Syllabus for PWR 91: Farmers, Scientists, and Activists, an advanced writing course centered around service learning and professional writing. Stanford, Winter 2017

1. PWR91: Farmers,
Scientists, & Activists:
Public Discourse of
Food Economies
ERICA CIRILLO-MCCARTHY, PHD
ECIRILLO@STANFORD.EDU
HUME CENTER, 207
OFFICE HOURS: TUES & THURS, 2-3PM AND BY
APPOINTMENT (I AM ON CAMPUS MOST DAYS OF THE
WEEK; PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME TO MAKE
AN APPOINTMENT OUTSIDE OF OFFICE HOURS
IF THEY DO NOT WORK FOR YOU)
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2. Course
Description
What are the possibilities in rethinking our food, the way we talk
about it, the way we grow it, and the way we eat it? Food has long
been identified as a socioeconomic marker, tied to income in ways
that have material effects for individuals and communities, e.g.
health disparities and food deserts. But who are the people and
organizations working on the intersection of food and justice, and
how can we as writers work with them to further their goals? In
this advanced PWR class, you will be paired with identified local
(Bay Area) non-profits concerned with food economies, such as
food activists, food banks, farmers, and farm collectives to
collaborate and produce websites, promotional materials, press
releases and other public documents. You will engage in food
activist projects that offer you opportunities to identify a client’s
needs and analyze audience, genre, and mode possibilities in order
to collaboratively produce public writing for a real audience.
Course objectives include:
• Communicate with a local community partner working on food
production for the 21st c or seeking to improve access for
under-resourced communities;
• Analyze and respond to a community partner’s interests and
writing needs;
• Design and compose a customized document or set of
documents suitable for a variety of professional writing
situations, such as a PR campaign, a policy brief and
accompanying white paper, or a grant proposal, in the voice of
an organization, incorporating feedback from the partner, your
peers, and me throughout the composing process.
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
• Recognize the affordances and limitations of various public
writing genres and articulate when particular communicative
strategies are appropriate;
• Adapt academic writing for public and online audiences, using
rhetorical and visual design principles;
• Identify and apply best practices of project management,
focusing on deliverables and benchmarking;
• Develop collaboration skills, such as teamwork and active
rhetorical listening;
• Critically consider the role rhetoric can play in social change.
The final public composition project will be a multimodal,
collaboratively-produced document or set of documents you can
add to your NSC writing portfolio and other public-facing
portfolios.
What I love about this course is that it complicates the idea of
audience, writer, and text so that it more closely matches
rhetorical situations outside of the university and asks us to
consider: how do we identify the audience and author in
collaboratively written, client-based writing contexts? As a class,
we will continue throughout the term to explore this and other
questions concerned with rhetorical situations. Ultimately, you will
gain new rhetorical listening strategies and understand the concept
of distributed expertise in complex ways.
Rhetoric is…
“…the art, practice, and
study of human
communication.” –Andrea
Lunsford
”…the study of
misunderstandings and
their remedies.”—I.A.
Richards
“…a form of reasoning
about probabilities, based
on assumptions people
share as members of a
community.”—Erika
Lindemann
”…the art of framing an
argument so that it can
be appreciated by an
audience.”—Philip
Johnson
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3. 3
My Teaching Philosophy: I extend the goal of
rhetorical acumen in all writing courses I develop,
for rhetorical acumen transcends disciplinary
genres to assist students in understanding the
rhetorical context of any writing or communicating
situation. Self-reflection aids students in
developing rhetorical knowledge, and this practice
extends to other aspects of my writing courses,
such as close reading, critical analysis, and
reflection and revision as part of the writing
process. My experience working in writing centers
also informs the ways I teach the writing process
and facilitate rhetorical knowledge. Two things I
emphasize throughout the term include: 1. writing
is not a solitary act; 2. the writing process must
always take into account the relationship between
author and audience.
The writing classroom I attempt to create with students is one that challenges
students to explore new knowledge about the world they inhabit. More
importantly, I encourage students to understand their rhetorical choices and
subsequent implications, and anticipate the audience’s reaction to each choice.
Multimodality offers a way for students to make new meaning, of themselves and
of their world. Cynthia Selfe has encouraged the creation of curriculum that
engages students in multiple modes of communication, “so that they can function
as literate citizens in a world where communications cross geopolitical, cultural,
and linguistic borders and are enriched rather than diminished by semiotic
dimensionality” (p. 618). I respond to Selfe’s call by crafting a multimodal
curriculum which positions students to not only function in more engaged ways
with their world but to also critique their world. My goal, as a teacher, is to help
students transform their composing practices so that they approach research,
writing, and representation in more inclusive and ethical ways as they strengthen
their rhetorical acumen.

4. Major
Projects
Public Rhetoric Strategy Analysis Paper and
Website: You will write an academic paper that
analyzes one particular strategy often used to
reach public audiences on the issues of food
economies, such as Twitter hashtag campaigns
or public service announcements. Then, you will
re-format your paper into a webpage for an
online audience in order to practice writing for
the web. Examples of this include analyses of
Pie Ranch’s public communication on their
Farmer Training Initiative, identifying their
intended audience and the strategies they use
to reach that audience.
Proposal PowerPoint: Our course’s community
partners have asked us to create public writing
projects for them, including videos, webpage
content, and newsletters. Collaborating with
your group, you will create a PowerPoint
presentation detailing your plan for your project
and present it to your non-profit partner for
feedback. This is a scaffolding assignment to
ensure open communication between the
community partner and your group.
Public Project: Based on the plan presented in
your group’s Proposal PowerPoint, your group
will create a written or multimodal composition
for your food economy organization that they
can use to influence a public audience here in
the Bay area and beyond.
Final Reflective Paper: Drawing on themes and
theories from the course, you will analyze your
major assignments and group collaboration
process, reflecting on five key takeaways from
the course and one goal for continued growth.
"...rhetoric is a mode of
altering reality, not by the
direct application of
energy to objects, but by
the creation of discourse
which changes reality
through the mediation of
thought and action.“—
Lloyd Bitzer
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Winter quarter timeline:*
Week 1: Introduction to course goals and objectives; community
partner visit; choose your community partner and collab group; first
draft of Public Rhetoric Strategy Analysis Paper and Website due early
week 2.
Week 2: Visit your community partner for info gathering and
brainstorming session. This will be a listening visit. First opportunity for
volunteer service. Final draft of Public Rhetoric Strategy Analysis Paper
and Website due end of week 2, along with reflection #1.
Week 3: First draft of Proposal PowerPoint due in class at end of week
3. You will receive feedback from me and your classmates. Skype or
conference call with your community partner to address any questions.
Week 4: Present Proposal PowerPoint to your community partners in
person. Take careful notes and ask to clarify any ambiguities, due dates,
missions and goals of the documents. Reflection #2 due at end of week.
Week 5: Begin drafting the Public Project. Conduct research, find
models, skype or conference call with community partner. Meet with
me for conferences.
*This is a skeleton of the course that details the major assignments and the points of
contact students will have with their community partners; daily in class activities, in class
assignments, and readings/viewings will be added.

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Winter quarter timeline cont’d:
Week 6: Present first draft of Public Project to you peers and to me.
Receive feedback from all of us. Set up volunteer visit if possible with
community partner for week 7.
Week 7: Present your revision of Public Project to community partner
at site. Take careful notes and ask to clarify any ambiguities, address
any changes. Second opportunity for volunteer service.
Week 8: Revision week. Consider multiple modalities, publishing
opportunities, frame alignment for amplification.
Week 9: Revision and reflection week; Present final draft of Public
Project to community partners. Receive and incorporate feedback.
Week 10: Complete reflection #3; Complete final revisions; Celebration
dinner/public works presentation with students and partners.

9. For potential community partners:
Your organization will have a team of 3-5 students dedicated to a
writing project you have identified. Each student will be expected
to work a total of 2-3 hours/week for ten weeks on the writing
project. Public projects will go through three drafts: first with
feedback from peers and the instructor; then with feedback from the
community partner; then a final draft presented at the end of the
quarter.
Public projects could include a set of documents, such as a policy
brief and a set of subsequent white papers; a PR campaign including
a podcast for public radio, a long-form journalistic piece, and press
release; a comparative study followed by grant proposals; a re-
vamping of a website.
Major projects include:
Proposal PowerPoint: After meeting with a community partner,
students will create a PowerPoint presentation detailing their plan
for drafting, soliciting feedback, and revising the project. This is a
scaffolding assignment to ensure open communication between the
community partner and student group, detailing benchmarks and
due dates.
Public Project: Based on the plan presented in the group’s Proposal
PowerPoint, each group will create a written or multimodal
composition for your community partner that they can use to
influence a public audience here in the Bay area and beyond.
Timeline and time commitment from community partner:
Week 1: Community partners to visit classroom and pitch their
mission, goals, and needs. (1.5 hrs)
Week 2: Site visit and first opportunity* for volunteer service. (2 hrs)
Week 3: Skype or conference call with your student group to address
any questions re upcoming proposal. (1 hr)
Week 4: Site visit to present Proposal PowerPoint. Second
opportunity to volunteer. (2 hrs)
Week 5: Skype or conference call with your student group to check in
progress. (1 hr)
Week 6: Mid term check in with instructor via conference call. (.5 hr)
Week 7: Site visit to present second draft of Public Project. Third
opportunity for volunteer service. (2 hrs)
Week 8: No obligation unless necessary.
Week 9: Site visit or skype to present final Public Project. (2 hrs)
Week 10: Celebration dinner/public works presentation on campus
with students and other community partners. (2 hrs)
*we welcome opportunities for students to volunteer at your organization and
have embedded possible times that coincide with information gathering and
presentation site visits.
Winter 2017 Dates:
Jan. 9th – March 15th
Mon & Wed., 1:30pm-
3:20pm
No class Jan. 16th & Feb. 20th
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PWR91: Farmers,
Scientists, &
Activists: Public
Discourse of Food
Economies
Contact Info:
Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, PhD
ecirillo@stanford.edu
520-302-9661