The primary goal of this section of ENGLISH 124 is to help you learn to write clear, compelling, and sophisticated prose and to construct well-crafted academic arguments about literary texts. In short, this course is designed to help you to learn to write well at the college level, regardless of your field of study. After all, as we will talk about from day one, good writing is good writing.

     In this class, we’ll be closely examining texts that deal with various ideas of exile, both literal and metaphorical: estrangement, isolation, longing, and an absence of or an absence from home.  We will explore the various ways ideas of exile, isolation, longing, and home manifest themselves in literature.

The books for this class will include:

•    Coursepack (available the first week of classes at Dollar Bill Copy)

•    The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

•   Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth

•     Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O'Conner

•    A Pocket Style Manual, 5th edition, ed. Diana Hacker

We will also watch the films Before Night Falls and Persepolis. Any other required books will be announced before the first week of classes.