Empowering Catholic Communicators: A Trivium Heuristic for First-Year Writing Courses

Abstract

First-year writing courses at Catholic colleges and universities can provide students the communicative tools to intellectually engage with Catholic doctrines and beliefs in the public sphere. However, writing programs can neglect to balance grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This article provides a practical Catholic first-year writing course design that unites the best practices of contemporary composition pedagogy with the Catholic liberal arts tradition (grammar, logic, and rhetoric). The course design offers a robust sequence of writing projects to heuristically guide students through the process of Catholic communication — specifically, effective written communication that is distinctively Catholic and mission-oriented.