Undergraduate

124: Writing & Literature

This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers and the instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres, with a primary focus on literary texts.

The Specific Goals of English 125 and English 124

In the English Department Writing Program, our overall learning goals for students in English 125 (College Writing) and English 124 (Writing and Literature) are as follows:

1. To produce complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts.
2. To read, summarize, analyze, and synthesize complex texts purposefully in order to generate and support writing.
3. To demonstrate an awareness of the strategies that writers use in different rhetorical situations.
4. To develop flexible strategies for organizing, revising, editing, and proofreading writing of varying lengths to improve development of ideas and appropriateness of expression.
5. To collaborate with peers and the instructor to define revision strategies for particular pieces of writing, to set goals for improving writing, and to devise effective plans for achieving those goals.

This course studies the intersection between critical thinking and persuasive writing, and, using literary texts as the point of reference, takes as its goal the development of the student’s skill at writing cogent expository and argumentative prose.