Department of English
Minor in Communication and Public Advocacy
Students on Summer 2020, Fall 2020, or Spring 2021 requirements COPUADVMIN
Requirements
The minor requires at least 15 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.
- Communication and Public Advocacy. Two (2) courses:
- ENG-R 201 Professional Speaking
- ENG-R 209 Topics in Rhetoric and Public Culture
- ENG-R 210 Introduction to Digital Rhetoric
- ENG-R 211 Rhetoric and Sports
- ENG-R 212 Communicating Sustainability
- ENG-R 214 Feminist Rhetoric and Public Issues
- ENG-R 222 Democratic Deliberation
- ENG-R 223 Group Communication
- ENG-R 224 Persuasion
- ENG-R 228 Argumentation and Public Advocacy
- ENG-W 231 Professional Writing Skills
- ENG-W 240 Community Service Writing
- ENG-W 241 Collaborative Digital Writing
- ENG-W 270 Argumentative Writing
- Any course from the Advanced Electives list below
ENG-R 201 Professional Speaking
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Covers skills necessary to succeed in professional and non-profit environments, including the use of presentation aids, interviewing strategies, the ability to present complex information in an easy to digest way, and making concise and persuasive arguments. Recommended for students looking to enter professional, non-profit, or public policy fields after graduation.
ENG-R 209 Topics in Rhetoric and Public Culture
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines how rhetorical practice shapes public culture. May focus on a medium or mode of rhetorical practice, such as documentary film, social movement, or political speech; a theme or issue, such as race, gender, or democracy; or a particular historical period. Topic varies.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum total of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 209 and ENG-R 209.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 210 Introduction to Digital Rhetoric
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Workshop-oriented course exploring new forms of writing, interaction, and design for rhetorical purposes and digital environments. Emphasis on producing, interpreting, and analyzing traditional and emerging texts and technologies.
ENG-R 211 Rhetoric and Sports
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines how discourse shapes—and is shaped by—sports culture. Uses a variety of rhetorical frames to analyze historical and contemporary sports communication, contextualize sports events and discourse in relation to particular socio-politico moments, and craft sophisticated responses (across media) to sports-oriented exigencies.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 212 Communicating Sustainability
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- 'Sustainability' is the capacity to negotiate environmental, social, and economic needs and desires for current and future generations. Traces historical and global discourses of sustainability; defines key terms and frames sustainability; engages related concepts of democracy, citizenship, and community; and develops critical thinking, research, and communication skills.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 212 or ENG-R 212.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourseSpring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
ENG-R 214 Feminist Rhetoric and Public Issues
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores how various kinds of feminist rhetoric address key public issues. Examines how feminist rhetorical strategies are influenced by feminist traditions, seeking to answer: What does "feminism" mean today? Is there even a single meaning? These questions will be addressed in the context of controversial high-profile public issues.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 222 Democratic Deliberation
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Principles and practices of deliberation that enrich democratic culture in civic affairs.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 222 or ENG-R 222.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 223 Group Communication
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores how to be good and effective members of a group or team, how to occupy different group communication roles skillfully, how to build toward an ideal of democratic participation and decision-making, and how to become reflective about communication processes.
ENG-R 224 Persuasion
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Motivational appeals in influencing behavior; psychological factors in speaker-audience relationship; contemporary examples of persuasion. Practice in persuasive speaking.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 324 or ENG-R 224.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 228 Argumentation and Public Advocacy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Reasoning, evidence, and argument in public discourse. Study of forms of argument. Practice in argumentative speaking.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 228 or ENG-R 228.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-W 231 Professional Writing Skills
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Completion of the English composition requirement
- Description
- Designed to develop research and writing skills requisite for most academic and professional activities. Emphasis on methods of research, organization, and writing techniques useful in preparing reviews, critical bibliographies, research and technical reports, proposals, and papers.
ENG-W 240 Community Service Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Completion of the English composition requirement
- Description
- Integrates service with learning to develop research and writing skills requisite for most academic and professional activities. Students volunteer at a community service agency, write an assignment for public use by the agency, and perform coursework culminating in a research paper on a related social issue.
ENG-W 241 Collaborative Digital Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Completion of the English Composition requirement
- Description
- Workshop-oriented class integrates service learning and digital forms of public and professional writing through online collaboration. Seeks to address real community needs through research and writing while also creating portfolios that showcase writing produced both individually and with project collaborators.
ENG-W 270 Argumentative Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Completion of the English composition requirement
- Description
- Offers instruction and practice in writing argumentative essays about complicated and controversial issues. Focuses on strategies for identifying issues, assessing claims, locating evidence, deciding on a position, and writing papers with clear assertions and convincing arguments.
- Advanced Electives. Three (3) courses:
- ENG-R 301 Advocacy and Debate
- ENG-R 305 Rhetorical Criticism
- ENG-R 321 Rhetoric, Law, and Culture
- ENG-R 323 Speech Composition
- ENG-R 330 Science, Advocacy, and the Public
- ENG-R 339 Freedom of Speech
- ENG-R 340 The Rhetoric of Social Movements
- ENG-R 342 Rhetoric and Race
- ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
- ENG-R 355 Public Memory in Communication and Culture
- ENG-R 396 The Study of Public Advocacy
- ENG-R 397 Visual Rhetoric
- ENG-R 398 Culture, Identity, and the Rhetoric of Place
- ENG-W 321 Advanced Technical Writing
- ENG-W 350 Advanced Expository Writing
ENG-R 301 Advocacy and Debate
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Covers the role of debate in public life and its applications for public advocacy and democratic institutions. Students will read foundational theories of the role of debate in democratic societies and engage in multiple competitive debates against other classmates. Culminates in a group advocacy campaign related to the topics debated over the course of the semester.
ENG-R 305 Rhetorical Criticism
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- The development of standards for evaluating and methods of analyzing rhetorical texts. Significant historical and contemporary texts are studied to exemplify critical principles.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 305 or ENG-R 305.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourseSpring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
ENG-R 321 Rhetoric, Law, and Culture
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the range of ways in which rhetoric, law, and culture intersect in the production and maintenance of social and political community.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 321 or ENG-R 321.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 323 Speech Composition
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Focuses on speech content as well as the theory and practice of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speaking. Topics include the principles of organization, exposition, and argumentation, and language and style.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 330 Science, Advocacy, and the Public
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores the ways that scientists can better communicate their research and concerns to the public. Covers topics related to public perceptions of science, examines how best to present and explain research to non-expert audiences through both speaking and writing, and explores recent public and scientific controversies.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 339 Freedom of Speech
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- An examination of the concept of freedom of speech as a historical, philosophical, legal, and rhetorical concept.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 339 or ENG-R 339.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 340 The Rhetoric of Social Movements
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Introduces rhetorical theories and practices which inform and are informed by the study of social movements. Topics vary and focus on a specific social movement or a range of social movements.
- Repeatability
- May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum total of 6 credit hours in CMCL-C 340 and ENG-R 340.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 342 Rhetoric and Race
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Explores the relationship between rhetoric and race, including the possibilities and implications entailed by an understanding of race as a rhetorical artifact, and rhetoric as a necessarily raced phenomenon.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 342 or ENG-R 342.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourseSpring 2025CASE DUScourseFall 2024CASE DUScourse
ENG-R 348 Environmental Communication
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- This class is grounded in the perspective that symbolic and natural systems are mutually constituted and therefore, the ways we communicate about and with the environment are vital to examine for a sustainable and just future. The focus of the class may vary to engage topics such as environmental tourism or environmental disasters.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 348 or ENG-R 348.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourseSpring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
ENG-R 355 Public Memory in Communication and Culture
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Examines the contested nature of public memory from a communication and culture perspective. Focuses on the nature of public memory, its methods of perpetuation, its role in shaping citizens, and its implications for society.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 355 or ENG-R 355.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourseSpring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
ENG-R 396 The Study of Public Advocacy
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Study of great rhetorical works in English. Focus on understanding the nature and role of public discourse in addressing significant human concerns.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 406 or ENG-R 396.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourseSpring 2025CASE SHcourseFall 2024CASE SHcourse
ENG-R 397 Visual Rhetoric
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Focuses on distinctive rhetorical features of visual discourse to examine the political, cultural, persuasive, and ideological functions of media images in United States' public culture. Explores examples from advertising, journalism, and entertainment across media, including print, television, and film. Interrogates the consequences of conducting public communication through commodified imagery for contemporary social life.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 432 or ENG-R 397.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-R 398 Culture, Identity, and the Rhetoric of Place
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- None
- Description
- Invites advanced undergraduate students to consider the rhetorical dimensions of places with a particular focus on theories of culture and identity (e.g., race, gender, and nationality). Students will critically examine how places are the product of strategic communication choices that have been made to influence how human beings think and behave.
- Repeatability
- Credit given for only one of CMCL-C 425 or ENG-R 398.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourseSpring 2025CASE AHcourseFall 2024CASE AHcourse
ENG-W 321 Advanced Technical Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- ENG-W 231
- Description
- Offers instruction in preparing technical proposals and reports, with an introduction to the use of graphics.
ENG-W 350 Advanced Expository Writing
- Credits
- 3
- Prerequisites
- Completion of the English composition requirement
- Description
- Advanced writing course focuses on the interconnected activities of writing and reading, especially the kinds of responding, analyzing, and evaluating that characterize work in many fields in the university. Topics vary from semester to semester.
- Minor GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
- Minor GPA. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the minor—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
- Minor Minimum Grade. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
- Minor Upper Division Credit Hours. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300–499 level.
- Minor Residency. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
Minor Area Courses
-
Unless otherwise noted below, the following courses are considered in the academic program and will count toward academic program requirements as appropriate:
- Any course contained on the course lists for the academic program requirements at the time the course is taken—as well as any other courses that are deemed functionally equivalent—except for those listed only under Addenda Requirements
- Any course directed to a non-Addenda requirement through an approved exception
This program of study cannot be combined with the following:
- Bachelor of Arts in African American and African Diaspora Studies and English (AAADENGBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in English (ENGBA)
- Bachelor of Arts in English and African American and African Diaspora Studies (ENGAAADBA)
Exceptions to and substitutions for minor requirements may be made with the approval of the unit's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.