Each day we come across a wide variety of images — advertisements in magazines, comics in the newspaper, paintings in the art museum, snapshots of our friends and families — images that make us buy things, feel a certain way, or remember certain events. In this section of ENGLISH 124 we will be reading and writing about works of literature that deal with looking at visual images. We will begin the course with a theoretical work, John Berger's "Ways of Seeing," and then move to some selections of poetry and short fiction. We will end the semester with Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray." Some of the questions we will ask ourselves include: What are the differences between written language and visual language? What is "lost in translation" when an image is interpreted as a written text, or vice versa? How can we talk about works which incorporate both text and imagery? We will be using these questions to push ourselves toward crafting persuasive and original academic essays.

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.

Tenements, factories, the stock market, crime, telephones, railroads, electricity, museums, newspapers, photography, department stores, and automobiles: how did American writers experience and describe these now-familiar elements of our society for the first time? The period of 1880-1920 in America was one of incredible technological, economic and social change, and writers like Stephen Crane, Edith Wharton, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser depicted these changes with a vivid urgency. Some of these writers sought to expose the social problems of modern urban life; some praised the new opportunities it offered, and some did both. Yet despite their varying attitudes toward modernity, all of these writers shared an interest in portraying its ordinary, nitty-gritty details in an accurate and life-like manner. What can investigating these literary efforts to provide accurate portrayals of the modernization of American life during the early part of the 20th century teach us about reading critically and writing persuasively?

Despite any appearances or claims of accuracy and objectivity, each of the works we will be studying is a human creation, crafted and constructed not only by observation, but also by the imagination and logic of a writer. In this course, you will be called upon to interrogate these constructions of reality with your own writing. Throughout the course, we will focus on helping you find and develop your voice as an academic writer. In order to do this, you will be engaged in various kinds of writing throughout the term. You will keep a reading journal, tracking your notes, observations and ideas about the texts we read and our class discussions; you will also be writing three short essays (4-6 pages). For each of these essays, you will receive feedback from me and from your classmates at various stages of the writing process. We will focus on "macro" concepts like developing strong overall arguments and using textual evidence effectively, but we will also spend considerable time on "micro" issues of sentence structure, punctuation, grammar and vocabulary.

In Western culture, we often think of the "self" as a separate, distinct thing of its own. But in this class, we'll try to think about the fact that each "self" is bound up with lots of other "selves" — mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, lovers, friends, enemies. This semester, we will be trying to answer the question: To what extent does our identity depend on our relationships with all the people that matter in our lives, for good or ill (or, more likely, both)? We'll read short stories by Tillie Olsen, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Sherman Alexie, and Charlotte Gilman, poetry by Walt Whitman, Robert Haydn, William Blake, e.e. cummings, and William Wordsworth, and a novel, Mama Day, by Gloria Naylor as we analyze and explore the ways identities are built from relationships of all kinds. And, most importantly, we will be writing; this is a serious writing class, with four carefully revised papers and multiple shorter writing assignments. You will have the opportunity to think closely about your own writing process, while learning to write complex, analytic, persuasive arguments about literature.

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.

This section of English 124 will focus on the construction of childhood and adolescence in literature. To this end, we will explore fictional, poetic, and/or cinematic works "for" young adults, as well as literary works "for" adults that depict key moments in adolescent development. Course texts may include works from J.D. Salinger, J.K. Rowling, and Carson McCullers.

In addition to its thematic and personal importance, our attention to the construction of adolescence in fiction is designed to heighten our awareness of language, audience, and genre. Is youth portrayed differently in works for youth, as opposed to works merely about youth? What is the relationship between the writing style of these works and the topics they portray?

While these literary concerns will be at stake throughout the course, English 124 is designed fundamentally as a writing course. Emphasis will be placed on the thesis-centered persuasive paper that uses literary analysis.

Graded components of the course will likely include:

Exploratory Paper Introductory Paragraph to Thesis Paper Thesis Paper Personal Response Paper Peer Reviews Short Papers/Impromptu Writing Proposal for Final Paper Bibliography/Citation Assignment Participation Final Thesis Paper Syllabus will be posted prior to the first day of class.

See you in January!

The films, political manifestos, essays on cultural history and other documents we will examine in this course all work in one way or another to present and defend a particular point of view. As we progress through the term we will concentrate not only on what a given text appears to be arguing but also on how that text works to achieve its ends.

This course has been designed with cumulative learning in mind. As we progress through each week's focus of study, you will see how the readings build into and out of one another. Students will be required to write three substantial essays, and each essay will grow out of a series of pre-draft assignments.

In an essay about traveling between London, Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean, Caryl Phillips writes, "I recognize the place, I feel at home here, but I don't belong. I am of, and not of, this place." In a single sentence, Phillips raises a host of sentiments about the relationship between place and identity, between location and belonging. This course, "College Writing: Place, Identity, and Belonging," is designed to hone your critical thinking and writing skills by exploring a wide variety of texts, including poems, essays, fiction, and films, that deal with the themes of place, identity, and belonging.

Guiding questions for the course include: What locations are depicted and/or referred to in the text (home, classroom, city, nation, world, etc.)? Who belongs and who is excluded? Why? How does location affect categories of identity (race, gender, class, and sexuality)? Furthermore, how does identity shape a sense of belonging? What overall argument does the text make about place, identity, and belonging?

This course will accustom students to the process of writing analytical essays at the college level. You will complete rough and final drafts of several essays that you workshop with a peer group, as well as a number of shorter writings to be assigned throughout the term. Your essays will yield a total of 20-30 pages of polished prose by the end of the semester; in addition, you will submit some form of writing each week. Put simply, to become a better writer, you must do quite a lot of writing.

Texts may include the films *Bring It On* and *Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle;* poetry by Adrienne Rich, Langston Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop; essays by Martin Luther King, Jr., David Sedaris, Caryl Phillips, and Barbara Ehrenreich; fiction by Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, and Kate Chopin. (Note: film screenings may be scheduled outside of class time.) Texts will be available as a coursepack at Accu-Copy.

When authors rewrite, adapt, and revise other authors' texts, they are not only writers but also readers and interpreters of literature. In this course, we will examine literary adaptations in fiction and in film (as well as the "original" texts they revise), in order to investigate our own process of reading and writing. How, for instance, can we compare writing an expository essay with creating a fictional or cinematic interpretation? By examining texts in "pairs," we will also be able to compare and contrast authors' use of form, narrative structure, style, and theme as well as discuss the cultural values and social context that inform each text.

We will begin the semester by reading a group of classic fairy tales and selected modern revisions. We will then read three pairs of novels and watch excerpts from film adaptations of each: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding.

Course requirements include active and *enthusiastic* participation in class discussion, careful preparation of class readings, and a series of writing assignments ranging in length from from 1 paragraph to 8 pages. We will have one required film screening outside of class.

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 and academic disciplines.

Our class aims to explore the relationship between literature and history, with particular emphasis on how form, structure and elements of style affect the way in which we understand the past. Throughout the semester, we will work through a diverse selection of texts, but focusing on three major works — Art Spiegelman's graphic novel saga, Maus I & II, Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist Slaughterhouse-Five, and Gü nter Grass's magic realist novel, The Tin Drum (Book One) — asking key questions of each: How does our understanding of history change in its infinite retellings? How might a fictional account of history arrive at truths that nonfiction can not? How do writers use major historical events both to make sense of the past and to animate the present? As we work through these questions, we will also make use our critical reading skills, dissecting both contemporary and historical newspapers, magazines, and news programs.

The major emphasis of this course is your writing, and so a majority of our class time will be dedicated to elements of composition: developing a thesis, sharpening an argument, using textual examples, and most importantly revising. All in all, we will both write about our readings critically and argumentatively, but also borrow from these writers elements of form and style.

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.

In this course, we will be reading literature written by women that provocatively addresses issues of women's lives. Throughout the term, we will be discussing and analyzing such topics as sexuality, body image, family, the politics of gender, and how ethnic, religious and other identities affect women's lives. We will be developing academic writing skills through the framework of these texts, and you will be producing four essays ranging from autobiographical writing to critical analyses of particular literary texts. Texts will include a short novel, short stories, non-fiction essays, and poetry.

This section of English 124 will focus on the construction of childhood and adolescence in literature. To this end, we will explore fictional, poetic, and/or cinematic works "for" young adults, as well as literary works "for" adults that depict key moments in adolescent development. Course texts may include works from J.D. Salinger, J.K. Rowling, and Carson McCullers.

In addition to its thematic and personal importance, our attention to the construction of adolescence in fiction is designed to heighten our awareness of language, audience, and genre. Is youth portrayed differently in works for youth, as opposed to works merely about youth? What is the relationship between the writing style of these works and the topics they portray?

While these literary concerns will be at stake throughout the course, English 124 is designed fundamentally as a writing course. Emphasis will be placed on the thesis-centered persuasive paper that uses literary analysis.

Graded components of the course will likely include:

Exploratory Paper Introductory Paragraph to Thesis Paper Thesis Paper Personal Response Paper Peer Reviews Short Papers/Impromptu Writing Proposal for Final Paper Bibliography/Citation Assignment Participation Final Thesis Paper Syllabus will be posted prior to the first day of class.

See you in January!

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.

In particular, we will examine poetry, fiction, essays, and graphic narrative which portray urban space. Doing so will allow us to consider the many different ways that authors choose to approach a similar topic: the American city.

The focus of the course is your own writing. You will craft short responses to our readings, and we will take time in class to free-write and pre-write. You will submit four polished papers over the course of the semester. Your participation as a peer reviewer and workshop respondent is crucial to the course — your effort and response in these areas will compose a quarter of your final grade. By writing, and by responding to others' writing, this course will help you develop a set of strategies for approaching and understanding the type of critical writing required at the university level.

Many scholars have noted that, in Milton's Paradise Lost, the devil gets all the good lines. In this section of "Writing and Literature," we will examine some of the most stylistically brilliant tales that have been told about people who don't always do the right things — who, in fact, do some pretty unconscionable things. We will discuss the authors' goals in presenting these characters and where our sympathies lie as readers. We will start by reading a few short stories and poems and will then move on to several novels. Authors may include Angela Carter, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, and Vladimir Nabokov. Assignments will be in the form of short responses, in-class writing, and several long analytical essays.

(Basic Description for ENGLISH 124: 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.)

Let us begin from the premise that we are not born human, that we become human. Let us believe that art helps us become human because art teaches us how to love. And let us say that the art of poetry is particularly well suited to teach us these lessons because it offers us a heightened realm of emotion and experience while simultaneously requiring us to understand the logic of language. Now, let us imagine that we can fall in love with poetry. Our quest in this course will be to conduct a love affair with poetry as we explore what it might mean to become human.

Through this exploration, you will learn to read and write about poems and the issues they raise, and by implication to read and write well generally. Lessons and assignments will test and develop your critical thinking skills and your analytical writing capacity. Specifically, we will focus on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts, and you will work closely with your peers and the instructor to develop your written prose. Readings from a variety of genres will be included, with a primary focus on literary texts.

No prior knowledge of poetry or literature (or love) is required, but a desire and an inclination to roll up your sleeves and work hard are highly advised. As with becoming fully human, we become good thinkers and writers (and we earn good grades) because we apply ourselves vigorously to the task.

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.

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.

ENGLISH 124 focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. You will work closely with your peers and with me to develop your prose. We will focus primarily on literary texts, and assigned readings will cover a variety of genres.

This course will prepare you to write for the academic community. We will focus on writers who argued with the literature of the past. Modernist writers (ca. 1887 — 1945) rebelled against tradition: many of them no longer saw the world as divinely governed, and they developed new techniques of writing to express this view. They abandoned simple stories with tidy endings that presupposed a single way of looking at the world. But while they rebelled against old values and attitudes, modernists turned to inherited cultural traditions (myths, religious stories, so-called "classic" texts) to give order to the chaotic reality of which they wrote.

Modernist writers experimented with the major components of writing: voice, style, genre, and audience. Just as they used different techniques to convey their ideas, you too will experiment with your written voice — writing in different genres and styles, for different audiences. We will grapple with a number of difficult issues: What are the implications of writing in different genres or forms? What are the implications of writing in different mediums and with different technologies (pen and paper, word processors, hypertext)?

In class, we will discuss both the assigned literary texts and your written responses to those texts. We will spend a major portion of class-time critiquing each other's work. You will write and revise drafts for every major assignment you do for this class in response to your classmates' suggestions.

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. Our primary goal will be to help you develop the analytical and stylistic skills that are fundamentally important to the college-level writer. We will be thinking together about how to approach each step of the writing process, from initial questions and observations of a text to the revision of your work. With devotion and effort, you will leave the course equipped to compose insightful and well-constructed essays.

Our analytic focus for this course will be the ways writers have represented the human mind in all its complexity. We will think about how words are capable (or incapable) of capturing thought, and consider how literature might be uniquely able to capture mental processes. We will also ask how literature not only represents the mind, but shapes it, as well; that is, how literature affects our personal patterns of thinking.

To think through these questions, we will study and write about shorter works by Emily Dickinson and Ernest Hemingway. We will also study two longer works: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punisthment and Shakespeare's Othello.

This is an introduction to college composition using as its focus for discussion and writing 20th century American literature of war (although we will start with a focus on the current war in Iraq). If war heightens our own human dramas, highlighting our capacity for good and evil, heroism and humiliation, what can we learn about ourselves from reading remarkable works of war literature? What are the clichés of war (such as those used in the preceding sentence) and how do clichés about "the other" or about war or masculinity or patriotism function? Is it possible to formulate ideas of good and evil, heroism and humiliation that go beyond their movie-worn versions? For example, since war entails killing, how must we think about other people before we — you and I — can kill them? What makes a person into an enemy? What makes us into people capable of killing? Is the mindset that makes war part of our own thinking? Is war gendered? Why is war so often associated with masculinity and what are the nature and implications of the association?

This is an introduction to college composition using as its focus for discussion and writing 20th century American literature of war (although we will start with a focus on the current war in Iraq). If war heightens our own human dramas, highlighting our capacity for good and evil, heroism and humiliation, what can we learn about ourselves from reading remarkable works of war literature? What are the clichés of war (such as those used in the preceding sentence) and how do clichés about "the other" or about war or masculinity or patriotism function? Is it possible to formulate ideas of good and evil, heroism and humiliation that go beyond their movie-worn versions? For example, since war entails killing, how must we think about other people before we — you and I — can kill them? What makes a person into an enemy? What makes us into people capable of killing? Is the mindset that makes war part of our own thinking? Is war gendered? Why is war so often associated with masculinity and what are the nature and implications of the association?

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.

From celebrity tell-alls, autobiography fads, Sunday confessions to psychotherapy, there seems to be, in us, a desire to tell our own stories, as a form of self-understanding — a form of self-disclosure and self-discovery. Literature has always been a hotbed of this practice, and in this course, we will read a selection of "confessional" literature across genres and time periods, such as "confessional" poetry of the 20th century (Plath, Sexton), classic fictional autobiographies (Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground), and contemporary American personal essays (Grealy, Ehrlich); we will examine the urges behind confession in these works and explore the ideas and life experiences that form and inform the interiority of an individual and of humanity. Some of the questions we'll ponder over the course of the semester include: where does our desire for self-disclosure come from? How does self-disclosure lead to self-discovery — how are the two related to one another? And what does it mean to "discover" oneself?

The writing assignments for this course will entail the standard ENGLISH 124 requirement (roughly four papers of about 5-7 pages), along with short informal writings and journal assignments in response to the assigned readings, in which you may, if you wish, do a bit of your own "confession." We will guide ourselves through the process of writing as an act of discovery in itself — exploring meaning in the making, analyzing our thoughts in action — and learn to become independent writers through extensive workshops and revisions.

Many scholars have noted that, in Milton's Paradise Lost, the devil gets all the good lines. In this section of "Writing and Literature," we will examine some of the most stylistically brilliant tales that have been told about people who don't always do the right things — who, in fact, do some pretty unconscionable things. We will discuss the authors' goals in presenting these characters and where our sympathies lie as readers. We will start by reading a few short stories and poems and will then move on to several novels. Authors may include Angela Carter, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, and Vladimir Nabokov. Assignments will be in the form of short responses, in-class writing, and several long analytical essays.

(Basic Description for ENGLISH 124: 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.)

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.

The films, political manifestos, essays on cultural history and other documents we will examine in this course all work in one way or another to present and defend a particular point of view. As we progress through the term we will concentrate not only on what a given text appears to be arguing but also on how that text works to achieve its ends.

This course has been designed with cumulative learning in mind. As we progress through each week's focus of study, you will see how the readings build into and out of one another. Students will be required to write three substantial essays, and each essay will grow out of a series of pre-draft assignments.

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.

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.

Many scholars have noted that, in Milton's Paradise Lost, the devil gets all the good lines. In this section of "Writing and Literature," we will examine some of the most stylistically brilliant tales that have been told about people who don't always do the right things — who, in fact, do some pretty unconscionable things. We will discuss the authors' goals in presenting these characters and where our sympathies lie as readers. We will start by reading a few short stories and poems and will then move on to several novels. Authors may include Angela Carter, Flannery O'Connor, Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Oscar Wilde, and Vladimir Nabokov. Assignments will be in the form of short responses, in-class writing, and several long analytical essays.

(Basic Description for English 124: 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.)

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.

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.

Writing is a skill you will use for the rest of your life and throughout your college career. In this class we will practice writing several different types of argumentative and analytical essays while focusing on the themes of both place and politics. How does our environment shape our attitudes and our political views? How do the place we're from and our memories and feelings about that place fit into our ideas about our place in the world, both politically and in terms of our individual identity? These are questions we will attempt to answer by looking at the ways other authors deal with these issues in novels, poetry, and non-fiction essays. This course focuses on developing a broad range of writing skills for use both in college and afterward.

The films, political manifestos, essays on cultural history and other documents we will examine in this course all work in one way or another to present and defend a particular point of view. As we progress through the term we will concentrate not only on what a given text appears to be arguing but also on how that text works to achieve its ends.

This course has been designed with cumulative learning in mind. As we progress through each week's focus of study, you will see how the readings build into and out of one another. Students will be required to write three substantial essays, and each essay will grow out of a series of pre-draft assignments.

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.

Think of the best party or gathering you can imagine. Is it a room filled with clones, moving in unison to repetitive music, talking about the same topics with unvarying perspectives? Or is it an occasion of diversity, one where a variety of faces and shapes dance to unique internal beats, bringing multiple experiences and opinions, each movement and thought fresh and intriguing? Well, if you prefer the latter type of gathering then this section of ENGLISH 125 is right for you. In it, you will explore, discuss and critique issues of diversity and identification intelligently and respectfully with your peers.

Also, you will improve your critical reading, writing, listening and thinking skills. We will read and view a variety of texts and explore a number of issues and writing styles that will enhance your university experience and prepare you for communication outside of the university. Your writing assignments will help you to identify and explore a central position, and present it in a coherent, well-developed response. Additionally, you will develop your research skills and learn to use and document sources.

Group discussion, drafting, peer editing, workshopping, conferencing and hard work are essential to successful completion of this course. Come and join the party! Basic ENG 125 Course Description This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines.

Basic ENG 125 Course Requirements • Producing 20-30 pages of revised, polished prose, and other (often ungraded) writing at the instructor's discretion. • Composing major essays that must move through several stages of revision with the help of your instructor and peers. • Meeting the instructor for at least one 20-minute individual conference. • Using acceptable citation practices appropriately.

All sections of ENGLISH 125 focus on creating complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers and instructor to develop their writing, and readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines.

This section, in particular, focuses on the power of language and literacy. Learning to use literacy as a tool will help you in your classes and in your personal and professional endeavors. This course is designed to guide you as you develop your literacy skills through a rich exploration of language. You will have the opportunity to practice critical reading and writing on a regular basis and in a collaborative learning environment. Class meetings will often be devoted to group work and will focus on the interplay of author, text, reader, and context or community.

"Writing is a concentrated form of thinking. I don't know what I think about certain subjects, even today, until I sit down and try to write about them." Don DeLillo

Writing can be a profoundly empowering means of communication. As DeLillo states above, writing can be an important means of discovering how you feel about the world around you. This course is an opportunity for each of you to develop your individual voices as writers while developing essay-writing skills in a variety of styles to help meet your college writing needs. To accomplish these skills, we will read a wide range of writing and discuss it both in terms of style (as a model for our own writing) and content (to help us discover what matters most to us).

The office of First and Second Year Studies says that ENGLISH 125 "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 and academic disciplines." (FSYS, A Guide to English 124 and 125, pg 20).

I submit to you the following: the ability to express yourself effectively in writing is the single most important skill that you will acquire in college. No, I take it back. In life. People who can communicate clearly write the best grant proposals, job applications, academic essays, emails, love letters, etc. Though not all essays begin as explicitly persuasive (when you sit down to begin writing, you might not even know your own aims), writing is at bottom an attempt to get what you want. You may want people to laugh, to understand your perspective, to interrogate their own assumptions, to rethink their stance on an issue, and/or to trust you; but whatever your goal, you are trying to manipulate people with your words.

In this course, we will focus on crafting essays (personal and analytic) with a clear sense of purpose, an awareness of audience, a complex understanding of all sides of an issue, and the kind of technical elegance that makes a reader want to trust a writer. We will do at least the following: read a lot of published essays, engage in the occasional in-class writing assignment, dedicate an enormous amount of class-time to (constructively) critiquing one another's work, and revise our own essays beyond recognition. Expect to be writing more or less constantly, but also, except to like some of it. By the end of the semester, you will each be the proud owner of at least 25-30 pages of really polished prose.

(Disclaimer: I am what some people consider a Grammar Fascist. I believe that a mastery of the technical aspects of formal writing endows the author with credibility necessary to gain/maintain a reader's trust. I *will* waste as much class time as I have to on this stuff. You've been warned.)

Introduction to English Composition focuses on the rhetorical strategies and research skills students need to succeed in their academic endeavors. This course is also a themed course examining the ramifications of "literacy" throughout academic, professional, and pupular cultures. Students will have an opportunity to explore their personal interests by engaging in dialogue between common and academic disciplines.

This First-Year Composition course is designed to provide the student with a roadmap for creating effective writing. To this end, classes are stuctured linearly: beginning with research and data collection techniques, moving on to the organizational outline and drafting process, and ending with techniques for proofreading and polishing a final draft. We will use this general roadmap in a number of particular ways, focusing on a number of different kinds of writing. These include: travel narrative, critical review, and argumentative writing.

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 and academic disciplines.

Through the processes of reading, writing, and editing, this course will explore what it means to live a global community. Writing will serve as a way to generate, revise, and articulate thoughts as we explore a variety of questions: How do we define others and ourselves within the context of community? Since language is often a location of power, how do silence and naming contribute to global conflicts? How do we communicate to affect change within these larger communities?

In this section, writing will be considered as both a student activity and as an object of study. Communicating knowledge in a variety of academic contexts is crucial to academic success. Therefore, exploring issues of grammar, usage, mechanics, and style will be central to this course. Students will be expected to engage actively in a workshop style class, which requires openness to giving and receiving feedback. Students will engage in all stages of the writing process, including prewriting, peer review, editing, revising, and self-evaluation.

The study of grammar needn't be dry and pedantic, and the thought of writing needn't strike fear in your hearts. This course will challenge you to think about the English language and the process of writing in entirely new ways. We will explore the ways in which the English language functions both structurally and socially: How do we know that slithy in Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky is an adjective even though it's not in the dictionary? Who says I can't split an infinitive? What will happen if I do? What is Standard English and how did it come to be? And who gets to decide what Standard is? We will think critically about language use and consider the ways in which style is aesthetic, rhetorical, and political. We will approach writing as a process, not just a product, and you will spend considerable time revising your prose. You will learn that you needn't have all the answers when you sit down to write — in fact, you shouldn't. We will work collaboratively on a daily basis to develop skills in close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing within the supportive community of the class.

Requirements: Four revised essays (ranging from 3 to 7 pages), several short written assignments, weekly quizzes, and one presentation.

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 and academic disciplines.

This course will help you become better writers. We will look at the form and style of academic essays and learn about various genres of writing. In the course of the term, you will also train to read critically and dissect and analyze argument and in turn develop and enhance your own thinking and writing skills. You will write assignments of various lengths designed to increase your awareness of the mechanics and the process of writing. These assignment will prepare you for the kind of writing you will do in many of your college classes. The class will also require your participation in small and large group workshops and you will learn not only to think critically about your own writing, but also to give other students suggestions on improving their writing. Readings cover a wide array of topics, from serious social issues such as the presentation of space, race and gender to more light-hearted humoristic writing.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The pulse of this writing workshop is your voice. In order to explore the art of writing you must begin with what you value, what moves you, how you communicate, how you listen, and how you observe. What you have that no other writer has is your own way of phrasing, your own way of seeing, your own history that shapes your lens. This class is designed to give you the structure and tools you need to realize your own intentions and to reach your audience. Revising is the most important thing we do as writers, and we will spend the majority of our time doing so. Essays are a place for you to think, and by doing so on the page — allowing your ideas to dictate your essay's form — you can interest even those who disagree with your point of view.

This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines. The goal for this course is to introduce you to writing at the college level. We will be focusing on reading strategies, close reading, analysis, thesis development, paper drafting and re-writing.

Over the course of the academic term, each student will have one paper workshopped by the entire class. All discussion in the class will focus on paper writing and paper development, reinforcing the notion that writing a good paper is an integrated component of reading intelligently.

In this class students will learn how to write basic academic papers in several styles, with a focus on clear structure and argument, and good grammar and syntax.

"Writing is a concentrated form of thinking. I don't know what I think about certain subjects, even today, until I sit down and try to write about them." Don DeLillo Writing can be a profoundly empowering means of communication. As DeLillo states above, writing can be an important means of discovering how you feel about the world around you. This course is an opportunity for each of you to develop your individual voices as writers while developing essay-writing skills in a variety of styles to help meet your college writing needs. To accomplish these skills, we will read a wide range of writing and discuss it both in terms of style (as a model for our own writing) and content (to help us discover what matters most to us).

This course is an introduction to the craft of written argument. Students will practice writing and critiquing a variety of arguments, both academic and political, formal and informal. A number of rhetorical and linguistic strategies will be discussed — particularly the ways in which grammatical choices influence rhetorical effectiveness. Other topics will include: logical fallacies; voice and style; adapting arguments for different audiences; and writing for different academic disciplines.

The office of First and Second Year Studies says that ENGLISH 125 "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 and academic disciplines." (FSYS, A Guide to English 124 and 125, pg 20).

In this course, we will focus on crafting essays (personal and analytic) with a clear sense of purpose, an awareness of audience, a complex understanding of all sides of an issue, and the kind of technical elegance that makes a reader want to trust a writer. We will do at least the following: read a lot of published essays, engage in the occasional in-class writing assignment, dedicate an enormous amount of class-time to (constructively) critiquing one another's work, and revise our own essays beyond recognition. Expect to be writing more or less constantly, but also, except to like some of it. By the end of the semester, you will each be the proud owner of at least 25-30 pages of really polished prose.

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 and academic disciplines.

Learning how to write well is one of the most challenging tasks we face as we enter the world of academia. In fact, it is a task we keep facing even at the more advanced of our academic trajectory, since there is no fixed body of knowledge we can master in order to become good writers, and since each piece of writing we produce may teach us something new about ourselves as writers. It can be a frustrating and daunting process, but it does not have to be. Learning how to write may also be a fascinating journey of re-encountering ourselves and the world around us, of finding new relations between ourselves and the world, and new ways to express these relations. This course is designed to support students in taking their first steps of this journey.

How do you become a good writer? You write. And then you write some more. This would be our basic pre-supposition. Thus, the writing load in this course would be intensive. You will be asked to produce approximately 20-25 pages of polished, revised prose. You will have the opportunity to experience different modes of academic writing and to engage various topics and issues through writing. My hope is that each writing assignment in this course will stimulate you to explore some of the most fundamental questions about writing: How can my writing make my experience significant to others? How do I make my private thoughts public in a meaningful and interesting way by putting them on paper? How do my opinions become a convincing written argument? Throughout the course we will investigate these questions together and separately, in the hope of finding, not definite answers, but the writers within us.

"Writing is a concentrated form of thinking. I don't know what I think about certain subjects, even today, until I sit down and try to write about them." Don DeLillo Writing can be a profoundly empowering means of communication. As DeLillo states above, writing can be an important means of discovering how you feel about the world around you. This course is an opportunity for each of you to develop your individual voices as writers while developing essay-writing skills in a variety of styles to help meet your college writing needs. To accomplish these skills, we will read a wide range of writing and discuss it both in terms of style (as a model for our own writing) and content (to help us discover what matters most to us).

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

Many of my previous students have asked me, "Why is it that even after acing my high school English classes, I still have to take ENGLISH 125?" There are many answers to this question, but perhaps the most important is that college writing has different structural expectations than high school writing. Whereas the five-paragraph, intro/three support points/conclusion structure worked well on the SAT/ACT and for many high school assignments, the organizational demands for college essays are very different. Although we will certainly discuss grammar, sentence-level concerns, and other aspects of writing, a major focus in our class will be learning how to tailor your essay's structure to better organize and express your thoughts.

As in all other sections of ENGLISH 125, be prepared to revise 18-20 pages of writing this semester and to do regular course reading. Be prepared to do even more non-revised writing, and to collaborate with your classmates and with me to improve your writing and the writing of your classmates. Be prepared to push yourself to new levels of analysis and specific detail.

In terms of what makes this ENGLISH 125 slightly different from the rest, consider the following: 1. In this particular class, assignments are weighted so that assignments from early in the assignment are worth less than assignments from later in the semester. If your writing improves during the semester, that will be reflected in your final course grade. 2. We workshop in small student groups, not with the entire class all at once. Small group workshops give you the chance to work with a consistent group of students that will become very familiar with your writing style and can offer you valuable advice to improve your writing. 3. We'll spend some time talking about how writing in other departments (like Economics, the sciences, and the professional schools) differs — or is similar — to writing in ENGLISH 125. The goal of this class is to help you develop writing skills that will assist you in ALL of your college courses — not just ENGLISH 125.

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 will cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines. Special emphasis will be placed on the effects of the way we present ourselves in writing, how it both shapes and reflects our identities or allows us to create personas, including an academic one. This course also aims to help students cultivate a sense of pride and investment in their work as discussants, readers (of class assignments and their peers' papers), and writers.

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 and academic disciplines.

We'll be using the book Everything's An Argument, as well as selected readings on CTools (from writers such as Jane Burka and Robert Cialdini,) to discuss navigating the University and developing cultural literacy about academia.

This course is designed to introduce students to college-level writing through interaction with a variety of texts. We will examine texts from a wide range of genres — essay, film, comics, poetry, and autobiography — in order to survey the various modes of expression that you will encounter in liberal arts courses. In the first half of the course, we will consider the issues involved in representing the self to others through forms that have their own dynamics, rules, and histories.

Our study of autobiographical forms of expression will benefit our understanding of themes that we will pursue in throughout the semester: the identities and roles of individuals as they attempt to navigate through various systems and structures neither created nor controlled by them, the dynamics of their interaction with those "other" than themselves (other people, spaces, institutions, forms, and concepts), and the outcomes of these exchanges. As we will discover over the course of the semester through our analysis of the readings, as well as the writing that we produce, literature, even language, is one of these systems that we must learn to navigate.

The skills that we garner from our study of self-representation will prepare us for the second half of the course, which is devoted to the analysis of the cultural phenomenon of Fahrenheit 911. We will not examine the movie, and the hype surrounding it, in terms of political ideology but, rather, genre and perspective. Our work in the first half of the course, which concerns the intersection of the personal and the political, will enable us to take up the challenge of critical analysis without devolving into polemics.

Although the reading load may seem light, particularly at the beginning, you will be expected to read these texts very carefully. Therefore, whatever is lacking in amount of pages read will be compensated by your own written interpretations of these works based on your close analysis of each and every text. Everyone assumes that they know how to read, but college courses demand critical readers — readers who read not only for comprehension, but to examine the forms and structures of expression, as well as consider its purposes and uses, in order to construct their own interpretations.

The writing requirements for this course are very demanding, especially at the beginning of the semester. When you examine the schedule, you will notice that there is something due at nearly every class session: these shorter assignments will either require you to respond thoughtfully to the respective reading for the day and/or to work on various skills or stages involved in the writing process. Indeed, the rationale for the smaller assignments is to break the process of writing into smaller tasks that will build up to the paper. Although from the first day you will be examining texts closely and formulating your own interpretations, we will tackle the process of writing step by step.

Texts may include but are not limited to Langston Hughes's "Theme for English B, "Jorge Luis Borges's, "Borges and I," Audre Lorde's Zami (selections), Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson's Reading Autobiography (selections), Selections from Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, Art Spiegelman's Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, Joe Sacco's Palestine, Bill Nichols's Introduction to Documentary, Fahrenheit 911, Grizzly Man, and Control Room.

Course Description:

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 and academic disciplines.

Section Description:

College-level writing calls for clear, concise prose and focused critical analysis, but it also calls for originality, creative thinking, and a strong individual "voice." The best academic essays are sophisticated and thought-provoking, but they balance analytical work with a human voice, an attention to the details of prose in English, and a fluid, conversational logic that draws the argument forward. In this course, we will work toward that perfect balance of poetic language and academic analysis.

The college states that ENGLISH 125 should teach Michigan students to:

• Produce complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. • Read, summarize, analyze, and synthesize complex texts purposefully in order to generate and support writing. • Demonstrate an awareness of the strategies that writers use in different rhetorical situations. • Develop flexible strategies for organizing, revising, editing, and proofreading writing of varying lengths to improve development of ideas and appropriateness of expression. • Collaborate with peers and the instructor to define revision strategies for particular pieces of writing, set goals for improving writing, and devise effective plans for achieving those goals.

We will approach these goals from several angles, beginning with personal narrative, moving into description and argument, and finishing with a longer, individual research project. In the first part of this course, you will have many opportunities to practice and perfect your own style of interesting, grammatical prose. You will be responsible for one 4-5 page expository essay and one 3-4 page descriptive essay, in addition to various shorter writing assignments.

In the second part of the course, we will expand our writing horizons to the kind of thesis-driven, argumentative essay that appears on nearly every university syllabus. Keep in mind that this is not your basic five-paragraph essay! We will start by considering the argumentative structure of newspaper editorials, then we will apply the basics of persuasion to cultural critique and academic research projects. During this time, you will be responsible for one 2 page editorial essay, one 5-6 page cultural critique, and a final 6-8 page research paper in the style of your anticipated major.

Introduction to college writing. In this course, we will hone our expository writing skills. That is, by the end of this course you should be able to effectively respond to any number of academic writing prompts or assignments; emphasis will be on creating logical, strong arguments [though not necessarily for a research paper] with evidence to support your claims, no matter what the assignment. Classtime will consist of discussion of writing/reading assignments, grammar lessons, workshop of your papers, etc. Outside reading, as well as writing will be expected of you: the point of a large part of our world's communication should be to express something clearly and as truthfully as possible, while effectively adressing the appropriate audience, and this course should prepare you to do just that.

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 and academic disciplines.

The aim of this course is to make students more comfortable with academic writing. Since college writing demands lengthy and complex papers, the process of writing will be emphasized. Students will have the opportunity to workshop their work in progress and revise drafts.

The reading and discussion of a variety of texts (printed, oral, and visual; theoretical, professional, and creative) will aid students in the process of constructing viable arguments and in developing personal style. Students will be asked to critically assess their own goals and progress and encouraged to find their own balance between the personal and the public in their writing. The class will also address theoretical questions connected with the ethics and politics of writing.

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 their instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of genres and academic disciplines.

This is a first-year composition course devoted to the writing and revising of several different kinds of essays. This course is designed to make you a better writer by focusing on 1. the fundamentals of grammar, punctuation, and usage, 2. different models and rhetorical tools for you to use in building your own ideas and analyses in the essays you write, and 3. the workshopping of your own and your peers' work to practice being a thorough editor and reviser of draft material. You will do lots of writing in this class, since *practicing* writing is one of the best ways to *learn* about writing. You will also read some published essays by professional writers, since reading others' writing and thinking about how it works and has been put together can teach you things about writing that no class or writer's manual can teach you. And you will do a lot of writing about writing — one of the only ways to raise your level of awareness about how language works to communicate accurate messages to your readers. Check this site later in the month to find out about required texts for the course. And in the meantime, please don't email me with questions that might otherwise wait for the first day of class.

Welcome to ENGLISH 125.029. This is an intensive writing course that will focus on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. You will work closely with your peers and your instructor to develop your written prose. Readings will cover a variety of genres and academic disciplines.

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 and academic disciplines.

Writing is a cornerstone of intellectual development; it can help us to organize our thoughts, to think analytically and critically, to present our evaluations, to understand and solve problems, to communicate our points of view, and to understand others' points of view. Regardless of the career or life path(s) you choose, you will be required to write in various genres throughout your life, and to be able to organize your thoughts, arguments, and evaluations through writing. Those who demonstrate good writing are likely to perform well in their courses and careers, and to submit successful applications for jobs and for graduate or professional school programs.

The primary goal of this course is to help to train you to produce prose that is organized, clear, coherent, convincing, and sophisticated. You will learn to develop and use your voice as a writer through a series of formal and informal writing assignments and through reading and reviewing others' writings.

Readings for this course center on issues of language, particularly how language and society interact with one another and what language means to individuals and to groups. While the course focuses on your writing, we will also be reading quite a bit about spoken language and its importance in issues of identity, including gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, age/life stage, and regional and national identity. These will be the themes to which you will respond in your writing assignments and class discussions. Thus, your success in the course depends a great deal on completion and understanding of the assigned readings. We will also work with media examples, primarily from popular film and television, to further our understanding of the relationships between language and identity and to provide more material for your written assignments.

This section of ENGLISH 125 emphasizes writing in the real world. Whether you plan to be a chemist, business manager, or rocker writing will play a role in your career. We will examine various types of writing that you will encounter after you leave the University of Michigan and you will try your hand at these forms. This is an intensive writing and reading course; you can expect to write and read everyday for this class. Assignments may include, but not limited to, online responses, journal entries, short essays, and a longer research paper for the end of the semester. To aid you throughout the semester, we'll discuss and practice our writing skills through peer critiquing, critical class discussions, and brief exercises in grammar. A diverse array of reading topics from The Writer's Presence will also serve to provide models for our writing goals. I look forward to working with all of you.

This course is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to execute college-level writing and as such, focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students will work closely with their peers and the instructor to develop their written prose. Readings will cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines. Students will learn how to compose solid and thoughtful arguments in an elegant and sophisticated manner — skills that will be invaluable not only to the academic experience but in the "real world" as well. In other words, students will learn how to articulate ideas and opinions — arguments — vis-à-vis written prose. To that end, we will dissect the vital parts of "good writing" (paragraphs, theses, etc.) so that students will be able to leave this course with a "tool box" of writing skills that they can take with them, not only on the rest of their college journey but into their professional lives and beyond.

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 their instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of genres and academic disciplines.

The primary goal of this course is to help you learn to write clear, compelling, and sophisticated prose. We will develop these skills through a range of methods: readings, discussions, writing exercises, peer critiques, and responses to other forms of expression such as media, visual art, music, and film. Because writing is an organized way of thinking, our engagement with the subject matter will be focused primarily on issues of style, craft, and execution.

In this class we will forego the finger exercises and boilerplate essays of your typical "freshman comp" class. You will not be assigned the "Compare & Contrast" Essay, the Personal Essay, nor the Persuasive Essay. Rather, the goal of this class is to help you find "a way in" to the academic dialogue — a way of going about your reading, research, thinking, and writing, that will serve you throughout your academic career. We will not only be addressing the craft of writing/researching the college paper, but also the theories behind it. We will learn to utilize the nuts and bolts of writing for academia, while continuing to question the notions behind those methods. In other words, we will be demystifying the skills of literary inquiry and research. Through the reading of primary texts and critical articles, you will study how literary scholars pose questions, conduct inquiry, make arguments & construct their theses. In this class you will become more than a "freshman comp student." Rather, you will become a true scholar as you learn how to join the academic conversation by posing your own interpretive problems, doing appropriate research, diving into postmodern literary theory, and, finally, writing a formal, documented critical argument.

Most of the class will involve learning to find problems and questions in our texts (perhaps where they don't even seem to exist!), then learning how to grapple with those problems & questions articulately in our writing. We'll be in the habit of posing questions like these: How does knowledge of a text's biographical, political, economic, and cultural contexts, as well as our knowledge of our own contexts as readers, shape the way we read and interpret a text? How does a text reflect, participate in, and help produce its culture? How are both writers and readers "constructed" by their historical context?

By the end of the semester you should possess a working knowledge of the following: MLA style, academic database research, thesis construction, strong marginalia, dominant modes of literary theory & criticism (and how they are used in academia to discuss primary texts).

Your work in this class will include reading three primary texts (Bartleby, the Scrivener, The Yellow Wallpaper, and The Secret Sharer), choosing which text to focus your research on, and then reading a number of secondary critical texts as way to focus & direct your research. You will be turning in short "problem finding" essays (about 3 pgs) every week, but these will be in service of the larger project and ultimate goal of the class: one 10-12 page paper that you will present ("academic conference" style) to your peers at the end of the semester. This may seem daunting now, but by the end of the winter term, you should suffer no dearth of material or ideas.

Once you've chosen your primary texts, you will be broken up into research & workshop groups. You will work with these peers for the rest of the semester — helping one another sort through research material, making recommendations, looking for holes in each other's arguments, engaging in lively debates, etc.

Many people are categorized as people with disabilities. Some of these disabilities are visible, others are invisible, and most of them are stigmatized in one way or another. All of them challenge the concept of normalcy that we, as a society, create in our everyday interactions.

In this section of ENGLISH 125, we will explore the concepts of deviance, normalcy, and their relation to disability and our lives in general. Apart from developing our writing abilities, we will gain a comprehensive overview of the issue of disability, which we will do by examining representative texts from the field of disability studies and other sources outside the field.

Good writing is a process combining engaged, complex thinking, close reading of sources and last, but not least, technical competence. Thus, we will thoroughly practice each one of these skills. By examining the notion of the normal body, revealing assumptions in the politics of social and physical space, sexuality, language, access to resources, and public policy decisions concerning the body, we will further your abilities through a wide range of methods: readings, discussions, writing exercises, peer critiques, and responses to other forms of expression. Apart from learning how to organize essays of varied lengths or how to use and quote outside sources correctly by completing a variety of writing exercises and projects in and out of class, this section should also help you develop an authentic and mindful voice as an individual. Basic course requirements are, among others, active participation, and a body of work with at least 25-30 pages of revised prose and other writing assignments.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. Students work closely with their peers to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of different genres and academic disciplines. The goal for this course is to introduce you to writing at the college level. We will be focusing on reading strategies, close reading, analysis, thesis development, paper drafting and re-writing.

Over the course of the semester, each student will have two papers workshopped by the entire class. All discussion in the class will focus on paper writing and paper development, reinforcing the notion that writing a good paper is an integrated component of reading intelligently.

This course is taught in conjunction with LocalMotion, a Detroit area non-profit organization whose purpose is to raise public awareness about the links between environmental toxins and illness. Public awareness of any issue depends upon appropriate uses of language and persuasion: in other words, rhetoric. In pursuit of understanding how such rhetoric works, we will read a variety of writers whose goals has been to raise public awareness of the environment, among them, Aldo Leopold, Sandra Steingraber, Rachel Carson, and Wendell Berry. And to complement that reading, students will write a variety of essays with regard to the literal, social, and political lay of landscapes.

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 their instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of genres and academic disciplines.

The primary goal of this course is to help you learn to write clear, compelling, and sophisticated prose. We will develop these skills through a range of methods: readings, discussions, writing exercises, peer critiques, and responses to other forms of expression such as media, visual art, music, and film. Because writing is an organized way of thinking, our engagement with the subject matter will be focused primarily on issues of style, craft, and execution.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art, emphasizing the writing of expository and argumentative essays.

Ancient Greek and Roman educators prized the art of using language effectively and persuasively almost above all others. They called this art rhetoric. The practice of this art was considered crucial for the intellectual and moral development of individual citizens, as well as absolutely necessary for the successful operation of their civilizations. Rhetorical theory does not end with ancient thinkers. Medieval, renaissance, modern, and postmodern thinkers have expanded and developed its concepts and applications. But ancient principles and methods still form the basis for how we form and engage verbal and written arguments today. In this course, we will study facets of ancient rhetoric in order to sharpen the ways in which we employ language and analyze arguments in a variety of subjects and genres. This course will be of particular interest for students of classics, history, literature, and politics. But it will serve students with a wide range of academic and vocational goals in developing clarity in composition and analytic ability as readers and writers in college and beyond.

This is a first-year composition course devoted to the writing and revising of several different kinds of essays. This course is designed to make you a better writer by focusing on 1. the fundamentals of grammar, punctuation, and usage, 2. different models and rhetorical tools for you to use in building your own ideas and analyses in the essays you write, and 3. the workshopping of your own and your peers' work to practice being a thorough editor and reviser of draft material. You will do lots of writing in this class, since *practicing* writing is one of the best ways to *learn* about writing. You will also read some published essays by professional writers, since reading others' writing and thinking about how it works and has been put together can teach you things about writing that no class or writer's manual can teach you. And you will do a lot of writing about writing — one of the only ways to raise your level of awareness about how language works to communicate accurate messages to your readers. Check this site later in the month to find out about required texts for the course. And in the meantime, please don't email me with questions that might otherwise wait for the first day of class.

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 their instructor to develop their written prose. Readings cover a variety of genres and academic disciplines.

The primary goal of this course is to help you learn to write clear, compelling, and sophisticated prose. We will develop these skills through a range of methods: readings, discussions, writing exercises, peer critiques, and responses to other forms of expression such as media, visual art, music, and film. Because writing is an organized way of thinking, our engagement with the subject matter will be focused primarily on issues of style, craft, and execution.

A study of rhetoric, both as a body of principles, and as a practical art