I thought a picture of an aerial view of JMU’s campus is appropriate for a couple of reasons. First, all Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication undergraduate students must meet the program’s “depth requirement” by “declaring a minor or a second major to meet the depth requirement.” Also, graduate students also have an option to take cognate courses outside WRTC. During their WRTC career, students will be exposed to classes outside of the department. Essentially, this requirement opens up the whole campus to students. I think this is something that should be emphasized by the program. In my experiences as an undergraduate here in a different major, other programs don’t require students to expand their academic horizons. And in today’s tough job market, I think that is something to stress.
While glue–stick collages aren’t necessarily professional, I felt this photo conveyed WRTC’s mission statement quite well. Collages are works of art that is made up of material usually not associated with each other. Just as the student in the picture sifts through a pile of words, phrases, and icons in order to arrange the items on a poster, a WRTC student can combine his or her interests into a finished product—a WRTC degree.
Two very good points: first, the aerial is a good choice because, yes, it does represent WRTC's desire to link students with other disciplines. But it also emphasizes internships and practica--getting the students out of the classroom, off of campus, and into some real-world work. Second, you're right, not exactly professional, but the collages are another form of rhetoric that demontrates how we as communicators can tap into various possibilities of getting work done, of representing ideas, and of articulating them.
ReplyDelete