Over the past few years, as I've written about Singles Studies, I've sought to integrate it into my writing classes. My students are quite perceptive about these issues, and they have a wide variety of opinions. The pieces I've posted are well-written and pro-single. With their permission, I'm posting their work here.
Jason Ramsey - It's The End of Marriage As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) In the Fall of 2023, students wrote an essay for my IGED 111: Foundational Writing in the Natural and Social Sciences in which they answered the question: Are declining marriage rates good, bad, or somewhere in between? Most opinions lay in the middle, but there were a couple of outliers on both sides. Jason's essay stands out for its well-reasoned arguments (and bonus points for the REM reference). It also won our English Program's Charles Lund Freshman Writing Prize for the 2023-24 academic year.
Tetiana Kuvshynova - Singlism: An Age-Old Problem with a Modern Name In the Spring of 2024, I adjusted that course outline to help students incorporate more different types of social justice issues into their writing. The culminating project for the semester was: devise a plan to solve an "ism" or "phobia" of your choice. Without any prompting from me, Tetiana wrote about singlism. She defined the problem quite well and offered some great solutions.
Tetiana Kuvshynova - Let's Talk About Singlism In addition to helping students develop writing skills, my courses enable students with the skills to develop the visual literacies they'll need to succeed in the labor force. My IGED111 students created wonderful infographics to culminate the course, but at this one relates to my interest in Singles Studies, I featured it here.