Student Sound Projects

The following student projects are part of the “Sound and Writing” course (English 2000) at The University of Missouri. For this project, students recorded an audio version of their essays on cultural sounds.

Andrew L., “The Sounds of (the) Country.” Andrew’s essay is about the kinds of sounds that were important to the teens who grew up in his small rural town.

James C., “On Musical Persona.” James’ essay theorizes the ways that we create and share our musical personae with each other.

Jessica P., “Work Sounds.” Jessica discusses the gendered sounds of working in the service industry–especially the sound of women’s voices as they “wait” on others.

CCCC Panel

Sound, Word, and World: The Intersection of Audio and Writing Studies
Session: L.13 on Apr 5, 2008 from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM Cluster: 106) Information Technologies
Type: Concurrent Session (3 or more presenters) Interest Emphasis: not applicable
Level Emphasis: all Focus: not applicable
Panel Description:
Despite the growth of accessible audio technologies like podcasting, audio is still a marginal topic within the writing classroom. Composition teachers are often more comfortable talking about writing as a text-based phenomenon. At the same time, many composition theorists recognize that writing is as much a sonic practice as a textual one. We teach, work, learn, and live in a world of competing sounds. As writing instructors, we can enhance student engagement with the world by addressing the effects of audio rhetoric.This panel introduces three different ways of thinking about sound and writing. Each of the panelists offers perspective on how writing with sound can connect students to the worlds around them. The audience will hear from two compositionists who teach audio as a form of writing, as well as a professional documentarian whose work is regularly featured in such venues as National Public Radio, American RadioWorks, and Youth Radio. All three presenters will offer examples of audio projects produced by students-projects that reflect how writing can circulate (can be “heard”) outside the classroom. The different dimensions of this panel will offer the audience both a theoretical context and a practical discussion for teaching writing through audio technologies.

Courses, Spring 2008

English 2000:1 Sound and Writing
MWF 11:00-11:50

English 4970:3 Modern Rhetorical Theories
MW 2:00-3:15

Courses, Fall 2007

English 3010: Documenting Your World

This course could also be called “Experimental Rhetorical Research,” since we will be writing and thinking about topics that have never been charted before (at least not in the precise ways they’ll be addressed by you). This is an advanced writing course that focuses on the methods, creative possibilities, and rhetorical insights of documentary genres.

Each student will be responsible for creating a unique project that documents a specific aspect of life in Columbia, Missouri. Places are complex layers of events, bodies, stories, images, happenings, legends, and relations. As a documentary writer, you will track some of these complexities that have remained undercover for too long. Moreover, you will not just make the “strange” more familiar; you will actually make the “familiar” a bit more strange.