James Madison University

General Education: The Human Community

Dr. Margaret M. Mulrooney, Associate Vice Provost for University Programs

Mission Statement
In the liberal arts tradition, General Education: The Human Community aspires to create informed global
citizens of the 21st century. We challenge our community of students and faculty to engage in personal and
collective reflection, development, and action.

Philosophy
General Education: The Human Community is the core academic program of James Madison University in
which students come to understand how distinct disciplines look at the world from different vantage points.
Courses in The Human Community are organized into five clusters, each emphasizing unique tools,
rationales, and methodologies. Taken together, courses in a student's chosen major and The Human
Community complement and complete each other. Both are integral and essential components of a
student's full and proper education.

Goals
Students understand the historical and contemporary distinctions and interconnections among people,
institutions, and communities that create, preserve, and transmit culture and knowledge in the arts,
sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and humanities.

Students become skilled in questioning, investigating, analyzing, evaluating, and communicating.

Students participate in a variety of aesthetic and civic experiences reflecting human concerns and values
that transcend the limits of specialization.

Structure
The Human Community credit hour requirements are:

Cluster Credit Hours

Cluster One: Skills for the 21st Century 9 Credit Hours
Cluster Two: Arts and Humanities 9 Credit Hours
Cluster Three: The Natural World 10 Credit Hours
Cluster Four: Social and Cultural Processes 7 Credit Hours
Cluster Five: Individuals in the Human Community 6 Credit Hours
Total: 41 Credit Hours

<<http://catalog.jmu.edu/content.php?catoid=10&navoid=378>>

Course descriptions – WRTC (Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication)

<<http://catalog.jmu.edu/content.php?
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First-Year Writing Program

Overview of what you’ll learn in WRTC 103

courses:
We’re writing more than we ever have before, and in ways that were unthinkable only a
decade ago. In any one day, you may take notes on paper, draft an assignment on your
computer, answer emails, text with friends, and post status updates on Facebook. You’ll
probably move fluidly between many writing spaces such as your phone, laptop, notepad, or
tablet. These technologies offer you opportunities to express yourself in many ways beyond
the written word.

In this course, you’ll be paying close attention to where and how writers compose every day.
You will think broadly about literacy skills, exploring how digital forms of expression augment
and expand the writing skills you developed in high school. You will learn to think critically
and creatively about writing by closely reading texts in a variety of styles, genres, and media.
By figuring out how these texts work, you will develop writing strategies that enable you to
confidently craft the right message at the right time, no matter what situation you may find
yourself in. To achieve these goals, this course will emphasize the following:

Rhetoric and Argument:

At its foundation, this course begins with rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Close reading and
focused writing assignments will provide you with the tools to confidently understand the role
of the writer, the purpose of documents, and the contexts and audience expectations within
which documents are produced. You will learn how to employ persuasive appeals (such as
ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos) and to use the kinds of arguments that matter most in your
scholarly work and future career.

Writing and Research as Process:

You will develop a repertoire of writing strategies based on what our discipline knows about
the best practices of successful writers. From invention and effective research to evaluation
and revision of a draft, you will have opportunities to learn how to find valued research and
evidence that will help you to rethink ideas and learn from the research you gather and then
to draw on that research when expressing your own ideas. You will carefully consider how a
document’s structure and arrangement help you to persuade your intended audience. You
will have opportunities to learn strategies for revising your work in substantive ways, and for
offering feedback on others’ works-in-progress.
Collaboration:
Writers need to be able to work with other writers—whether responding to authors with
insightful tips that help them to refine their arguments, or composing collaborative projects
with others. For this reason, you will be encouraged in this course to comment on others’
assignments and work in teams on one or more writing projects.
Twenty-First Century Literacies:
Technology can never be separated from the writing process. Today’s “app” driven world is
providing so many new ways to write and connect with audiences that it’s impossible to keep
up. Although this course will give you skills and experience with specific technologies, it will
help you to “think with” emerging technologies so that you will have the confidence to
embrace any writing challenge. To accomplish this aim, we encourage you to experiment
with and use a variety of digital technologies to develop real-world writing projects for
audiences both on campus and beyond.

<<https://www.jmu.edu/wrtc/students/undergraduate/first-year-writing-
program.shtml>>