Writing & Rhetoric Studies

In 2024, Utah adopted into law HB 261, "Equal Opportunity Initiatives." This law restricts the university's efforts to further "diversity, equity, and inclusion" under that name. The closure of the LGBT Resource Center, the Women’s Resource Center, the Black Cultural Center, and the Center for Equity and Student Belonging were some of the most immediate impacts. While we recognize that our words alone do not undo the effects and consequences of HB 261 that will unevenly impact the students we serve, as a Department we find it imperative now more than ever to assure all students of our commitments, responsibilities, and obligations. 

As a Department, we will continue to welcome students of all backgrounds and continue to embrace our differences as we work toward pedagogical justice and fairness in our instructional practices. These ethical dimensions of teaching and learning in civic education have long been central to intellectual inquiry in the field of writing & rhetoric studies. Decades of scholarship in the humanities demonstrate that students benefit when differences are recognized and valued, when learners’ distinctive needs are met, when no one’s access to opportunity is constrained, and when the cultural perspectives of people from underrepresented groups are interwoven rather than marginalized. We offer this statement as the opening of an ongoing, collaborative conversation between faculty, staff, and students within our Department.

AI Writing Tools

The introduction of new communication technologies often generates and increases anxiety. When composing on computers was introduced, people continued to worry about the new tools of writing. Spell check, Grammarly, email, and computers in the classroom, for example, were criticized for taking away people’s ability to spell, remember grammar lessons, or focus in class. Now we consider not just writing, but all of these tools to be helpful if not necessary ways of interacting with language and each other. When people learn to use writing and its tools effectively, writing becomes a powerful instrument for composition and for learning. Consistently focusing on invention strategies, drafting, and revision will complicate students' interactions with such tools as ChatGPT and help them learn how and when to use them. We understand the campus community’s concerns about the misuse and abuse of AI tools, and we pledge to work with our colleagues to address them. However, we recognize the opportunity that these new tools offer in terms of teaching and learning. 

Goals and Values

The Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies reaffirms that teaching writing in all its modalities means engaging students in the writing process by helping them see writing as invention, as intervention, as transformation—in a word, as learning. We teach students not just how to write, but when to write, for what audience, with what purpose, and yes, with which tools. We teach students to consider genre, audience, and purpose and to respect the social and linguistic diversity embedded and circulated in our own department and across the curriculum. We see writing as an integral part of student success in all university contexts and classes that teach and require written texts. Learning to write requires the development of critical tools that help students problematize the structures and the force of writing itself. We teach students how to critically engage with the tools of writing, such as ChatGPT, and their social and pragmatic implications. The Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah creates a space for students to gain facility with writing technologies while they learn to understand the implications, promise, power, and responsibility of using such tools.