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Writing Program

Courses Offered

2. Composition and Research: I

07F: 11, 12   08F: Arrange

The course description is given under Writing 3. This course and Writing 3 are open only to first-year students invited after an on-line placement process to participate in the Integrated Academic Support program. Normally, students enrolled in Writing 2 will continue with Writing 3, but in rare cases may instead take Writing 5. Boone, Chaney, Gocsik, Lenhart, and Moody.

3. Composition and Research: II

08W: 11, 12   09W: Arrange

This two-term course in first-year composition works on the assumption that excellence in writing arises from serious intellectual engagement. To achieve this excellence, Writing 2-3 enrolls students into intensive, seminar-style classes in which literary and other works (including the students’ own) are read closely, with attention to substance, structure, and style. The primary goal of Writing 2 is for students to learn to write clearly and with authority. By submitting themselves to the rigorous process of writing, discussing, and rewriting their papers, students come to identify and then to master the essential properties of the academic argument.

In Writing 3, students engage in the more sustained discourse of the research paper. These papers are not restricted to literary criticism but might employ the research protocol of other academic disciplines. Throughout the reading, writing, and research processes, students meet regularly with their teaching assistants and professors, who provide them with individualized assistance. Writing 2-3 is taken in lieu of Writing 5 and meets the college requirement for composition.

Students who take the Writing 2-3 sequence defer their First-Year Seminar until the spring term. These courses do not serve in partial satisfaction of the Distributive Requirement. Boone, Chaney, Gocsik, Lenhart, and Moody.

5. Expository Writing

07F, 08W, 08F, 09W: 9, 10, 10A, 11, 12, 2, 2A

Founded upon the principle that thinking, reading, and writing are interdependent activities, Writing 5 is a writing-intensive course that uses texts from various disciplines to afford students the opportunity to develop and hone their skills in expository argument. Instruction focuses on strategies for reading and analysis and on all stages of the writing process. Students actively participate in discussion of both the assigned readings and the writing produced in and by the class.

Note: Writing 5 (or 2-3) is required of all first-year students except those exempted for proficiency. It never serves in partial satisfaction of the Distributive Requirement. The staff.

8. Writing with Media

08S: 12

New media calls for new rhetorical practices. This course introduces students to the principles and practices of writing with media, offering instruction in how to read and to write multi-media compositions. Assignments include creating visual arguments; “re-mediating” texts to the Web and/or to PowerPoint; envisioning quantitative information; and composing a video documentary. Students will also produce written analyses of multimedia compositions in order to demonstrate their visual literacy.

Prerequisite: Writing 5 or its equivalent (Writing 2-3 or exemption from the Writing 5 requirement). Dist: ART. Gocsik.

9. Composition: Theory and Practice (Identical to English 9)

09S: Arrange

This course explores the complex relationship between writing and knowledge as it is theorized and practiced, focusing on the important pedagogical shifts in Composition and Rhetoric over the last fifty years. Special topics may include how writing is taught (and knowledge constructed) within the disciplines; the intersections of rhetoric, power, and culture; debates concerning collaborative learning and intellectual property; the challenges of multimedia composition; conversations between composition and critical theory.

This course is strongly recommended for those pursuing Secondary Teaching Certification through the Education Department’s Teacher Education Program. This course does not carry major credit. Dist: ART. Gocsik.

41. Writing and Speaking Public Policy (Identical to, and described under, Public Policy 41)

Not offered in 2007-2008

42. The Art of Science Writing (Identical to, and described under, College Course 14)

07F: 2

Dist: ART.