A Purdue University course that is supposed to teach students how to write for a business environment instead requires students to produce projects that emphasize feminist principles.
Graduate English teaching assistant John Sherrill teaches a section of Purdue’s English 420 business writing course that incorporates feminist principles.
According to the Purdue Exponent, “In ENGL 420, students are given three major assignments. In one of them, they research and identify feminist workplace issues such as pay gaps, marketing campaigns which target women and various other issues. In another assignment, students take this information and write to a company to suggest ways to address these issues.”
The Purdue Exponent reports, “Sherrill views it as his responsibility within his job to introduce these issues, so, if nothing else, students can leave with a newfound awareness of these issues and their existence, particularly in business. While he does not have any control over what they take away from the class, he hopes they can take with them an informed perspective that can then be used to actively listen and respond to issues in the future, and to 'talk about these things ethically and consciously.’”
The official course description for English 420 emphasizes the course should teach the basics of writing “effective business letters, memos, reports, and collaborative projects in professional contexts.”
MRCTV reached out to Sherrill to learn more about how he incorporates feminism into his course. Instead of responding to the request for comment, Sherrill blocked the MRCTV reporter on Twitter.