The School of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication is a community committed to preparing its students -- both writers and technical and scientific communicators -- for lives of enlightened, global citizenship.
--WRTC
Mission Statement
Here is a quote from the writing I did on that first day, "I think the importance of any art form, writing, rhetoric, and TC included should be to strive to enlighten those that come in contact with it and to also help the artist/writer to progress on the path to enlightenment."
This is the basic idea behind this blog, to advance the mission statement of WRTC, but especially to create a community of enlightened global citizens. Hopefully I can get some WRTC faculty's opinions on the meaning of this mission statement. Any thoughts?
Whenever I think of "enlightened global citizenship," I think of the question cycle, “What?” “So what?” and “Now what?” This cycle, created by Dwight Eyler and Janet Giles, is a model for reflection in service learning and likely sounds familiar to anyone who has been involved with JMU’s Office of Community Service Learning activities (or almost any service-learning program). Answering the “What?” begins the process of enlightenment, but it’s only through answering “So what?” and “Now what?” that we actually take our place as active global citizens.
ReplyDeleteMore than seeing these questions as a tool for reflection, I’m beginning to see the cycle as a process that undergirds much of learning. The “what” of a topic (or a course) are the facts, the concepts, the theoretical constructs that undergird that topic, but without going on to answer the “So what?,” by making connections (and more importantly encouraging students to make those connections) between the “what” and their lives and the world in which they live, the “what” remains disconnected information, having little impact on our lives—or learning. To complete the cycle by going on to answer “Now what?,” those connections will result in action—new ways of thinking and seeing and doing. That’s when I think “enlightened global citizenship” occurs, and rhetoric is an apt vehicle for that progression.
Reference:
Eyler, J., and Giles, D. E., Jr. Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning? San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1999.