Fall 2007 Course Descriptions

101. Entering Discourse Communities 3 hours

3HU, WRi

RHET-101-01 TuTh 10:00-10:50 Mr. Podis CRN 7391

This course aims to form a writer’s community that will explore the various discourses in which class members participate. We will approach writing as real communication among group members rather than artificial practicing of skills. The course will include readings on writing processes as well as essays on varied topics. There will be weekly writing assignments and regular conferences with the instructor to review drafts and revisions. Most classes will be peer response workshops. Enrollment Limit: 15.

102. Writing for College and Beyond 3 hours

3HU, WRi

RHET-102-01 MWF 10:00-10:50 Nancy Boutilier CRN 7392

In the writing they do for college, students are asked to analyze and critique arguments, conduct research, and develop fluency in a number of forms and discourses, among other things. This writing course is designed to immerse students in the practice of writing for college and beyond and engages them in the practical and creative aspects of research.

 

107. Practicum in Journalism 1-2 hours

1-2HU

RHET-107-01 TBA Anne Trubek CRN 4061

Through this course students earn academic credit working for an approved journalistic publication on campus. The course does not meet as a class, but students are expected to attend all required staff meetings and fulfill the assignments made by their editors. Students can earn a maximum of four hours credit toward graduation (a maximum of six hours credit for editors).

 

 

 

174. Literary Journalism 4 hours

4HU, WRi

FYSP-174-01 TuTh 11:00-12:15 Anne Trubek
FYSP-174-02 TuTh 3:00-4:15 Anne Trubek

This course will survey the history of literary journalism and linger on contemporary American practitioners of this genre. Literary journalism has been variously defined as “the art of fact,” writing that “combines the techniques of the novelist with that of the journalist,” or “making facts dance.” However one defines it, it has a long history—from Daniel Defoe, James Boswell, Walt Whitman, Jack London, George Orwell, and Rebecca West to, more recently, Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, David Foster Wallace, John McPhee, Susan Orlean, Lawrence Weschler, and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (to name just a few). Literary journalism can take on all sorts of guises, such as memoir, investigative reporting, travel writing, literary criticism, sports writing, and nature writing. We will read examples of all of these—some book length, some only a few paragraphs long. As we do, we will try to hazard of our definition of the genre. Students will have the opportunity to pen their own examples of literary journalism.