L13 Writing 103 College Writing: Writing, Literature, and Justice

This course seeks to develop the advanced reading, writing, and research skills that students need in a university setting. It uses classical texts of the western tradition to investigate the question of justice and to develop arguable claims through the careful analysis of evidence. The act of crafting arguments, we will assume, is implicated in the question of justice because arguments depend on an ethics of persuasion. We will learn how to practice such an ethics as we improve our ability to understand and utilize four crucial aspects of academic writing: evidence, analysis, argument, and research. Mastering these aspects will make us proficient in the difficult art of judgment. It will allow us to make sense of some of the most powerful literary statements about justice, from Sophocles to Shakespeare to Toni Morrison. Note: This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.
Same as L59 CWP 115

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 104 Writing Identity

Who are you? This simple question becomes ever more complicated the more closely you examine it. How should you define yourself? By ancestry, hometown, gender, cultural allegiance, ethnic background, nationality, sexual preference, social class, personal history, fashion sense, career aspirations, taste in music, or by some other category? This course will examine the complexities of identity as they have been expressed in a wide variety of modern literary (and some philosophical) writings in order to develop the advanced reading, writing, and research skills that students need in a university setting. This course will satisfy the Writing 1 requirement.

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 203 The Sentence in English

Though formal knowledge of English grammar is not always necessary for effective writing, learning it can help students understand how sentences are put together, and it can allow them to develop their own writing using a new set of skills. The Reed-Kellogg system of diagramming is a method of learning grammar by creating "pictures," or maps, of sentences. These pictures show the logical relations between words, phrases and clauses, and they illustrate the choices writers are making as they craft individual sentences. Using a recent textbook by Eugene Moutoux, we learn to diagram sentences both famous and ordinary, both contemporary and of historical interest. Our aims are (1) to learn both the "rules" and the peculiarities of English grammar, (2) to understand how the structure of a sentence can influence its meaning, and (3) to use this knowledge productively in crafting and revising our own prose. By the end of the course, students should be able to diagram just about any sentence in English, whatever the genre or time period, including their own. Extensive practice in writing and revising sentences gives students a consciousness of how grammar and syntax influence the meaning and effectiveness of their own writing.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 205 Writing the Visual World

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 211 Writing 2

This course invites students to pursue a writing project that centers on their own intellectual interests and that complicates their approaches to researched, creative and analytical work. Consult section description for details about specific class emphases. Limit: 12 students. Prerequisite: CWP 100 College Writing 1.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 212 Rhetoric and Power

The study of rhetoric, one of the original seven liberal arts, is perhaps more relevant today, in a world where diverse opinions reverberate 24/7 from television and the internet, than in ancient times when rhetors invented arguments to help people choose the best course of action when they disagreed about important political, religious, or social issues. How do we make our voices heard? How can we invent and present compelling written discourse? This course introduces students to common rhetorical principles and to the disciplinary history of rhetoric and compositional studies. Assignments in this class include rhetorical exercise in invention and craft, imitations, and varied compositions, ranging from the personal to critical, from the biographical to argumentative. We examine rhetorical principles (audience, context, kairos, exigency, ethos, pathos, logos, and so forth) that are employed, for example, not only in literary analysis but in law, politics, education and science. We aim for a mastery of craft and a refinement of thought.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 213 The Long Essay

This course is designed for skilled writers who want to bring more complexity and depth to their style and content. Emphasis is on the innovation that can occur when we give sustained interest to our subjects in a long work. The class is particularly well-suited to students who wish to produce extended works of creative nonfiction, honors theses, or artist statements.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 220 Creative Nonfiction Writing I

A course designed to introduce students to the fundamental craft elements involved in writing creative nonfiction. While the course covers the major forms within the genre of creative nonfiction, including literary journalism, biography, profiles, nature writing and travel writing, special emphasis is given to personal essay and memoir. Prerequisite: CWP 100 College Writing I.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 221 Fiction Writing I

A course designed to introduce students to the fundamental craft elements involved in writing fiction. Prerequisite: CWP 100 College Writing I.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 222 Poetry Writing I

A course designed to introduce students to the fundamental craft elements involved in writing poetry. Prerequisite: Writing I.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 224 Playwriting

An introductory course in playwriting. Limited to 8 students. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and permission of the instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 298 Journalism: Communications Internship

For students undertaking projects in newspaper or magazine journalism, in radio or television, or in business, government, foundations and the arts. The student must secure permission of the chair of the Undergraduate Committee, file a description of their project with the department and, at the end of the semester, submit a significant portfolio of writing together with an evaluation by the internship supervisor. Up to 3 units acceptable toward the writing minor, but cannot be counted toward the English major or literature minor. Prerequisite: CWP 100 College Writing 1. Must be taken credit/no credit.

Credit variable, maximum 3 units.

L13 Writing 300I Independent Study

This independent study in creative writing is for students who have taken the 200-level introductory course in the genre they want to focus on with the instructor. The whole syllabus should be directed toward developing the student's higher-level skills, among them the capacity to reflect on craft methods. It is strongly recommended that two to four multiple-page written assignments be assigned over the course of the semester.

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 305 Modern Humor Writing

This course will analyze and put into practice what makes good humor writing both good and humorous, from subject matter to the mechanics of setting up a punchline, from crafting an unexpected metaphor to perfecting the reversal.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 306W The Long Essay: Researched Writing

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 307 Writing and Medicine

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 309 Writing the Natural World

For students interested in the environment and natural sciences. This course brings together essays from a wide range of communities including biology, physics, medicine, environmental studies, creative writing and more. Readings and assignments are intended to enhance students' understanding of the relationship between writing and their experience/knowledge of the natural world. Major assignments allow students to follow, explore and write about their own unique interest in a related subject, and include a personal essay, an expository essay, and a researched argumentative essay, as well as peer review workshops, oral presentations, and revision. Students record and explore their own experiences of nature in short creative assignments that prepare them for the major papers. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and junior standing.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 310 Guided Research in Composition: Theory and Pedagogy of One-to-One Writing Instruction

This course teaches theoretical and practical approaches to the tutoring of writing, specifically focusing on tutoring writing within the context of undergraduate courses. Students learn collaborative methods of tutoring writing, explore different approaches to writing comments on student work in various content areas, and examine the connections between writing and thinking. Students analyze their own writing processes and learn how to help others through the writing and revision process. Readings and discussions focus on writing theory and pedagogy, and students practice one-to-one methods in mock conferences and with sample essays. Assignments: two short essays, a longer research paper and presentation, and a journal.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 311 Exposition

This advanced writing course considers style in relationship to audience and purpose, asking the writer to engage more consciously with writing conventions, and to explore strategies appropriate to various writing situations. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and junior standing. A note for students and advisors: When registering refer to WebSTAC for updated information on section times and available seats.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 3111 Exposition (Visual)

This advanced writing course emphasizes writing and visual analysis, asking students to examine important forms of visual media to develop a sophisticated sense of the strategies, techniques and the rhetoric of visual representation. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and junior standing.

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 3112 Exposition: Writing and Medicine

For students who have a particular interest in health, illness and medical care. Exposition is a course that considers style in relationship to audience and purpose, asking the writer to engage more consciously with writing conventions, and to explore strategies appropriate to various writing situations, from the more experimental and performative to the more formal and scholarly. The course involves frequent practice in analyzing and critiquing, with special attention to techniques of organization, argument and emphasis. Students in this special section of Exposition read essays, journalism and personal narratives about the experience of physicians and patients in the modern health care system. Students use expository writing to think critically and personally about their own experiences with illness and disease. Pre-medical students might use this opportunity to write and think about the anticipated rewards and challenges of the profession they hope to join.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 312 Argumentation

This advanced writing course examines the strategies of argumentation, exploring such elements of argument as the enthymeme, the three appeals, claim types and fallacies. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and junior standing. A note for students and advisors: When registering refer to WebSTAC for updated information on section times and available seats.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 313A Topics in Composition

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 314 Topics in Composition

An advanced writing course focusing on selected topics related to writing. Topics chosen by department/instructor. Consult section description for details about specific class emphases. (Note: In some cases, this course may be cross-listed with other programs/departments and may satisfy the writing-intensive requirement.) Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1 and junior standing.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 320 Creative Nonfiction Writing 2

This course is aimed at undergraduates who have taken Nonfiction Writing 1 and wish to pursue both their development as writers and the study of craft in the context of a more rigorous workshop. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1, Writing 220 Creative Nonfiction Writing 1.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 321 Fiction Writing 2

This course is aimed at undergraduates who have taken Fiction Writing 1 and wish to pursue both their development as writers and the study of craft in the context of a more rigorous workshop. Prerequisites: Writing 220, Writing 221.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 321J Mellon Undergraduate Fellows Seminar

Credit 1.5 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI EN: H

L13 Writing 321S Mellon Undergraduate Fellows Seminar

Credit 1.5 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI

L13 Writing 321W Mellon Undergraduate Fellows Seminar

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI EN: H

L13 Writing 322 Poetry Writing 2

This course is aimed at undergraduates who have taken Poetry Writing 1 and wish to pursue both their development as poets and the study of craft in the context of a more rigorous workshop. Prerequisites: Writing 221, Writing 222.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 322W Kling Undergraduate Honors Fellowship Seminar

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI EN: H

L13 Writing 323 Fiction Writing: The Short-Short, Sudden Fiction, and Microfiction

This course is aimed at undergraduates who have taken Fiction Writing 1 or Poetry Writing 1 and wish to further explore the craft of fiction through the medium of the short-short story. The course focuses on reading, writing and thinking critically about short-shorts.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 324 Fiction Writing: Coming of Age in the Short Story

A fiction writing course that explores coming of age themes.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 325 Poetry Writing: The Poetry of Travel

This course is offered for students who have taken Poetry 1 and are interested in further developing their craft.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 326 Fiction Writing: Stories in the Suburbs

In the 1950s, the suburbs were still somewhat of a novelty in American culture — most people still lived in cities and small towns, or on the farm. Back then, Levitowns and the like were embraced with either gee-whiz optimism, or seen as sinister dystopias where youth, ideals and romance went to fester and die. But now that the American mainstream is stucco McMansions, strip malls and big box stores; now that the suburbs have become more ethnically diverse; now that literature is being generated from these places instead of just about them, how have stories set in the 'burbs changed? We read short stories written from the 1950s until the present day exploring this particular setting, and, through a series of exercises, workshops and our own short fiction, we explore the milieu as writers (whether we happen to be from the suburbs or not), always on the lookout for the unexpected in these familiar places.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 327 Creative Nonfiction: Personal Essay and Memoir

This is an intermediate course in writing creative nonfiction, with a concentration on personal essay and memoir. Prerequisite: Writing 220 Creative Nonfiction Writing 1.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 330 Fiction Writing: Fiction and Obsession

Desire is at the heart of fiction, from the forces that drive the decisions characters make to the ways stories work on us as readers.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 331 Fiction Writing: Historical Fiction

A literature/creative writing hybrid course, students read a number of contemporary historical fictions and then write one of their own. We consider the ways in which these fictions inhabit, depart from and reflect upon the historiography and history they're built from — upon the indeterminacy of the historical record, and the limits of its reach — but we also discuss fiction's responsibility to historical "facts" and documents, and the relevance of fictions among nonfictions in approaching an event or figure. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1, Writing 221 Fiction 1.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 351 Introduction to Playwriting

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 352 Introduction to Screenwriting

Writers explore the various elements, structures and styles used in crafting a motion picture screenplay. They experience this process as they conceive, develop and execute the first act of a feature-length script. Writers create a screenplay story, present an outline for class discussion and analysis, then craft Act One. Writers are encouraged to consult with the instructor at various stages: concept, outline, character and scene development, and dialogue execution. While the students fashion their screenwriting independently, the class also explores the general elements of theme, genre and voice. A more specific examination of mechanics, the nuts and bolts of story construction, plotting, pacing, etc., follows to support the ongoing writing process. In-class exercises aid the writer in sharpening skills and discovering new approaches to form and content. Writers' work is shared and discussed regularly in class. Screening of film scenes and sequences provides students with concrete examples of how dramatic screenwriting evolves once it leaves the writer's hands.
Same as L53 Film 352

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 372 Music Journalism

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 373 Cultural Journalism

In the Internet Age, journalism has migrated from traditional, or "legacy" institutions (book publishers, film & television production companies, newspapers) to digital versions of the same thing; however, the craft remains tied to its legacy models. The migration online has endangered certain ecologies of journalistic practice — in particular, arts journalism, especially criticism, the long-form investigative essay, and foreign reporting. The first two of these three fit under what we describe as cultural journalism, and our purpose in this class is to practice what have been cultural journalism's forms, at the same time as we inquire into the modes and genres that are its future.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 375 Political Writing

Defined most simply, politics is that which pertains to the "affairs of the polis," one's community. In its real-life context, writing always interacts with a community in some way, engaging a defined audience to produce an intended effect. In this sense, writing always touches the affairs of a polis, and thus, writing is inherently political, regardless of whether the writer considers this during composition. In this class, we will focus on explicitly political writing by writers who are not politicians, that is to say, sanctioned experts in the affairs of the polis. Foregoing public policy memoranda and economic analyses, we will look at how journalists, grassroots organizers, and creative writers have consciously written to intervene in the affairs of their communities despite their outsider status. Using techniques of rhetorical analysis and logical structure, we will examine how these writers crafted works that inspire and move audiences through the conventions of several genres: essay, polemic, journalism and satire.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 400I Independent Study

This independent study in creative writing is envisioned as more specialized than a 300-level course, with students intensively investigating a particular topic, theme, craft element, genre, and so on. Students should, along with the instructor, create an intensive reading list in the area of focus and complete a substantial creative project during the semester.

Credit 3 units. BU: SCI

L13 Writing 401 Writing for Children and Young Adults

In this course we examine various genres of writing for young people: poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 403 Dramaturgy Workshop

A laboratory course that investigates dramaturgy from four vantage points: New Play Dramaturgy, Institutional Dramaturgy, Dramaturgy of Classics, and Dramaturgical Approaches to Nontraditional and Devised Theater. This is a "hands-on" course where student dramaturgs not only pursue the study of dramaturgy, but work actively and collaboratively with playwrights, actors and each other. Prerequisite: Drama 343.
Same as L15 Drama 403

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM

L13 Writing 405 Rhetorical Theory: Problems and Methods

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM

L13 Writing 4131 Topics in Composition

Composition topics course — offerings vary from semester to semester.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 417 Prose Style in English: History and Craft

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 420 Advanced Nonfiction

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 421 Advanced Fiction Writing

For qualified students who wish to continue their creative writing and reading through immersion in an intensive fiction workshop. Students wishing to enroll must not only register but also submit a 15-page (double-spaced) fiction sample. The sample must include a cover page with: student's name, the semester they took Fiction Writing 2, and the name of the Fiction Writing 2 instructor. Submit samples to the English Department mailbox of the L13 Writing 421 instructor no later than April 20. No one is officially enrolled in this class until contacted by the instructor. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1, Writing 221 Fiction Writing 1, Writing 321 Fiction Writing 2.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 422 Advanced Poetry Writing

For qualified students who wish to continue their creative writing and reading through immersion in an intensive poetry workshop. Students wishing to enroll must not only register but also submit eight poems. The sample must include a cover page with: student’s name, the semester he or she took Poetry Writing 2, and the name of the Poetry Writing 2 instructor. Submit samples to the English Department mailbox of the L13 Writing 421 instructor no later than April 20. No one is officially enrolled in this class until contacted by the instructor. Prerequisites: CWP 100 College Writing 1, Writing 222 Poetry Writing 1, Writing 322 Poetry Writing 2.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 423 Proseminar in Writing: Nonfiction Prose

For students qualified to pursue their own projects in nonfiction prose; criticism by other members of the class and by the instructor. Limit: 12 students. Prerequisite: permission of instructor upon submission of writing samples.

Credit 3 units.

L13 Writing 424 Poetry Tutorial

These credits are available to students who have completed Writing 222 Poetry I and Writing 322 Poetry II. This is an opportunity for students who have already completed Writing 422 Advanced Poetry, or who are not able to take Advanced Poetry because of scheduling conflicts, to meet individually with the instructor to develop a portfolio of poems. During weekly meetings students explore various writing processes and revision techniques. There are directed readings and discussions of selected topics related to contemporary poetry and poetics. Credits may be taken concurrently with Advanced Poetry. Permission of the instructor is required.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 431 Craft of Fiction

A literature/creative writing hybrid course; students read a number of contemporary historical fictions — an increasingly important and innovative genre — and then write one of their own.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 432 The Craft of Poetry

This course is for writers who wish to study long-form poetic composition and book arrangement. The major assignment will be to compose a poem or poetic sequence of considerable length. Gwendolyn Brooks ("The Anniad") and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha ("Dictee") will be chief among our guides. We will study how poets arrange their books, and we will also make a brief foray into the material history of the book. Texts by Rosa Alcalá, John Ashbery, Daniel Borzutzky, Barbara Guest, Lyn Hejinian, Lorine Niedecker, Alice Notley, George Oppen, Ed Roberson, Brian Teare, and Simone White will also be included. This course counts toward the creative writing concentration. Prerequisite: L13 322.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 440 Critic as Writer

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 4521 Advanced Screenwriting

This course is intended for students who have already taken Film 352 Introduction to Screenwriting. Building on past writing experiences, students explore the demands of writing feature-length screenplays, adaptations and experimental forms. Particular attention is paid to the task of rewriting.
Same as L53 Film 452

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 4731 Advanced Playwriting

This course explores the tendencies and relationship between each individual student writer and the page. Exercises dispel any lingering doctrine that presupposes a certain style of writing. A large part of the class centers around collaborations. The writers write scenes as a final project for an acting class, and also work with two professional actors in an extended writing project that culminates in a script-in-hand presentation. The informal moments between collaborations look at the process beyond the first draft — i.e., the playground of language, nonverbal options, and the maintaining of "the work" through rewrites, readings, workshops and productions. Prerequisite: Drama 227 Introduction to Playwriting.
Same as L15 Drama 473

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L13 Writing 490 Creative Writing Capstone Seminar

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 100 College Writing

This course teaches writing as a way of thinking and learning. Throughout the semester, students will explore writing as a creative and intellectual process. They will learn how to brainstorm, explore, and structure ideas on a page; share their writing and learn how to give and take constructive criticism; and learn how to revise their work, both for issues related to the paper's larger idea, and for issues related to grammar and style. By regularly working their way through the writing process, students will develop the habits and skills that make advanced study possible: paying close attention to the words and ideas of others; coming up with and responding to arguments of others; and refining a lucid style of prose that meets the expectations of the audience and occasion. This course satisfied the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 1001 Foundations of Academic Writing

This course may be required of some students before they take College Writing (placement to be determined by the department). Particular attention is paid to reading comprehension, critical thinking, organization of ideas and grammar. In some cases, students may be required to enroll in a 1-credit tutorial along with this course.

Credit 3 units. Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 111 College Writing: Ampersand Ireland

This College Writing course complements the two-semester program exploring the Literary Culture of Modern Ireland. THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE FIRST-YEAR WRITING REQUIREMENT FOR ALL DIVISIONS.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 112 College Writing: Citizen Scientist

Being a citizen of a modern democracy increasingly requires making decisions informed by our understanding of scientific consensus and the backing evidence. The stakes of these decisions range from the future of a warming planet to the benefits of vaccinations and GMOs to the persistence of racial bias and gender inequality. Even our daily diets are pushed and pulled by competing nutritional studies and their distortions in the media. Negotiating the volume of news and "fake news," the available academic research, and the influence of special interests can be daunting -- particularly when we try to reflect on our own blind spots and knowledge gaps. Citizen Scientist uses these and other topics at the intersection of civic responsibility and academic research to introduce students to college writing. The course will teach students to analyze, research and generate scholarly arguments as they deepen their understanding of the dynamic interaction between public opinion, government policy, political activism, science journalism, citizen science, and the research university. This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 113 College Writing: Dreams & Nightmares

This course is an opportunity to explore and experiment, to dwell in uncertainty and inquiry, and to entertain confusion before resolution. Whether your area of interest is the psychology of dreams, monsters, memory, desire, cognition and neuroscience, or the underbelly of the American Dream, you will find room to interrogate subjects, both real and imagined, as well as texts and theories that destabilize categories, embody possibility, and threaten established order. This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 114 College Writing: Writing Identity

What defines who we are and who we may become? How do class, gender, race, sexuality, and other social forces shape our identities? In what ways are our identities inherent or constructed, claimed or ascribed? In this course, we explore these and similar questions through the work of creative and critical writers, artists, and thinkers. We study key concepts such as double consciousness, intersectionality, and performativity. We consider how social dynamics, power, and privilege affect the language we use and the lives we live. All along, through writing and research assignments and class discussions, we examine and interpret visual, literary, and critical texts in an effort to define, together, what identity is and why it matters. Note: This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 115 College Writing: Writing, Literature & Justice

This course seeks to develop the advanced reading, writing, and research skills that students need in a university setting. It uses classical texts of the western tradition to investigate the question of justice and to develop arguable claims through the careful analysis of evidence. The act of crafting arguments, we will assume, is implicated in the question of justice because arguments depend on an ethics of persuasion. We will learn how to practice such an ethics as we improve our ability to understand and utilize four crucial aspects of academic writing: evidence, analysis, argument, and research. Mastering these aspects will make us proficient in the difficult art of judgment. It will allow us to make sense of some of the most powerful literary statements about justice, from Sophocles to Shakespeare to Toni Morrison. Note: THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE FIRST-YEAR WRITING REQUIREMENT FOR ALL DIVISIONS.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 116 College Writing: Place & Perspective

Place & Perspective is a writing course featuring readings on the subject of our environments, whether social communities, physical spaces, or even virtual realities. As a class and as individuals, students will be asked to respond to these sources with writing of their own, practicing the academic traditions of interpreting, analyzing, criticizing, and researching. Most importantly, students will have the opportunity to write original works synthesizing and offering new views on what it means to live here in this world, to have a place in an ecosystem or a city, a house or a hospital. We'll study our local community, from perspectives in our classroom to the wider conversations across the St. Louis region as we discover and write about our surroundings. We'll foreground diversity in both in our class conversations and the writers we'll read, from issues of inequality to concerns of access and the responsibilities of citizens. The class will feature multidisciplinary perspectives in conversations with our faculty as they reflect on their experiences writing within and about places. We will consider how place-based thinking thrives across academic fields, from design thinking in art to systems science in engineering, from environmental policy in business to ethnographic writing in anthropology, to name a few possibilities. This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 118 College Writing: Technology & Selfhood

Writing is a technology that allows one to read the thoughts of others across space and time. Our course's theme -- technology -- is the subject matter that we will be reading to hone skills such as analysis, argumentation, and critical thinking. This does not mean that a student must be a budding technologist to succeed in this course, nor will this course seek to transform a student into one. Rather, this course treats "technology" in its broadest sense, from its root in the Greek techne (which means "craftsmanship," "craft," "art," or "rhetoric") to its contemporary definition as the realm of knowledge that deals with the mechanical arts and applied sciences. In writing about technology, we will consider perspectives across the university curriculum in order to better comprehend our relationship with our tools and to scrutinize the dynamic interaction, communication, and interdependence of different kinds of tools for various means of communication and representation. We will strive to think critically about ourselves as part of larger communities and systems by attending closely to the ways we communicate with and about others through technologies such as writing, film, and social media. In writing creative, analytical, argumentative, and researched essays, we will address responsible uses of technology and the effects that technologies have on different communities and individuals, and we will try to answer questions like the following: How does technology affect us when we use it? How do technologies intersect and affect one another? What roles does technology play in our everyday lives? What roles do we want it to play in our future? Note: This course satisfies the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 119 College Writing: Writing on Aging

Half of the current students' generation will see their 100th birthdays. This astonishing shift in demographics is one that affects each of us as individuals, as members of families, and as citizens. This writing course takes aging as its theme, sharpening our critical thinking through such practices as analysis, argumentation, and research while asking the following questions: How will we negotiate the changing goals and life circumstances that accompany a century of life? How will new technologies change how we live as individuals and as a society? How will our experiences and those who go before us shift how we imagine the possibilities open to our future selves? We will read the work of essayists, critics, and theorists tackling these problems. In turn, we will engage our new longer future through our own creative and critical responses as well. This course satisfied the first-year writing requirement for all divisions.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 120 College Writing: Text & Traditions

When we hear the word hoax today, the terms misinformation and fake news often follow, along with concerns that the very fabric of American society is being destroyed by the internet's ability to cloak falsehood as truth. And yet hoaxes have been around longer than the internet, and often do work beyond the realm of the political. Kevin Young writes in "Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbugs, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News" that the hoax is suited to America in a way that other places can only aspire to, with our fake-it-til-you-make-it hucksterism a kind of national ethos. In this course we look at a wealth of hoaxes, from those in art, which are often designed to shake our faith in institutions telling us what is valuable and to ask us to think for ourselves, to those of the newspaper wars of the 1800s, when outrageous scoops about the creatures who live on the moon helped sell papers to readers who were invited to enjoy, if not quite believe, the news. We will examine what we can learn from these historical and contemporary apolitical hoaxes, and how that knowledge can be brought to bear on those we see today, where hoaxes can fray trust in public institutions like the press, the government, and even the university. This course is linked to the Text & Tradition Focus seminar program. THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE FIRST-YEAR WRITING REQUIREMENT FOR ALL DIVISIONS.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 1511 Critical Reading and Analytical Writing

This course focuses on developing the reading and writing skills needed to excel at the college level. Students apply principles of logical argumentation in order to critically read argumentative writing. They then develop analytical essays in response to these arguments. Students write four main papers of two drafts apiece. At the same time, the course addresses the clarity and accuracy of students' written English through ample written feedback, occasional lessons devoted to language issues common among course participants, and occasional individual tutorial meetings. Placement by examination or permission of the College Writing Program.

Credit 3 units.

L59 CWP 199 Language Support for English Composition

This course is designed to support students concurrently enrolled in L59 1001 Foundations of Academic Writing. Course activities are tailored to address language issues that arise in students' writing for L59 1001. By raising students' awareness of their individual strengths and weaknesses in written English and by teaching systematic approaches to editing their own writing, this course helps students build independence in producing more polished works of academic writing in English.

Credit 1 unit.

L59 CWP 200 Writing Tutorial

Students may be required to enroll in the tutorial for concentrated practice in writing fundamentals under the guidance of a tutor in addition to taking College Writing. In these cases, satisfying the first-year writing requirement will mean receiving a satisfactory grade in College Writing and receiving a passing grade in the tutorial. In some cases, students may be required to take the tutorial for 3 credit units after taking College Writing in order to satisfy the first-year writing requirement.

Credit 1 unit.

L59 CWP 201 Writing Workshop

This workshop focuses on engaging research, with all of the multiple meanings implied in the phrase's wordplay: engaging as interesting and interested; as active, responsive to and engaged with others. Just what we mean by engaging -- and by research, for that matter -- will be our topic of conversation all semester, and you should come prepared to contribute your views on that topic and to complicate your current understanding. Where possible, we will focus on practical, applied work with sources, which should provide a good foundation for advanced research and writing in your discipline, and we'll give some thought to the different methods by which different audiences and scholarly disciplines select, analyze, evaluate, incorporate, and document the works of others. Along the way, we will attend to the relationship between different kinds of research projects and the types of sources that suit them, and we'll practice techniques for drawing on the ideas and writings of others in responsible and engaged ways. Finally, we will grapple with the subtleties and complexities of Academic Integrity, attempting to understand not only the principles that govern responsible research but also the assumptions that underlie them. Ultimately, this course should enhance your ability to produce scholarly writing that not only draws on the voices and views of others responsibly, but that also speaks with its own distinct, engaging voice, that builds its own original arguments.

Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 202 The Essay: From Montaigne to The New Yorker

The essay has a storied past and present as well as a variety of purposes. In this course, we trace the history of this form, beginning with those long forgotten and not necessarily identified as essays and moving swiftly to present-day essays. We read works by such authors as Michel de Montaigne, Jonathan Swift, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Virginia Woolf, plus articles in 2020 issues of The New Yorker. We practice brief reflective and long formal essays, including a profile, a reportage, and a film review. By the end of the semester, students will have a good understanding of the essay's history and form and a good sensibility for writing it.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 203 Pump Up the Volume: Collaboration and Cultural Impact Through Podcasting

When you're walking to class or catching a shuttle, what's playing in your earbuds? Music, perhaps. Or maybe you're listening to one of the more than 800,000 podcasts available to stream at any given moment. From tracking the rise and fall of Theranos' founder Elizabeth Holmes to unapologetic musings about life from recovering addict and actor Dax Shepard, podcasts have never been more primed to take our ears, our minds, and our hearts by storm. In this course, students will examine this phenomenon and its value in our global-minded culture and put into practice the storytelling skills we will observe from a collection of podcasts by creating our own podcast episode. Together, we will find out what happens when you fuse creative impulse with rigorous research and let it loose on the airwaves.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 204 Food Writing Workshop: From Identity to Social Justice

From Proust's "madeleine moment" to rap songs about truffle butter and milkshakes, food is an enormous part of identity, status, and culture. As an object for analysis, food rests at the center of the intersection of race, class, gender, and more. This course will explore food from a variety of angles and, most importantly, as a mode of social justice. Based heavily on scholarly readings and weekly writing workshops, the course asks students to think and write critically about the role eating plays in their personal identity, the culture with which they or others identify, and as a way to enact equitable social change. Students will rely on analytical and research skills, with an emphasis on the idea that all writing is creative and can enact a meaningful paradigm shift, even if the subject is as seemingly innocuous as food.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM

L59 CWP 205 Conspiracy Theories and Online Hoaxes: The Rhetoric of Disinformation

Why do people believe in conspiracies, and what can we do to quell disinformation? This course will build on foundational information literacy skills by studying conspiracy theories and hoaxes that originate and are circulated online and that are then used for political advantage. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, we will read texts in composition and rhetoric, media studies, philosophy, history, sociology, political science, and psychology to understand how conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and other forms of disinformation are amplified through social media networks and come to be believed by millions. Working with case studies such as QAnon, climate change denial, the anti-vaccination movement, and the Flat Earth Society, this course will explore the rhetoric that convinces people to believe in disinformation and the networks that contribute to its proliferation while also studying ways to combat disinformation, from methods for debunking conspiracy theories and hoaxes to the actions that journalists, educators, and others can take to resist the spread of disinformation.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM EN: H

L59 CWP 206 Navigating New Media

"New media" is commonly defined as any media delivered digitally rather than in print form, and includes everything from a New Yorker article shared on Twitter to a Youtube influencer's latest vlog to an annual Spotify Wrapped list posted to Instagram. We engage new media everyday, but how does it shape the way we receive, share, and interpret information? How might it undergird our very sense of self? This course would focus on analyzing and interpreting new forms of media-specifically social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, but also blogs, podcasts, and streaming platforms, all of which toward no small amount of recent scholarship has been dedicated. Taking these platforms seriously as forms of communication (and miscommunication) is crucial to being media literate today, and to understanding the power asymmetries inherent to almost any new media experience. Reading essays by scholars such as Safiya Umoja Noble, Slavoj Zizek, and Ian Bogost, along with writings by culture critics like Malcolm Gladwell, Barrett Swanson, Safy-Hallan Farah, and Jia Tolentino, we will explore new media through a variety of interdisciplinary lenses, considering a cross-generational span of perspectives.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM

L59 CWP 207 The Scholar and Social Change: Writing between Research and Political Urgency

While scholarship has a fraught relationship with timely action, some scholars understand and position their intellectual activities as promoting real-world change to bring about a more equitable and just future: By better understanding a seemingly intractable problem, we should be better able to empower others with actionable knowledge. And by better reflecting on the socio-political role of scholarship, we should be able to bridge the gap between knowledge and action. This composition course is devoted to reflecting on our role as members of both a scholarly community and a system beset by powerful interests working to preserve exploitative practices that degrade our health, our environment, and our dignity. Specifically, "The Scholar and Social Change" develops theoretical models and research strategies to investigate how overlapping histories of systemic oppression affect the production of knowledge and power. In seminar-style class discussion we will connect urgent affairs of the day to academic literature on environmental justice, critical race theory, postcolonialism, intersectionality, corporate disinformation, and neoliberalism. Ungraded research exercises will practice finding and making use of Supreme Court decisions, government research agencies, newspapers, and case studies on St. Louis and Washington University. Readings will include works by scholars reflecting on political action, modeling social engagement, and holding their own disciplines to account. As we read the authors on the syllabus -- including Naomi Oreskes, Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, Julie Sze, Nick Estes, Laura Pulido, Kendall Thomas, Gayatri Spivak, and Judith Butler -- we'll ask how scholarship can be a political vocation and what that may mean for us as writers and researchers. Assessment will include research essays, peer interviews, reflection posts, and oral presentations with graded draft workshops built into the class schedule. Considerable freedom will be given to students to craft their final research project on a topic consistent with the spirit of the class.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM