I
want to thank the students who have written these wonderful essays and
accomplished so much in them. When the teachers in the Writing Program
redesigned WRT 105 and WRT 205 to focus on the practices of critical
analysis, argument, and research, we hypothesized that these practices
would be fundamental to what the writing students would do in their
course work and in their professional and civic lives. We had high hopes
for the kind of critical space the courses would open up.
That hope
has been realized—and exceeded. In these essays students demonstrate
what they can do with challenging assignments that ask them to link
their personal experiences with significant disciplinary and cultural
topics of inquiry:
- Analyses
of photographs of family and friends that are imaginative, that
raise profound questions about the construction of identity, and
that explore the complex dynamics of race and class;
- Applications
of critical space theory to dorm life and theories of religion to
popular music;
- Arguments
about the politics of language, disciplines, historical events,
and human rights;
- Research
integrated into the essays, drawn from careful reading of visual
and written texts, personal experience, interviews, websites, and
academic articles and books.
Readers
of Intertext will enjoy these essays, as they appreciate the
language and follow the lines of analysis and argument and rethink their
own assumptions. Teachers will be inspired as they plan their courses
for next year.
Congratulations
to the writers and to the editorial staff of Intertext.
Margaret
Himley
Director of Undergraduate Studies
