (recognizing it and creating it)

Other goals can't be plotted on a chart or reduced to a percentage, but I think that they are just as--if not more-- important. These include:

• critical consideration and appreciation of texts: what they are, how meaning is made from them, and variables that affect or influence meaning
• recognition of self as a writer/creator (as opposed to reporter or passive recipient)
• application of creating meaning with/making meaning of texts to one's "real life"
• critical consideration of "the rules" of writing: when they should be broken (and why)
• understanding of writing as a process of creation, refining, and re-creation