Making It Better

[barclay_barrios]

One of the classes I’ve been teaching this semester is Advanced Exposition. I’ve framed it, though, as Queer Composition. It’s been an interesting semester, in part because most of the students took the class because they needed to, but also because all of them have come to embrace explorations of rhetorical genres that emerge out of LGBTQ experience: everything from cruising to camp to disco.The entire semester has been focused on identifying and analyzing the generic features of each of these rhetorical forms, but for our last week we’re turning that process around in a very special way.Last week we looked at the "It Gets Better" video as a specific genre. This coming week, using what we learned, we’re going to make our own video for the project. I have to say that for me, personally, this is exciting. Not only do the students in the class get to compose for a real-world audience, and not only do they get to do so in new media, but I get to compose with them. More than that, I get the chance to make a difference.Keep an eye out for our video on the It Gets Better Project's website. Just look for ENC 3310 from FAU!