Unifying Program Goals - Developing and Implementing a Writing and Rhetoric Major at Oakland University

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Unifying Program Goals: Developing and Implementing a Writing and Rhetoric Major at Oakland University examines the historical, political, theoretical, and practical conditions that shaped Oakland University’s undergraduate writing and rhetoric major. The article analyzes the developmental process and the major’s design, including department development and naming, effects on the first-year writing program, the structure of the three-track model, and broader institutional impact. It also describes proposal work starting in December 2007 and the program profile’s purpose for faculty audiences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

In December 2007: Proposal Revision and Scholarly Consultation

Purpose and Value of the Program Profile

Oakland University Program Context and Development

Departmental Values and Mission

The History of the Writing Program at Oakland University

Unifying Program Goals: Developing and Implementing a Writing and Rhetoric Major at Oakland University Lori Ostergaard and Greg A. Giberson Abstract: In this critical program profile, the authors provide an analysis of the historical , political , theoretical , and practical circumstances that influenced the development of Oakland University ’s undergraduate major in writing and rhetoric . Through an analysis of the developmental process and the major itself, this article explores many separate, yet interconnected issues . These include the development and naming of a department of writing and rhetoric , the impact the major has had on the first year writing program , the theoretical and practical structure of the three track major, as well as the institutional impact the program has had. In December 2007, three of the Rhetoric faculty at Oakland University (OU)—Greg, Lori , and Marshall Kitchens—began revising our program’s proposal for a major in writing and rhetoric , which had been initiated by our senior faculty some 10 years earlier. As we reconceptualized the proposal and consulted the available scholarly materialson the topic of undergraduate writing majors , we recognized that while there was a good deal of work on the major, there was still much work to be done in terms of breadth, depth, and consistency in the scholarly conversation. We were lucky to have access to early drafts of the now published collection What We Are Becoming: Developments in Undergraduate Writing Majors , as Greg was lead editor on that project , and we found that Coming of Age: The Advanced Writing Curriculum provided valuable insights into developing our upper level writing courses and core curriculum. But for the purposes of proposing and designing our own major, the three of us felt there was much more we needed to know about designing, proposing, and implementing B.A. programs . As we rewrote the proposal for our own major, we also decided to begin contributing to the small , but growing, corpus of material about the writing major, to offer our own advice to composition rhetoric faculty who are interested in developing these degree programs . This program profile grew out of that initial desire to share what we have learned, as we believe program profiles like this one are useful for three reasons . First , local descriptions can be helpful to others when those descriptions focus not only on praxis , but also on gnosis , which is what we have tried to do in what follows . Second, we believe undergraduate writing degrees have the potential to impact the field in significant ways , so we want to encourage the purposeful , intellectual , and scholarly development of those degrees . And last , we wish to share our model for what undergraduate degrees in writing studies can be by describing the choices we made during the proposal process and by discussing why we made those choices . Ultimately , we are offering this program profile because we agree with Deb Balzhiser and Sue McLeod, members of the CCCC’s Committee on the Major in Writing and Rhetoric , that “as a field we could and should discuss the general outlines of what our major should be, and … a national conversation on this topic is in order” (416) . As we describe in the following section, Oakland University ’s writing program has a unique history that has made it possible for us to develop a writing degree that has very few historical , institutional , or political strings attached. Our new degree program was developed within a Department of Rhetoric , Communication, and Journalism , rather than a department of English; was approved in May 2008; and is currently housed in a new Department of Writing and Rhetoric . { 1} But while the conditions surrounding the development of OU’s undergraduate writing and rhetoric major were unique, we believe our experiences may help to fill in some of the gaps in the existing scholarship about writing majors . In this profile we briefly ad

FAQs

What factors influenced the development of Oakland University’s writing and rhetoric major?

The article analyzes historical, political, theoretical, and practical circumstances that shaped the major’s development.

What is included in the authors’ analysis of the major itself?

It covers how the department was developed and named, the major’s impact on the first-year writing program, the theoretical and practical structure of the three-track design, and institutional effects.

When did the rhetoric faculty begin revising the proposal, and why?

In December 2007, three rhetoric faculty members began revising a major proposal initially initiated about 10 years earlier to redesign and better align it with available scholarship and their own needs.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa