1st Edition
Composing Health Literacies Perspectives and Resources for Undergraduate Writing Instruction
This edited collection examines engagements between health literacies and undergraduate writing instruction, providing research, case studies, and practical guidance on developing an interdisciplinary writing pedagogy.
Bringing together works from scholars in rhetoric and composition, technical communication, UX, public health, nursing, and writing center administration, this collection showcases a range of evidence-based practices for composing, teaching, and assessing health literacies, which the readers can apply to their own contexts. Using non-specialist language accessible to instructors from a variety of backgrounds, the chapters consider the use of writing assignments including image analyses, public service announcements, podcasts, health education materials, illness narratives, public presentations, research proposals, and journal articles. The book offers a holistic overview by profiling entire writing programs, both online and face-to-face, that teach health literacies across their curricula.
This evidence-based collection is essential reading for scholars and instructors in rhetoric and composition, writing in the health professions, technical communication, and health humanities, and can be used as a supplemental textbook for pedagogy courses in these fields.
Introduction: The intersections of health literacies and undergraduate writing instruction
Michael J. Madson
Part 1: Assignments and courses
Chapter 1. Engaging health literacies through multimodal projects in first-year writing
Karen Diane Groller
Chapter 2. Teaching critical thinking for critical health literacies: A problem-based writing approach
Kasey Larson, Jill Paterson-Charles, & Karina Daniel
Chapter 3. First do no harm: Promoting health literacies through empathy adventures in the writing classroom and beyond
Allison S. Walker
Chapter 4. Rhetorical aesthetics and health literacies"
Jarron Slater
Chapter 5. Cross-disciplinary vaccine education through a campus-community partnership
Michael J. Klein
Part 2: Programs
Chapter 6. Context matters: Identifying strategic opportunities to support health literacies through writing interventions
Lucy Bryan Malenke
Chapter 7. Reflection for health literacies in the health science curriculum
Yuko Taniguchi, Aaron Bruenger, Bronson Lemer, & Jennifer Wacek
Chapter 8. Writing across the health literacies curriculum: The Bachelor of Healthcare Studies program at MUSC
Michael J. Madson, Elizabeth A. Brown, Elinor Borgert, Catherine VanderWerker, & Lauren Geller
Part 3: Extensions
Chapter 9. Cultural health navigation and health literacy sponsorship: Implications for the undergraduate writing curriculum
Katherine E. Morelli
Chapter 10. Making well informed decisions: Data collection, health information, and undergraduate writing instruction
Charles Woods & Noah Wason
Chapter 11. Creating content for contexts of care: A cognitive approach to achieving health literacies through usability
Kirk St. Amant
Biography
Michael J. Madson is an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, USA where he teaches courses in healthcare communication and user experience. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, USA where he runs an online undergraduate writing course that explores health literacy, bioethics, and interprofessional education. He is the editor of Teaching writing in the health professions: Perspectives, problems, and practices (2022).
