MODES OF WRITING: Language and Social Policy

Professors Moses, Gundlach, and Harmon

WRIT A12-1

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This two-quarter, team-taught course, designed specifically for first-year students, combines a rigorous, wide-ranging exploration of an important theme -- language and social policy -- with close attention to helping students become strong, effective writers.

In the fall quarter, we will meet regularly both in lecture/discussion sessions and in writing seminars. We will begin by considering popular conceptions of speech and writing. Next, we will get an overview of the goals and methods in the study of language and we will consider issues that arise when language becomes the focus in social policy. With these foundations established, we will then explore selected issues in three areas: (a) language, identity, and power; (b) language, literacy, and education; and (c) language and the media.

In the winter quarter, students will meet primarily in small seminar groups, and each student will complete a research project on a specific topic related to themes develped in the previous quarter's work. Seminar meetings in the winter will be supplemented by a series of guest lectures. Meetings will also be organized toward the end of the quarter in which members of different seminar groups can present and discuss the results of their research projects.

Through both quarters, students can expect to write steadily. In the fall, students will write three essays of intermediate length (4-6 pages, with a draft of each essay discussed and revised), along with five briefer response pieces (1-2 pages each). In the context of completing these assignments, students will receive instruction and coaching on methods of analysis, strategies of argument, and principles of style. In the winter, students will complete a 10-15 page research paper; students will also produce a reading and discussion journal of at least 15 pages. Research projects will be organized in stages, with students receiving instruction and coaching in developing a proposal, conducting research, analyzing material, formulating an argument, drafting, revising, and editing.

NOTE: The winter counterpart to this course must be taken for credit. Please plan your schedule accordingly.

The Art of Poetry: "Changing the Past: The Practice of Poetry and the Uses of Imagination"

Eleanor Wilner

WRIT C02-0
Time: TTH 2:30-4:30

Using the Metamorphoses of Ovid as a guide, this course will explore the shifting metaphoric terrain of the poetic imagination, how (and why) one thing becomes another in the contested space where present meets past, inner meets outer, and the singular encounters the collective. We will look at contemporary poems which embody reversals and transformations of enduring figures and fictions from inherited cultural stock. The course will combine study and practicum, with workshop discussion of sources, current models and student poems.

The Art of Expository Prose: "Telling Stories: The Art of Writing Narrative Non-fiction"

Alex Kotlowitz

WRIT C03-0
Time: MW 2-4

How do we find stories? How do we tell them? This course will investigate with the clear purpose of providing an aperture on a corner of the world otherwise unexplored. Students will read books and magazine pieces. Class discussion will focus on effectiveness, readability, originality. Students will report and write their own stories. And some student work will be shared and discussed in class.

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