This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. You will work closely with your peers and instructor to develop your own written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines.

Art often serves as a medium for thinking about the creative process itself. In this course, we will read writing by such figures as pianist Jeremy Denk, novelist Chaim Potok, short story writers Jhumpa Lahiri and Flannery O’Connor, and poets of our own choosing. We will discuss how these writers view, create, and (sometimes) demolish art; simultaneously, we will think about how we conceive our own responses to these works. In the process, we will practice different ways to construct well written, compelling, analytical arguments, considering how the processes of gradual construction, erasure, and revision enable us to reinvent our writing.