Chloe Cardosi is pursuing her PhD in Public Rhetorics and Community Engagement at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. She teaches a variety of courses in writing, including FYC courses, business and technoscience writing, and rhetoric and culture. She has also served as the English 102 coordinator, assisting the Director of Composition in revising curriculum and supporting incoming Graduate Teaching Assistants in their transition to UWM’s English Department and composition program. Her research focuses on linguistic justice, public memory, and cultural rhetorics methodologies. As a first-generation student, she is invested in helping students of all levels and backgrounds finding their voices as writers, and making the space to amplify their work.
How do you ensure your course is inclusive, equitable, and culturally responsive?
In addition to standard accessibility practices, my main goal for inclusivity in all of my course is fostering a sense of belonging in my students. As a writing teacher, I never want to lose sight of the fact of what an honor it is to work with students so closely and to interact with their voices and perspectives through their work. I believe that my job is not to teach students how to write, but to guide them to recognize how they already write, then get to work in refining their voices so they can compose work that matters to them.
This is a major reason why I welcome and encourage multiple modes of expression and community-engaged research in my assignments. I want students to know that writing is not a skill you learn to make it through a semester and earn a good grade based on whatever idiosyncratic expectations their instructor may have—it’s a tool that will help them express themselves and their ideas, connect with others, and accomplish things in the “real world.” How this tool is wielded depends on the student and what they’re trying to accomplish with their writing. Through the work they do in my class, I want students to see that writing can—and should—look different based on audience, purpose, genre, and so much more.
What is the most important skill you aim to provide to your students?
I want my students to feel equipped to write for a variety of rhetorical situations. All too often, students are instructed that “Standard Academic English” is the end-all, be-all way to write, the “neutral” standard all other writing either adheres to or strays from. But let’s be real: “academic” writing is not neutral, and the idea that it’s the standard is a myth to uphold the idea of exclusivity in academia. From the beginning of my classes, I’m very clear with my students that more traditional, “standard” ways of writing in academia is just one way to write, not the way.
Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t simply an “anything goes” approach. I still expect students to compose projects with clarity, careful research, and effective rhetorical choices. This is simply a way to make room for other kinds of writing in the academy, and to instill confidence in students. To do this, I encourage a lot of experimentation when it comes to writing. I try to motivate students to work with topics and genres that excite them but are perhaps unfamiliar to them—like podcasts, TED Talks, creative work, or whatever else they’d like to try. I want whatever students compose in my classes to interest and excite them, and feel like it’s usable beyond the walls of classroom—which is why I use the assignment that I’ll describe below.
Chloe's Assignment That Works
Below is a brief synopsis of Chloe's assignment. For the full activity, see the Research Remix assignment prompt.
In my College Writing and Research classes, students spend the semester researching a topic or issue in Milwaukee (where our university is located) that matters to them. The second major assignment they complete in the course is a research report on this issue. The course then culminates in their final project: “remixing” their research report into a public-facing project that addresses a specific audience within Milwaukee. Based on the research expertise they’ve gained throughout the semester, students have to decide what information will be most useful to their chosen audience, and what genre is best for presenting that information. Essentially, this project should help students see how the same research can be employed differently to new genres and audiences.
After using this assignment many times over many different sections of College Writing and Research, I’d identify these as the main benefits:
- Community engagement: This project helps students to see themselves as participating members and stakeholders of the larger community of our city.
- Creativity: Students get to create an information product that feels more tangible and exciting to them than a more traditional research paper.
- Recognizing their identity as writers: In allowing/encouraging them to write about something that matters to them and make something they and their audience find useful, students will recognize that their perspective already has value.
