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Innis College Courses

Innis College First-Year Foundations

INI196H1 - Environmental Writing

INI196H1 - Environmental Writing
Hours: 24L

From environmental disasters and ecological collapse to climate change denial and celebrations of nature and wilderness, we will explore the diverse ways humans imagine and write about the natural world and the consequences of such writing. We will study a variety of nonfiction texts, images, and videos about ecology, the environment, nature, wilderness, and sustainability as we consider what these terms mean. From the 19th century American transcendentalists to 20th century ecologists, and 21st century scientific, Indigenous, feminist, and anti-racist perspectives, we will analyze the many ways that humans use writing to argue for certain ways of seeing and interacting with our planet and the creatures that inhabit it. Through weekly reading, written reflections, and discussion, students will hone their deep reading, research, and writing skills. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Innis One Courses

INI100H1 - The City Where Movies Are Made

INI100H1 - The City Where Movies Are Made
Hours: 36S

In this course, first-year students will be introduced to film culture in Toronto from a variety of angles, including: a history of the city onscreen (both as itself and as a popular shooting location for American productions); an account of major Toronto filmmaking sites and institutions; introductions to local directors and producers; and overviews of contemporary local film festival culture (TIFF and beyond) as well as the city’s film-critical community. Through a combination of lectures, screenings, field trips and special guest speakers, the students will be moved to consider both the vitality of Toronto’s film scene as well as its connections to other aspects of the city. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

INI101H1 - Writing, Advocacy, and Social Media

INI101H1 - Writing, Advocacy, and Social Media
Hours: 36S

An introduction to the concept of the city as a creative environment promoting not only growth and wealth but also social justice, equality, cooperation, and civility. Students will learn to build their own writing practice to help them to observe, interpret, and reflect upon the process of urban interaction and the relationship between creativity and justice. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

INI102H1 - Storytelling Through Creative Nonfiction

INI102H1 - Storytelling Through Creative Nonfiction
Hours: 36S

An introduction to creative writing techniques and various forms of creative nonfiction (personal essay, biographical essay, flash nonfiction, lyric essay, visual essay, and other experimental forms) through which students will explore and develop their conscious connection to the natural-urban landscape. The course will include activities such as field trips, readings, interviews, and journaling to generate the material for essays on engagement with nature in the city. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

INI105H1 - Nature and the City

INI105H1 - Nature and the City
Hours: 36S

This course introduces first-year students to nature in the city from a variety of perspectives: from contemplative to activist discourse, private gardens to public parks, and biodiversity to inequality. Through texts, images, films, and field trips, students will figuratively and literally explore the city and its relationship to the natural, the wild, and other contested ideas. Students write weekly journals in response to the course materials from which they develop a term project that focuses on an aspect of nature in the city.

Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

INI106H1 - Storytelling through Literary Journalism

INI106H1 - Storytelling through Literary Journalism
Hours: 36S

An introduction to literary journalism, in which students study the craft of storytelling along with interviewing, reporting, and the journalist’s ethical stance. Guest speakers, field trips, writing activities and course readings will help students engage deeply with their environment and develop the skills and sensitivity required for literary reporting. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Writing and Rhetoric Courses

WRR103H1 - Introduction to Academic Writing

WRR103H1 - Introduction to Academic Writing
Previous Course Number: INI103H1
Hours: 36L

This course introduces students to the strategies and practices of successful writing at the university and beyond. WRR103H1 challenges students to reflect on and cultivate their strengths as readers and writers as they enter the university. Students will develop their critical reading abilities and written communication skills through meaningful writing projects in diverse genres, including multimodal composition.

Exclusion: INI103H1
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR104H1 - Writing Reports

WRR104H1 - Writing Reports
Previous Course Number: INI104H1
Hours: 36S

Students will learn the fundamentals of report writing, including how to write abstracts and conduct literature reviews as well as qualitative and quantitative research. Students also learn to communicate visually, including how to create tables, charts, and graphs with attention to purpose, audience, structure, style, skills they apply to a formal report and a poster presentation.

Exclusion: INI104H1
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR201H1 - Theories of Rhetoric: A Brief History of Persuasion

WRR201H1 - Theories of Rhetoric: A Brief History of Persuasion
Previous Course Number: INI201H1
Hours: 36S

When contemporary critics seek to discredit dishonest politicians, they tend to refer to their discourse as “mere rhetoric.” But there is so much more to rhetoric than deception. This course examines the history of rhetoric, the art of persuasion, from its birth in Greco-Roman antiquity to its rebirth in twentieth and twenty-first century thought. In addition to tracking the history of Western ideas about persuasion, we will bring rhetorical theories to bear on vital questions about philosophy, psychology, media, and advertising.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI201H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

JWE206H1 - Writing English Essays

JWE206H1 - Writing English Essays
Previous Course Number: JEI206H1
Hours: 24L/12T

This course teaches students who already write effectively how to write clear, compelling, research-informed English essays. The course aims to help students recognize the function of grammar and rhetoric, the importance of audience, and the persuasive role of style.

Prerequisite: Completion of 1.0 ENG credit or any 4.0 credits
Exclusion: JEI206H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR211H1 - Introduction to Creative Writing

WRR211H1 - Introduction to Creative Writing
Previous Course Number: INI211H1
Hours: 36S

This introductory course focuses on the process and craft of creative writing. Students will study short fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry by established writers, and learn to respond to works-in-progress by their peers. A variety of activities will help students generate, develop, and revise a portfolio of original creative work.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI211H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR300H1 - Strategic Writing in Business and the Professions: Theory and Practice

WRR300H1 - Strategic Writing in Business and the Professions: Theory and Practice
Previous Course Number: INI300H1
Hours: 36S

Students learn the theory and practice of effective and ethical communication in the workplace, including business, government, and non-profit organizations. Students apply ethical reasoning models to case studies. Students have an opportunity to work directly with a community partner, helping them to solve an industry-specific problem or concern. This experiential learning enables students to work together as a team to develop relevant solutions as they strengthen their written and verbal communication skills.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI300H1, INI302H1, WRR302H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR302H1 - Writing in Business and the Professions for Rotman Commerce Students

WRR302H1 - Writing in Business and the Professions for Rotman Commerce Students
Previous Course Number: INI302H1
Hours: 24L/12T

Designed for and restricted to Rotman Commerce undergraduates, the course reflects the program’s learning goals, which include critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and business and professional communication (oral and written). Students apply business communication theory and ethical reasoning models to business cases. Students have an opportunity to work directly with a community partner, helping them to solve an industry-specific problem or concern. This experiential learning enables students to work together as a team to develop relevant solutions as they strengthen their written and verbal communication skills

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI300H1, INI302H1, WRR300H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR303H1 - Digital Rhetoric

WRR303H1 - Digital Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI303H1
Hours: 36S

This course explores the pivotal role that media plays in our culture. Beginning with U of T rhetorician Marshall McLuhan’s far-reaching ideas about media environments, WRR303H1 takes students on a journey through a wide variety of ideas about media, technology, and rhetoric. Topics include the rhetorical dimensions of social media platforms, the strengths and shortcomings of online activism, the emergence of surveillance capitalism, and the operation of persuasion in dating apps.

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI303H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR305H1 - Word and Image in Modern Writing

WRR305H1 - Word and Image in Modern Writing
Previous Course Number: INI305H1
Hours: 36S

This course examines the persuasive power of writing about visual art and texts. Students will analyze a variety of texts about visual images from several disciplines and genres: journalism, informal essays, poetry, and scholarly writing.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI305H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR306H1 - Writing About Plants and the Environment

WRR306H1 - Writing About Plants and the Environment
Hours: 36S

This course uses rhetoric, the study of persuasion, to analyze the cultural, political, and scientific importance of plants. We examine Indigenous knowledge related to plants and the environment as well as debates about plant communication, urban tree coverage and inequality, and environmental justice issues. We also explore the social and health benefits of community gardening, horticultural therapy, and forest bathing. Students reflect on their own relation to land as they deepen their knowledge and appreciation of plants and develop expertise in communicating with public audiences through multimodal writing projects (such as podcasts and video essays) and local field trips.

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Exclusion: WRR308H1 (Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Writing About Plants and the Environment) offered in Fall 2023 and Winter 2023.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR307H1 - Rhetoric of Health and Medicine

WRR307H1 - Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
Hours: 36S

Since its inception, rhetoric has been concerned with persuasion and its relationship to human flourishing. This course brings rhetorical thought into important dialogue with health research, medical practices, and pharmaceutical advertising. Medicalized phenomena—like hypochondria, depression, sexual dysfunction, and death & dying—are all bound up with influence. A rhetorical perspective on health and wellness tracks this influence through networks of individuals, institutions, texts, media forms, genres, and narratives.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI308H1 (Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine) offered in Fall 2019, and WRR308H1 (Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine) offered in Winter 2022
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR308H1 - Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR308H1 - Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI308H1
Hours: 24S

Courses on selected topics in Writing and Rhetoric.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR309H1 - Professional Communication with Environmental Groups

WRR309H1 - Professional Communication with Environmental Groups
Hours: 36S

Given the climate crisis, how do environmental groups use communication to advance their aims? In this community-engaged learning course, students work with environmental organizations on professional communication projects. Students learn about rhetoric and communication as they refine and reflect on their writing processes and practice writing in multiple genres. Students create a variety of multimodal communication projects such as social media and web content for community partners. Through readings, reflection, discussion, and projects involving feedback from peers, instructor, and community partners, students learn principles and strategies to inform and persuade a variety of audiences about environmental issues.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR310H1 - Stylistic Editing and Copy Editing

WRR310H1 - Stylistic Editing and Copy Editing
Previous Course Number: INI310H1
Hours: 36S

This course introduces students to professional editorial conventions at two later stages of the editorial process. Both stages require analytical skills and sentence expertise. Through stylistic editing, students learn how to improve a writer’s literary style; through copy editing, they learn how to ensure both accuracy and consistency (editorial style).

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI310H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR311H1 - Seminar in Creative Writing – Fiction

WRR311H1 - Seminar in Creative Writing – Fiction
Previous Course Number: WRR311Y1, INI311Y1
Hours: 36S

This workshop-based course teaches students about the creative writing process and the fundamentals of writing fiction specifically. Through readings of fiction in various genres, discussions, creative writing prompts and longer assignments, students learn how storytellers work with setting, character, scenes, structure, point-of-view, style and other elements. Students will learn how to take creative risks and grow through writing fiction, how to develop solid work from shaky drafts, how to be generous yet shrewd editors of their own and others’ work, and how and why to be active in a writing community.

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits
Exclusion: WRR311Y1, INI311Y1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR312H1 - Writing Literary Journalism

WRR312H1 - Writing Literary Journalism
Hours: 36L

This course introduces students to works by some of the most influential literary journalists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Classes will be devoted to individual literary-journalistic genres: the personal essay, the profile, the polemic, the memoir, literary reportage, and cultural criticism. Students will look closely at key writers who worked across these genres: George Orwell, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates. Over the semester, students will develop and write a feature-length work of literary journalism in a genre of their choice, to be refined through peer workshop and instructor feedback.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI308H1 (Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Writing Literary Journalism), offered in Summer 2021
Recommended Preparation: Experience or strong interest in writing journalism.
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR313H1 - Visual Rhetoric

WRR313H1 - Visual Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI413H1, WRR413H1
Hours: 36L

This course examines how images and objects communicate with and persuade viewers. Visual rhetoric is part of the broader academic field known as rhetorical studies. This course will introduce students to the “language” of display, exploring questions such as the following: How does physical arrangement, context, and architectural space give voice to the silent object? How are fine art and decorative art objects invested with meaning? Students will be introduced to object-based learning and material culture and learn to analyze and interpret visual grammar in international exhibitions, in auction and exhibition catalogues, in reviews of exhibits, and in museum collections. Objects will include ceramics, jewellery, interiors, architecture, and fashion in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI413H1, WRR413H1
Recommended Preparation: WRR103H1/ WRR203H1/ WRR204H1
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

WRR315H1 - Writing from Territory: Creative Writing in Fiction and Nonfiction

WRR315H1 - Writing from Territory: Creative Writing in Fiction and Nonfiction
Hours: 36S

This course guides students in a creative writing process that is engaged with place and time. Classes are held outdoors at various locations in Toronto. Through guided writing activities, discussions, assignments and writing workshops, students learn how writing grounded in and informed by territory can expand their work, adding intimacy, immediacy, authenticity and depth. Readings and techniques are drawn from literary fiction of different genres (e.g., realism, speculative, YA, fantasy), and a range of creative nonfiction. Students are invited to explore any genre.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: WRR308H1 (Selected Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Writing From Territory: Creative Writing in Fiction and Nonfiction) offered in Summer 2023
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR316H1 - Developmental and Substantive Editing

WRR316H1 - Developmental and Substantive Editing
Previous Course Number: INI316H1
Hours: 36S

This course introduces professional editorial conventions at two early stages of the editorial process. Both stages require editors to think critically and creatively as they assess content, organization, and argument. Students learn how to analyze and evaluate these elements, envision possible improvements, and explain these suggestions persuasively.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: INI316H1
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR317H1 - Advanced Academic Writing

WRR317H1 - Advanced Academic Writing
Previous Course Number: WRR203H1
Hours: 36S

The course covers various kinds of academic writing, including the essay, the long form book review, the annotated bibliography, and the undergraduate thesis. Students learn to recognize the rhetorical frames, persuasive strategies, elements of style, and uses of scholarly evidence that are features of academic writing. Readings include academic and non-academic prose from a variety of disciplines. Through reading, research, reflection, writing, and citation of sources, students learn to engage in the scholarly conversation that is foundational to all advanced academic writing. Students will develop voices as writers in dialogue with other writers, scholars, and commentators.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Exclusion: WRR203H1
Recommended Preparation: Any first or second-year writing course.
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

JWB318H1 - The Art of Journalism: Literary Approaches to Reporting

JWB318H1 - The Art of Journalism: Literary Approaches to Reporting
Hours: 36S

Journalism largely goes unconsidered as a subject for literary analysis, the writing dismissed as formulaic and artless. But from the genre’s inception, there have been writers who approached it as a literary endeavour, committed to not just telling true stories about the world around us but doing so in ways that captivate and engage a reader’s imagination, with all the nuance and precision that literary techniques can afford. In this course, we will read and consider canonical works of journalism from the last 75 years, discussing them as literary works as well as exploring the reporting methods they draw on and the ethical questions they raise. Students will have a choice of assignment tracks, and either develop their own literary reporting projects or write analyses of the works we study.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

WRR319H1 - Rhetoric of Race

WRR319H1 - Rhetoric of Race
Hours: 36L

This course will introduce students to an array of thinkers who scrutinize the history of rhetoric and communication from the standpoints of critical race studies. Over the last decade, scholars working in the field of rhetorical studies have dedicated a great deal of attention to the importance of race to critical interrogations of communication. Black and Indigenous scholars, in particular, have been at the forefront of thinking about communication through the lens of race. From persuasive oratory to recent calls for a rhetoric of sovereignty, the rhetoric of race takes up the intersections of communication, justice, and history. This course provides students with an opportunity to reflect on traditional rhetorical concerns about persuasion and influence in relation to colonialism, systemic racial prejudice, and conceptions of social justice.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

WRR405Y1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR405Y1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI405Y1

Independent research projects devised by students and supervised by the Writing and Rhetoric staff. Open only to students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric Program. Applications should be submitted to the Program Director by June 1 for a Fall session course or by November 1 for a Spring session course. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit from WRR103H1/ WRR104H1, WRR201H1, WRR203H1, WRR303H1, WRR305H1, WRR413H1, WRR414H1
Exclusion: INI405Y1

WRR406H1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR406H1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI406H1

Independent research projects devised by students and supervised by the Writing and Rhetoric staff. Open only to students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric Program. Applications should be submitted to the Program Director by June 1 for a Fall session course or by November 1 for a Spring session course. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit from WRR103H1/ WRR104H1, WRR201H1, WRR203H1, WRR303H1, WRR305H1, WRR413H1, WRR414H1
Exclusion: INI406H1

WRR407H1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR407H1 - Independent Studies in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI407H1

Independent research projects devised by students and supervised by the Writing and Rhetoric staff. Open only to students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric Program. Applications should be submitted to the Program Director by June 1 for a Fall session course or by November 1 for a Spring session course. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Prerequisite: 1.0 credit from WRR103H1/ WRR104H1, WRR201H1, WRR203H1, WRR303H1, WRR305H1, WRR413H1, WRR414H1
Exclusion: INI407H1

WRR408Y1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR408Y1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI408Y1

Seminars in special topics designed for students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric.

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

WRR409H1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR409H1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI409H1
Hours: 36S

Seminars in special topics designed for students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric.

Prerequisite: Completion of 9.0 credits

WRR410H1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric

WRR410H1 - Special Topics in Writing and Rhetoric
Previous Course Number: INI410H1
Hours: 36S

Seminars in special topics designed for students who are completing the Minor Program in Writing and Rhetoric.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits

WRR414H1 - Writing for Social Change

WRR414H1 - Writing for Social Change
Previous Course Number: INI414H1
Hours: 36S

We will read and write a variety of texts focused on understanding and effecting social change. Students will be encouraged to engage with different theories of social change and an array of writing genres, ranging from journalism to critical theory to fiction. Ultimately, students will focus on one or several key social issues that they wish to write about for their final project.

Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 credits
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

Other Innis College Courses

INI299Y1 - Research Opportunity Program

INI299Y1 - Research Opportunity Program

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

INI399Y1 - Research Opportunity Program

INI399Y1 - Research Opportunity Program

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities…. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

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