CURRENT COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

This is an unofficial list of English courses that will be offered in FALL 2012. It is strictly for the use of expanded course descriptions. For the complete official course offerings, please consult the UIC SCHEDULE OF CLASSES.

100 Level

 

 

 

200 Level

 

 

 

300 Level

 

 

400 Level

 

 

 

500 Level

 

 

 

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Research/Independent Studies

During his or her academic career, a student may enroll in a variety of independent studies. A student must obtain approval from the professor with whom he or she expects to work. It is the student’s responsibility to find a professor willing to direct the student’s independent study. A brief description of the project or research should be attached as well. Professors have the right to decline to take independent study students in a given semester. It is also the student's responsibility to meet regularly with the professor and to fulfill the special demands of the independent study. The work should be completed in the semester in which it is undertaken.

Students then must complete an Independent Study/Research form ("the Purple Form") which needs to be signed by the professor who will supervise the work and presented to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval.

ENGL 591
Prospectus Research
1-12 credits (variable). For doctoral students only. Supervised research and development of dissertation prospectus and colloquium committee. All doctoral students are expected to enroll for Prospectus Research when they have passed their Preliminary Examination.

ENGL 592
Preliminary Exam Research
1-12 credits (variable). For doctoral students only. Supervised research and reading that facilitates the student's preparation for the preliminary examinations. Course is graded S/U only. Credit 1 to 12 hours, may be repeated for maximum of 12 hours of credit.

ENGL 596
Independent Study
1-4 credits (variable). Individualized research and study, with the supervision of a faculty member, in topics not covered by regular course offerings.

ENGL 597
Master's Project Research
0-4 credits (variable). For Master's degree students only. Supervised research and reading that facilitates the student's preparation of project research. Course is graded S/U only. May be repeated for a maximum of 12 hours. No more than 4 hours of ENGL 597 may be applied toward the degree.

ENGL 599
Thesis Research
1-16 credits (variable). For doctoral students only. All doctoral students are expected to enroll for Thesis Research when they have passed their Preliminary Examination (they must also enroll in ENGL 591). They must earn up to 32 hours for the dissertation.

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First Year Writing Program

070

ENGL 070:  Introduction to Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English
CRN 32797 (TR 9:30-11:45)
Romeo, Robert R.
Situated Writing: This course will focus on the following: The relationship between situation and content -who is writing, what is written, why it is being written, and who might read it (audience) -- that helps the writer decide the form (the genre) a piece of writing will take. Different situations that require specific language choices. Language choices that require the writer to examine the form, meaning, and use of words. Particular attention is paid to the grammar needs of Non-Native speakers. The consequences associated with writing. The process of writing-from brainstorming to the final draft-highlighting specific challenges facing the Non-Native speaker. The reading skills needed to successfully analyze non-fiction work.

ENGL 070:  Introduction to Academic Writing for the Nonnative Speakers of English
CRN 30498 (TR 9:30-10:45)
Williams, Charitianne
This class will explore elements of writing from analyzing audience, the situation prompting the written response, to the effects of your completed texts. We will focus on the expectations of both academic and public genres of writing. The class also includes grammar and language study appropriate for non-native or bilingual speakers of English.

071

ENGL 071: Writing that Matters
CRN 30505 (MWF 9:00-9:50); 30509 (MWF 10:00-10:50); 30515 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Culliton, Patrick
Why does writing matter? When, outside of this class, will you be/are you called upon to write? How do you approach these situations? What makes for effective writing? We will tackle these and other questions through four central concepts: situation, genre, language, and consequences. In this course you will critically examine some of the situations in which we write, the effects of those situations on our language and genre choices, and the potential consequences of writing for ourselves and our communities. You will write in a number of genres in this course, with a primary focus on argumentative writing. We will also spend significant time looking at the importance of good grammar and sentence skills. You will actively engage with writing’s potential as a vehicle for change. In short, you will be asked to make writing matter.

ENGL 071:  Locating Writing in Urban Life
CRN 30504 (TR 8:00-9:15); 30507 (TR 9:30-10:45); 30517 (TR 12:30-1:45)
Krall, Aaron
How does writing work to position individuals in social life? How are these social positions mapped onto the natural and built environments of 21st-century cities? More specifically, how are student writers compelled to produce certain kinds of texts in the urban landscape of cities like Chicago? This course will address these questions through a series of argumentative writing projects that will ask you to actively participate in a variety of genres, as well as an examination of their contexts (social and physical locations) and consequences (changes they might produce). As we explore the situations and genres that motivate and organize these projects, we will attend to the language choices that writers make and the expectations and conventions that shape these choices.

ENGL 071: Introduction to Academic Writing: Writing About the Representation of Marginalized Groups in Popular Culture
CRN 30521 (TR 11:00-12:15); 30964 (TR 2:00-3:15); 32782 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Petrovic, Robin
To prepare students for English 160, this rigorous writing course will introduce the concepts of situation, language, genre, and consequence. Through formal writing projects and numerous other writing tasks, students will explore the portrayal of minorities in American popular culture. Specifically, we will analyze how marginalized groups are portrayed in popular culture and how various media such as music, television, and movies reinforce or counteract predominant stereotypes. We will debate whether certain genres are more conducive to stereotyping. Through class discussions and writing assignments, we will learn that language is a form of power and that we can adapt it for our purposes. Finally, by discussing the intended consequences of various works and how well they reached their objectives, we will develop strong rhetorical skills. Overall, we will discover that we are already participants in a larger community and its discourse. Ultimately, this course will provide you with the skills to be successful in English 160.

ENGL 071:  Writing Inside and Outside of the University
CRN 30508 (TR 9:30-10:45); 30519 (TR 12:30-1:45)
Schneider, Jason
In this course we will work on developing some of the key skills needed for successful writing, including the following: how to read and analyze others’ writing, how to use grammar and language effectively, and how to construct texts that have the anticipated effects on readers. During the semester you will complete three writing projects in both academic and non-academic genres for a total of about 20 pages of polished writing. The goal of this multi-genre approach is to help you develop a broad understanding of how writing functions in a variety of contexts—both inside and outside of the university. To this end, the writing skills you gain in this course should have value beyond your academic work.

160

Monday/Wednesday/Friday
ENGL 160:  Writing A Self Socially
CRN 30661 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Adiutori, Vincent
Writing is one technology with which individuals construct both a sense of individuality as well as a position within different social contexts. This class aims to understand how developing a sense of oneself always takes place within social worlds. Therefore, as this class understands it, writing is best understood as a way to negotiate differences between individual and social demands. This course develops those skills required to be an effective communicator, critical thinker, and citizen using a variety of situation based writing projects.

ENGL 160:  Stand-Up Comedy: Writing in Genres
CRN 28745 (MWF 2:00-2:50); 11792 (MWF 3:00-3:50)
Baez, Marc
In this class, you will use various reading and writing strategies to draft and revise writing projects in a variety of genres. In each of these projects, your subject will be stand-up comedy. In order to have something to say, you will examine some of the basic elements, modes, issues, and historical periods in stand-up comedy, and you will examine arguments made about this art form, both inside and outside the academic world. Readings will include texts from humor studies, psychology, and sociology. You will also participate in two group presentations where you will have an opportunity to perform stand-up comedy in front of an audience of your peers. To accomplish all of these tasks with style and substance, you will spend a significant amount of time in class focusing on areas key to reading and writing at the college level.

ENGL 160: Entering Conversations: Writing in Context
CRN 30965 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Boese, Stefanie
In this course you will develop a critical eye for a number of different genres and learn to understand the situation from which a given text emerges. Most importantly, however, you will be able to enter these conversations through your own writing. You will learn how to develop an effective argument and how to support your claims with evidence and persuasive reasons. The goal of the course is to equip you with the skill to develop a well-crafted argument, a skill that will allow you to enter all the kinds of conversations that you will encounter throughout your college career.

ENGL 160:  Academic Writing:  Investigating the Media
CRN 30664 (MWF 10:00-10:50); 29462 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Boulay, Kate
This course focuses on the news to examine how local, national and international mass media shape our daily lives and interactions with others. Readings and writings cover a range of perspectives on the news media. Exploring the local mediascape, engaging with media workers, and examining websites, etc. we critically think and write about the production, dissemination and reception of news in Chicago, the United States and the English-speaking world. Synthesizing our assignments, we end the semester writing a media manifesto in which we outline and advocate for a media practice that suits our individual needs and preferences. Course work is based on the cornerstone of the UIC composition program: situated writing. We consider how situation shapes genre choice, how language choices produce consequences, and how the ideas we generate as a class this semester can impact a broader social context.

ENGL 160:  Academic Writing I
CRN 24124 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Browning, Annah
In this class you will participate in the shaping of the world around you. To learn how to do this, you will first become immersed in your surroundings and evaluate your situation. One key strength in the UIC composition class formula is an emphasis of understanding situation and genre. Successful writing begins with an attention to the audience and the type of writing that you are doing. You will practice these skills throughout this course which will focus on argumentation in a way that is directed to meeting the expectations of particular situations and writing genres. These skills will aid you becoming an active participant in your social and cultural environment. You will begin by familiarizing yourself with UIC’s urban campus. You will engage in conversations in an online dialogue and help others to gain knowledge of the campus as a whole. Once you have become familiar enough with your surroundings to be able to evaluate the opportunities for improvement, you will learn how to go about affecting the kind of changes that you determine are necessary to make the campus a better place. The skills that you will develop to help you become an active participant in a community will become evident as you compose both a set of letters to newspaper editors and a proposal that details the type of changes you would like to make. You will practice in writing ways to establish new opportunities for your campus community to thrive and have your issues addressed. By the end of the semester you will have developed ideas about the role of student organizations and develop ideas about how to get them started and grow their membership. You will discover that through writing, you will simultaneously develop and be developed by your surroundings. Writing is a skill that can empower you to embrace and improve any situation that you may encounter. The skills you will practice in this course will allow you to enact change in your environment at UIC and beyond the boundaries of the university. You will, after taking this course, be capable of understanding and participating in projects that can be applied to many areas of the social and cultural communities around the campus, the community, the city, and beyond.

ENGL 160: Academic Writing I
CRN 30663 (MWF 9:00-9:50); 30667 (MWF 11:00-11:50); 11821 (MWF 12:00-12:50); 21750 (MWF 3:00-3:50)
Casey, John
In this course we will examine the concept of “situated writing.”  This type of writing involves recognizing that what we communicate to others through means of the written word “situates” us within a  specific group of people. These groups include, but are not limited to, our coworkers, students who share knowledge in a particular field of study, as well as friends and neighbors.  Situated writing also asks us to acknowledge that writing is an activity with very practical consequences, helping to create as well as document the reality of our day to day lives.  Each of the four writing assignments in this class (a Profile Piece, Manifesto, Argumentative Essay, and Cover Letter/Proposal) will ask you to consider the four key terms of situation, genre, language and consequences.  We will use these terms as a way not only to understand how to create more effective writing but also as a way to comprehend the theme of our course readings: “creating community.”  Your writing along with our course discussions and activities will allow you to see how the act of communication often frustrates as well as aids us in our connections with others.  By the end of this class, you should be able to utilize the knowledge gained from your writing as well as our in-class activities and discussions in order to advance into your chosen area of expertise.  It should also assist you in the larger goal of being an engaged member in the wide variety of communities to which you currently belong as well as those that you will someday occupy. 

ENGL 160: Writing as a First-Year Academic
CRN 11446 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Corey, Matthew
In this class, you will explore what it means to be a student at UIC by composing, revising, and submitting to peer review a number of sustained writing projects. These assignments will ask you to consider issues that arise from everyday situations specific to first-year students at UIC. You will complete four such projects over the course of the semester: an argumentative essay, a personal essay, an interview-and-profile, and a manifesto. The analytical, critical, and creative writing required by this course will undoubtedly prepare you for future classes.

ENGL 160:  www.writing
CRN 24146 (MWF 8:00-8:50); 11462 (MWF 10:00-10:50); 11601 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
Cycholl, Garin
At the center of our study this semester are the ways that the Internet and electronic texts have changed your own sense of writing. How does the electronic text make you think differently about concepts like human memory or history? Who or what is an author? How is autobiography understood in the age of the “hive mind?” Has technology shifted our common understanding of writing genres? How will economic variables continue to define the shape of the “book?” Through various assignments, we will examine these and other questions to define common perspectives on twenty-first century writing.

ENGL 160: YOU - I -C
CRN 27286 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Finley, Aaron
The cornerstone of the UIC composition program is the idea that successful writing both arises from a specific situation in the world, and has the ability to shape that world itself. Your writing for this semester will be generated by a real-life situation that you are already becoming steadily more familiar with: the UIC campus. You have no doubt been bombarded by a steady stream of new people, ideas, and environments since your arrival as a student. The first task for your work for this course is to become intimately acquainted with the situation of campus itself, and the excitements and challenges that are unique to this space in which you and your peers are pursuing your educational goals. Once you have become familiar with your surroundings, you will soon see opportunities for their improvement. From there you will learn how, through the genres of writing that we will explore in this course, you can go about effecting the kind of changes that you determine are necessary to make the campus a better place.

ENGL 160: The Technology of Writing in the Information Age
CRN 11548 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Godek-Kiryluk, Elvira
We live in a period of sweeping technological change, rapid communication and increased connectivity. Recognizing the implications of these changes, as well as the ways in which we might respond to them through writing, is vital to negotiating our place in the contemporary world. In this class we will consider changes in technology and technological communication and examine how people are reacting to them. Through this examination, you will begin to situate yourself as a respondent to these events through writing.

ENGL 160:  Academic Writing I Writing in Diverse Workplace and Community Situations
CRN 11332 (MWF 8:00-8:50); 11341 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Grunow, Scott
In this course, we will explore the whys and hows of writing in response to a variety of real-life situations ranging from harassment by noisy neighbors to obtaining funding for a not-for-profit arts organization. The course will culminate in the genre of an argumentative essay focusing on the ongoing controversy surrounding the retail giant Walmart.

ENGL 160:  Academic Writing I
CRN 11458 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Hale, Mary
In this course, we will examine a situation in which you all already have a lot of experience: education. You have just joined an active and diverse community of students at UIC, and all of you have many years of prior experience in classrooms. This class will bring your experiential knowledge of education to bear on national education policy conversations: what aspects of your education did you think were especially effective? Which elements would you change if given the opportunity? What motivates the actors in current debates in primary and higher education? Through the course readings and four writing projects, we will explore the ways in which you do have an opportunity to recommend and make changes to education through writing.

ENGL 160:  Why We Write
CRN 11560 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Hammond, Jen
Our semester together will consider all the reasons we might be called upon to write, whether they be academic, personal, political, or professional. Writing is not confined to your life as a student: think of all the texts, emails, notes, applications, and resumes you’ve already composed outside of school. Our course will prepare you for all the writing you’ll be asked to do as a college student by paying close attention to the situations in which you write, the different genres you’ll be asked to write, the different kinds of language you can use in your writing, and the consequences of your writing.

ENGL 160:  Academic Writing I
CRN 11385 (MWF 10:00-10:50); 11534 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Johnson, Lucas
This course will focus on why we write: what situations we find ourselves in as students, citizens, and workers that demand a written response. Moreover, we’ll discover all the different ways we can respond (or choose not to respond) to these situations in writing. This course asks you to join public conversations and expand on private conversations of your own. Over the course of the term, we will write within the context of five different genres. Through these genres, we will work to discover how each writing situation has its dynamic set of requirements and functions. Your papers will focus on language and how it affects, influences, changes, and reinforces ongoing conversations, such as digital culture (e.g. social networking and the Internet), the current recession, sexuality, and others. Other areas of focus will include grammar, punctuation, and argument.

ENGL 160: Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN 30665 (MWF-10:00-10:50)
Saha, Arindam
As students and as citizens we are constantly engaged in conversations with the wider world. These conversations take place not only in face-to-face interactions— many of our most far-ranging social conversations take place through mass media, newspaper articles, letters to the editor or to local politicians, while some of our most important personal conversations now take place through email or texting. Each of these conversations is dependent on a particular context or situation, and each requires an understanding not only of the situation but also of the genres suitable to that situation— that is, to the conventional forms we use to communicate in each situation. In this class you will explore four ideas important to composition and communication in general: Situation, Genre, Language, and Consequences. You will learn how each of these terms informs our writing, even if we are unaware of them (perhaps especially if we are unaware of them). And you will engage in five concrete situations that require responses through such genres as the Opinion Piece, the Letter to the Editor, the Dialogue, the Argumentative Essay, and the Media Review.

ENGL 160: Art in Chicago
CRN 11759 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Siskonen, Alexandra
As you move about Chicago, you encounter art in various forms from public sculptures to skyscrapers to graffiti to paintings hung in museums. What does it mean to live with art? How do you write about art? Why should we think about art? These are some questions we will investigate this semester. In this course, you will explore writing and the city of Chicago by thinking about how art affects our lives and our world. Over the course of the semester, you will work on four Writing Projects: a proposal, an argumentative essay, a comic and a review. Through these Writing Projects, we will learn how to engage in larger conversations about how art influences the way we live and act in the world. As we draft, edit and revise the Writing Projects, we will think about organization, language choices, rhetorical appeals, grammar and mechanics, etc.

ENGL 160: Writing to Make a Difference
CRN 11818 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Stewart, Tyrell
In this course, we will write to explore a series of situations that affect your neighborhood, the campus community, or the Chicago area in general. The situations that this course place you in will lead to the thoughtful creation of four unique pieces of writing all focused on making a difference in society and highlighting problems that may go ignored and underserved. This course approaches writing as a tool for civic engagement and social change, which will cause you to question some of the important issues that frame our local communities and by extension the entire nation. This course will help you to understand how, as a student, you can use writing as a source of power and enact change. Writing to Make a Difference, invites you to ask questions, explore answers, and take advantage of your own unique abilities as a writer to help shape the world in positive ways.

Tuesday/Thursday
ENGL 160: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN 23296 (TR 9:30-10:45); 27282 (TR 11:00-12:15)
Berner, Jennie
In this course, you will complete writing projects in 5 genres: media review, dialogue, cover letter, argumentative essay, and personal essay. Assigned readings and classroom activities will help you hone your writing skills and learn about contemporary issues related to music, the arts, and advertising.

ENGL 160: Writing in the Genres
CRN 11788 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Brooks, Ryan
In this class we’ll explore the context, form, and consequences of a variety of writing genres, including the personal essay, the argumentative essay, and the review (plus one more to be determined). By the end of the semester, you should have an idea of how to adapt to the ever-shifting demands of academic and public writing.

ENGL 160: Writing for Social Action
CRN 11791 (TR 8:00-9:15)
Cha, Dongho
In this course, we will explore a series of situations that affect your generation, and the current state of our country. These situations will lead you into producing 4 pieces of writing in 4 different genres. This course approaches writing as a means of power, and a tool of social change. What are some of the larger issues that are plaguing our education and our future? How can you, a freshman at UIC, make a difference through writing? What questions will you ask, and what problems will you tackle to make your voice be heard? This course, Writing for Social Action, invites you to ask questions, explore answers, and take advantage of the power of rhetoric.

ENGL 160: Writing About Food
CRN 11766 (8:00-9:15); 11551 (9:30-10:45); 11784 (12:30-1:45)
Cox, Nikki Paley
This course approaches writing as an instrument of community involvement and a tool of social change. Writing is one of the many ways we can contribute to and participate in our world; local, national and global issues generate numerous forms of public "conversations." This course invites you to actively participate in these exchanges, specifically in areas related to food and food studies. In this class, you will complete four writing projects: a movie review, a proposal, an argumentative essay, and an editorial. Additionally, you will write a cover letter explaining how you understand the key terms of the class as they apply to these four assignments and your growth as a writer. Through this series of writing projects you will be asked to contribute to the public discourse(s) surrounding specific social situations and community or national issues. These writing projects will ask you to respond to diverse situations by employing different types of writing from a variety of genres. As we explore various forms of writing, we will also work towards an understanding of how different genres are created out of and shaped by the particular situations from which they arise.

ENGL 160: Effective Writing: Personal, Academic, Professional
CRN 11390 (TR 2:00-3:15); 23463 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Douglas, Jason
Good writing achieves a desired outcome. Are you able to effectively convey your knowledge, skills, personality, feelings, and beliefs through writing? We will focus on writing projects that develop your skills in personal, academic and professional settings. Each writing project will require you to account for the specific discourse community you are speaking to and engage the appropriate genre. You will need to carefully coordinate your personal preferences, knowledge, and experiences with the specific demands of situation, genre, language, and consequences of each writing project in order to effectively communicate. You will produce four writing projects: a personal essay, a report, an argument, and a one more genre that we will determine collectively. These projects will require multiple drafts, follow up cover letters, and a final portfolio of your work.

ENGL 160: Writing In Context: Defining Your Voice
CRN 11828 (TR 8:00-9:15)
Eighan, Jocelyn
The goal of this course is to encourage you to think critically about current social issues on a local and global scale. We will discuss important topics – like cultural authenticity, the meaning of personal identity, and the global job market – and how these issues relate to you. This course will prepare you to locate your own voice within the public discourses surrounding these topics. In this class, you will learn how to effectively express yourself through writing. From letters and personal essays to more formal proposals, reviews, and feature stories, you will be able to utilize your writing skills in a variety of different genres. By the end of the semester, you should have a new understanding about the contexts from which we write. Furthermore, you will have (hopefully) learned more about your own identity and your place in the issues we have discussed throughout the semester.

ENGL 160: Introduction to Academic Writing
CRN 27372 (TR 9:30-10:45); 11343 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Girman, Chris
The aim of this course is to introduce a variety of genres and writing projects that will help you become situated in the UIC community and be an active participant of our academic community. Additionally, this course will prepare you for ENGL 161, meaning that, by semester’s end, you will demonstrate your ability to clearly communicate your thoughts to readers through writing. You will also learn how genre, situation, language, and consequence impact both writers and readers of texts, and you will become a more confident and competent writer – a writer who is able to communicate clearly in a variety of ways beyond your personal writing style. In short, you will be equipped to actively participate in academic conversations through your writing, which is necessary in order for you to earn your bachelor’s degree.

ENGL 160: Writing into Community Conversations
CRN 11720 (TR 11-12:15); 11731 (TR 12:30-1:45); 27373 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Hibbeler, Mary
This course approaches writing as an instrument of community involvement and a means of instigating social change. Writing is one of the many ways that we can contribute to and participate in our world – from personal letters, web logs, and emails to resumes, articles, formal proposals, and academic presentations. Local, national, and global issues generate numerous forms of public [written] “conversations.” This course invites you to actively participate in these exchanges. Through a series of four writing projects you will be asked to contribute to the public discourse(s) surrounding specific social situations and community issues. These writing projects will ask you to respond to diverse situations by employing different types of writing from a variety of genres. As we explore various forms of writing, we will also work towards an understanding of how different genres are created out of and shaped by the particular situations from which they arise.

ENGL 160: Writing for Social and Political Change
CRN 25927 (TR 8:00-9:15)
Jakalski, David
This course will examine how writing works to effect social and political change. Students will write extensively in several genres (Manifesto, Argumentative Essay, Cover Letter, Letter to a Government Official, Opinion Piece) in order to achieve specific, public, consequences. In this way, students will be asked to consider their writing as a powerful means of participation within a variety of social and political communities. Students should expect to read and write analytically for each class meeting and will be asked to revise multiple drafts of their writing projects.

ENGL 160: Writing into the World
CRN 11570 (TR 9:30-10:45)
Kang, EuiHuack
This course approaches writing as a means of interacting with the world. We are interested in discovering the world—the political world, the world we exist in as actors upon the world stage. We begin by taking a self-portrait or self-expression. As we do this, we understand that the picture we present to the world can be taken through many different lenses (writing Project #1 and #2). From there we will explore how our own lives intersect with our family and community (writing projects #3). Finally, we will venture out into the world and use our language as an agent for change (writing projects #4 and #5). Even if our words do not change the world, we can at least make our own worlds larger. In the end, these two goals, changing the world and changing our perception of it, may actually be the same thing.

ENGL 160: The Technology of Writing in the Information Age
CRN 11787 (TR 11:00-12:15); 23460 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Kulik, Ekaterina
The main goal of this class is to introduce you to writing in academic and public contexts by providing you with strategies and knowledge that you can use to write about ideas which can impact a broader social context. Although the course covers a wide range of topics — Definition and Diversity at UIC, Appropriation Art, Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Systems, and Social Networking Sites, the situation which these topics are built on is the same: change has called for responses from different writers, and you are invited to participate in the on-going conversation.

ENGL 160: Writing About Work
CRN 11796 (TR 9:30-10:45); 11801 (TR 2:00-3:15); 11841 (TR 8:00-9:15)
McFarland, Scott
In English 160 you will learn to identify, navigate, and effectively respond to diverse writing situations by making appropriate language choices, and by employing generic conventions. Through readings, writing assignments, and class discussions, we will consider the meaning of work—how labor is valued by Wall Street, by American society, and by our families, our friends, and ourselves. What personal values and political beliefs have shaped our ideas about work and “success”? This writing workshop will offer an opportunity for you to examine your own educational and career goals, and to consider their personal, social, and political implications. Writing projects for this course will include: an oral history, an argumentative essay, a news article parody, and a personal essay.

ENGL 160: Academic Writing I
CRN 11512 (TR 8:00-9:15)
Villanueva, Corina
This course focuses on writing in a specific situation for a specific purpose. You will learn and write about the different aspects of the multimedia age. The websites you use, the e-mails you send, and the films and television shows you watch all leave a lasting impact on how you see and understand the world and yourselves. Through writing, reading, and class discussions you will examine the different ways that various aspects of the multimedia age affect the shaping of your identity and your perspectives. Readings that explore these issues include chapters from Situated Writing at UIC, sections of The Longman Writer’s Companion, and additional articles and essays that I will distribute in class. This course will ask you to engage different aspects of the multimedia age through four writing situations. These situations ask you to produce a personal essay, an advice essay, an argumentative essay, and a proposal.

ENGL 160: Writing Public Art
CRN 11514 (TR 11:00-12:15); 27280 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Westin, Monica
In this class, you will explore how public art relates to its environment—the community it is embedded in—as well as how to impact this intervention through different writing genres. First, you will write an argumentative essay either for or against funding public art projects in general, utilizing ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos to support your stance. Second, you will write a review of a a specific work of art, through which you will identify and articulate your understanding of what is at stake and what matters for you in public arts projects. Then, based on the conclusions that you have come to regarding the role of public art, you will propose a public art project that will reflect these conclusions. Finally, you will decide how best to communicate the ideas and values of a community arts projects or organization in the form of a brochure about a real or hypothetical work of public art that you think is or would be beneficial to a particular community in Chicago. With this project, you will both distill and project the ideas that you have been addressing since your initial review: how does public art relate to communities, and how can community members and works of public art productively further this relationship?

Blended Course (Thursday Only)
ENGL 160: Tourists and Travelers-Writing to See the World
CRN 32837 (Thurs. 12:30-1:45)
Tracey, Sara
Writing, regardless of the particular situation it responds to, offers you an opportunity to present yourself, your community, and/or your opinions to an audience. In this course, we'll look at the ways a particular piece of writing--as well as a body of writing across genres--allows us to access the world. Students will write in multiple genres, including the brochure, the review, the travel essay, and the argumentative essay. Because this course takes place part of the time in a physical classroom and part of the time across the expanses of the internet, we'll pay specific attention to writing that occurs online and the possible consequences of this type of writing.

161

Monday/Wednesday/Friday
ENGL 161: Writing About the Environment in the 21st Century
CRN 24055 (MWF 9:00-9:50); 30669 (MWF 12:00-12:50); 29283 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Barrigar, Dale
In this writing course, we'll satisfy all ENGL 161 requirements while examining the scholarly topic "environmentalism and human freedom" (vs. environmentalism-only) including civil disobedience issues.

ENGL 161: Science Fiction and the Body
CRN 11851 (MWF 11:00-11:50); 11935 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Fiorelli, Julie
As recent film and television examples such as Battlestar Galactica, District 9, Moon, Dollhouse, Source Code, and The Hunger Games illustrate, science fiction can not only project more technologically advanced futures, but also provide political and social commentary on the present. This commentary may reflect various political viewpoints, and it may deal with a wide array of issues, including race, class, and gender. In this course, we will explore various examples of science fiction writing and film/television with an eye toward its critical function. More particularly, we will be looking at science fiction that addresses the human body, and technology’s effects on the body and how we view it. We will also read nonfiction material that examines science fiction’s function and issues raised in the fiction. While this course takes up science fiction and the body as its topic and model of inquiry, its primary goal is to help students to develop as academic writers. Over the course of this class, students will develop their skills of academic inquiry and analytical writing; through a series of shorter writing assignments, the class will culminate in an extended research project of the student’s choosing, related to the topics of the class.

ENGL 161: Image and Context: Ways of Seeing and Writing about the Visual Arts
CRN 27565 (MWF 12:00-12:50); 30673 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Glomski, Chris
What effects has photography had on the visual arts? How do perceived manifestations of pathology in a work of art impact on the way we see and understand that artist’s body of work? How does museum space affect our experience of what we encounter within it? What’s the qualitative difference between an original and unique artwork and reproductions of it, or, even outright forgeries? How do answers to these questions shape our understanding of whatever it is we call “art”? These are some of the questions that will guide our inquiries in this section of English 161. The very range of these questions suggests that there are diverse approaches one could take toward answering any one of them, and the readings for this course will reflect that diversity. Together we will study readings from the domains of medicine, history, philosophy, cultural studies, and psychology that are all concerned with how one sees and understands works of art—and how this in turn helps us to understand the world around us. Students needn’t have any background in art history in order to do well in or enjoy this course, but some interest and an open mind are essential. Our investigation into these questions provides the context for our writing, but remember that our goal is to learn about academic research and writing, not just art or art history. Therefore, in addition to our inquiries into images and their contexts, we will also spend time learning about summarizing, analyzing, and synthesizing arguments, conducting academic research, writing a research proposal, and drafting your research paper. All of this will culminate in a final research paper that answers a research question you have posed in relation to the course inquiry. Our readings and class discussions will guide you through each of these steps, and help you work toward generating a research topic that interests you enough to write a ten-page paper. REQUIRED TEXTS Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. 4th ed. New York: Longman, 2005. (LH) Berger, John. About Looking. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. (AL) Graff, Gerald. They Say, I Say. New York: WW Norton & Co., 2010. Greene, Stuart and April Lidinsky. From Inquiry to Academic Writing. New York: Bedford, 2012. Additional readings will be available in a required course packet (CP), available at Comet Press, 812 W. Van Buren, (312) 243-5400.

ENGL 161: The Digital Age and Its Discontents
CRN 11866 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Krughoff, Laura
English 161 is designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. During the first half of the semester, you will complete three writing assignments in which you learn to summarize, analyze and synthesize readings. In the second half of the semester, you will utilize these skills to write a research proposal and, ultimately, a research-assisted essay on the topic of your choice within the broader field of our inquiry. In this course, the field of our inquiry is, broadly stated, the impact of media on culture. In particular, we will explore the cultural effects of digital media, including brand-name platforms like Facebook and Google. We will consider videogames, which are reported to herald a new age of interactive narrative, and we will examine the latest trends in television, an aging media technology which hasn’t yet ceded its cultural dominance. Our central question is how does the interface alter, for better or worse, human interaction? While our course readings will focus primarily on the new media mentioned above, we will also consider the cultural effects of contrasting media, especially print media (everything from novels to newspapers to textbooks). In this way, our inquiry has a huge potential for ramification, spanning media, genres and the various cultural conversations about them.

ENGL161: Writing about Film in a Historical Context
CRN 21840 (MWF 12:00-12:50); CRN 29333 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Lyons, MaryAnne
Movies are one of the dominant popular art forms in America today, but they are also a valuable part of our cultural landscape. They are both made and watched within a dense fabric of culture, history, and sensibilities. In this class we will explore the place of film in American society from World War II until the present.

ENGL 161: Mindset
CRN 25879 (MWF 3:00-3:50)
Parr, Katherine
Is there something that you are not very good at doing, something that you avoid because you fear failure? If so, perhaps you are locked in what Carolyn Dweck calls a “fixed mindset.” In her book Mindset, she argues that we can change our mindsets and achieve success. Dweck offers us advice and tools for change, shifting from our “fixed mindsets” to “growth mindsets.” She tells us, “Although people may differ in every which way – in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests or temperaments -- everyone can grow through application and experience.” This class will suit students wanting to develop a “growth mindset” as well as anyone planning on raising or teaching children. We will use Dweck’s book as an entry into research in human psychology and self-perception as it affects our successes and failures.

ENGL161: Technology as the Facilitator of Postmodern Social Movements
CRN 11952 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Phillips, Derek
The invention of the internet has revolutionized the way that businesses conduct themselves, how friends and family communicate and the means by which citizens of a democracy stay informed. This class will look at the intersection of these three innovations to examine the continuation of an old postmodern concept: the idea that the consumer can control the means of production and that it is now possible to have social movements without organizations. We will be looking particularly at technological trends among today’s youth to examine how this is possible and what the future of representative democracy might hold for us in the generations to come.

ENGL 161: Discourses of Class in U.S. Society
CRN 11956 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Poore, Jonathan
Historically, American society has often been characterized as “classless.” This characterization might imply that, rather than extremes of wealth and poverty, what Benjamin Franklin called a “general happy mediocrity” prevails. Alternatively, it might imply that even those who start from humble origins (like Franklin himself) can achieve the “American dream” of material success—or, as Republican Senator Marco Rubio recently put it, America is not a nation of “haves and have-nots” but a nation of “haves and soon-to-haves.” Over the course of American history, however—and perhaps particularly during periods of economic transition and/or crisis—many have challenged this characterization. Recent assessments suggest that the U.S. lags behind other Western nations in terms of socio-economic mobility, while the Occupy Wall Street movement’s slogan “we are the 99%” characterizes the U.S. as a nation sharply divided by economic inequality. At the same time, activists, politicians and commentators on the right have attacked what they regard as liberal elitism and a culture of entitlement, suggesting that the key division in our society is not between classes as such but between “Washington insiders,” the “mainstream media” or public workers (to name a few examples) and the majority of American citizens. This discourse indicates, among other things, the complex rhetorical relationship between class and cultural values in U.S. society (a complexity that is in fact suggested by the very term “class,” since it can denote either economic stratification or a certain kind of behavior). Furthermore, the historical relationship between race and class in the U.S. has complicated the ways in which we talk about socio-economic inequality and injustice. This course will primarily focus on contemporary U.S. debates about the meaning and significance of class, but it will also try to situate those debates within a larger history of discourse about class in America.

ENGL 161: From Public Duty to Private Business: Writing about the Politics of Waste
CRN 11864 (MWF 8:00-8:50); 21626 (MWF 10:00-10:50); 29300 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
Sherfinski, Todd
The focus of this course is sanitation, an often overlooked and (historically speaking) fairly modern concern. To that end, Rose George’s The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters will serve as the central text for the course. In addition to George's book length examination of waste, students will also read excerpts from Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Harvey Molotch and Laura Noren, as well as various other literature on sanitation. The purpose of the course is to engage in meaningful and critical conversation about real issues and concerns, which is another way of describing academic writing. Through close reading and practical yet rigorous writing assignments, students will learn how to negotiate the use of analytical tools: summary, analysis, and synthesis. The course is designed to integrate research, more specifically academic inquiry, into fundamental components of academic writing, which are primarily developing a focus, finding a purpose, and expressing oneself accurately and concisely. In addition to completing daily reading and writing assignments, students enrolling in sections of this course are expected to participate in both class discussions and small group presentations based on assigned research topics, develop independent research projects, and engage in and contribute to the academic community comprised of English 161.

ENGL 161: Politics of Parenthood
CRN 11950 (MWF 9:00-9:50); 21629 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
Weeg, Marla
In this class, you will explore and write about the complex tensions that surround parenthood today. You will read, analyze and write about some of the various issues that have arisen around modern parenthood in the twenty first century. We will look at Ann Crittendon’s The Price of Motherhood and also look at various articles from other texts and journals to get a sense of what are the parenthood tensions today. Our investigation into the “Politics of Parenthood” provides the context for our writing, but our goal is to learn about academic research and writing. Therefore, we will also spend time learning about summarizing, analyzing and synthesizing arguments, conducting academic research, and writing a research proposal. All of this will culminate in a final research paper that answers an inquiry you have posed about a specific issue concerning our topic. Our readings and our class discussions will guide you through each of these steps, and help you work toward generating a research topic that interests you enough to write a 10-page paper.

Tuesday/Thursday
ENGL 161: Writing Celebrity! Famous for Being Famous
CRN 21668 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Bryson, Christopher
In this course, we will focus our inquiry on how celebrities are created and consumed in American popular culture. As Andy Warhol had said, “In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” In this course, we will be talking about how reality TV – a recent genre in American entertainment media – interacts with different definitions of celebrity. Throughout our core text, American Idolatry, Christopher E. Bell presents and unpacks several definitions of “celebrity”: ascribed, attributed, and achieved. However, there is a category of “DIY” (do-it-yourself) celebrity status created through the internet and reality TV programs that is becoming a pop cultural phenomenon. We will examine issues of celebrity in current American popular culture via scholarly texts that deal with economic, critical, and media studies. As we will learn, fame and celebrity indeed are not the same concepts. Our class will explore how celebrity is created, using the backdrop of popular culture, (especially reality television). Doing so helps us evaluate issues of identity construction in the current media.

English 161: Writing the Revolution
CRN 25973 (TR 9:30-10:45); 11961 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Costello, Virginia
We will analyze Emma Goldman’s highly romantic and wildly impractical theory of anarchism. Since Goldman became an anarchist primarily in response to the Haymarket riot, we will start with that place and moment: Chicago, just a few blocks from UIC, 1886. We then move to 1910 when Goldman’s Anarchism and Other Essays, our primary text, was first published, and finally make connections to contemporary political movements. Goldman’s essays, are rich in references to the work of respected scientists, sexologists, literary writers as well as a few quacks (!). The writing assignments will require thinking critically about gender, politics, revolution, class, prisons, and/or the place of violence in political action. During the later half of the semester we will learn the stages of writing a research paper. Our text, From Inquiry To Academic Writing: Practical Guide, explains how to develop ideas, think critically, analyze sources, construct a thesis, organize an essay, conduct basic research, and use appropriate styles and forms of citation. Throughout the semester, we will make a few forays into other writing during the early twentieth century in order to contextualize the factors at play in a given argument. For example, we might read personal letters from a working-class immigrant, FBI reports, or news articles about police and/or protesters. Finally, we will examine the way in which many of these debates are strikingly relevant today. We will be entering into an intellectual conversation on anarchism and students will be positioning themselves within that conversation.

ENGL 161: Writing Analytically about Ethics and Politics
CRN 11979 (TR 11:00-12:15); 11853 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Ford, William
This course is designed to prepare you to write academic research papers, specifically, position papers (papers that analyze a controversy, proposing and defending a solution to it), partly by involving you in readings and discussions about many of the ethical and political controversies of our time. In connection with our two primary writing texts, From Inquiry to Academic Writing, and They Say / I Say, we'll examine two philosophically-based texts: one (Understand Ethics) that will provide us with an organized overview of ethical (and, to some extent, political) ideas, and another (Attacking Faulty Reasoning) that analyzes formal and informal logic and identifies common fallacies (flawed reasoning). Looking at ethical and political questions in a more disciplined analytical and philosophical way will not only help you to sort through alternative positions to find the one that makes the most sense to you, but it will also give you the opportunity (and incentive) to learn some very practical skills to help in the cultivation of your analytical writing. To begin with, you will learn some easy and effective ways to analyze the range of opinion on specific ethical and political issues, how to identify major points of conflict, how to formulate research questions, and how to recognize unexamined opinions and uncover hidden assumptions. You will also learn techniques for paraphrasing short passages, summarizing longer ones, analyzing complex subjects and controversies, synthesizing (relating together) ideas and arguments from various points of view, and constructing reasonable arguments of your own. Emphasis will be placed on persuasive rhetorical structure, unbiased representation of conflicting positions, identification of underlying principles, rational (and honest) argumentation, and correct documentation of source material. All of this constitutes excellent preparation, not only for college-level research, but also for making everyday decisions (or life-changing ones) concerning your own ethics and politics. No prior knowledge of ethics, logic, politics (or philosophy in general) is required.

ENGL 161: Academic Writing II
CRN 27375 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Konchan, Virginia
Using our core text, Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places by Sharon Zukin, and relevant outside readings, we will conduct an inquiry into the fields of urban planning and development, human geography, sociology and cultural studies through the lens of this text and through the drafting, editing, and completion of five writing projects. Specifically, we will be analyzing and responding to the gentrification (economic and social 'progression') of six New York City boroughs over the past 20 years.

ENGL 161: The Working Poor
CRN 21837 (TR 8:00-9:15); 27288 (12:30-1:45)
Lewis, Jennifer
In this course, we will extend and further develop our skills that evolved in English 160. We will enter even further into public conversations and their consequences, first discerning what these conversations about the "working poor" in fact, are, assessing their validity, and articulating our own, well-supported arguments. As summary, analysis and synthesis are central components of the academic research paper, we will practice these, and we will learn to find and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources for our final projects. One of our goals is to identify and participate in public conversations about poverty and work. In order to do this we will each bring in one newspaper or magazine article per week. It can be any piece that interested you for any reason. Please identify the issue at hand, what/who you think the author is responding to, and consider how the author defines/uses major terms such as poverty, work, welfare, etc. This will be part of your journal and will help you move toward your final research portfolio as well as spark class discussions. Our first three writing projects, which are summary, analysis and synthesis essays, will be based on David Shipler's The Working Poor and the Course Packet (includes: "The Myth of the Working Poor," by Steven Malanga; "The Working Poor," by Tim Jones; "Wal-Mart's Urban Romance," by Ta-Nehisi and Paul Coates; selections from When Work Disappears, by William Julius Wilson and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich). The fourth project is an annotated bibliography and final project outline, and the final research portfolio will be the culmination, in the form of a ten-page paper, of the semester's inquiries and efforts.

ENGL 161: Writing about Chicago: Pursuing an Academic Inquiry through Research
CRN 32676 (TR 8:00-9:15); 21700 (TR 11:00-12:15) 
Rosenbush, Mimi
Based on our reading of Dominic Pacyga's Chicago: A Biography, we will examine and analyze the consequences of Chicago's dynamic 19th century growth, looking specifically at the deforestation of the Great Lakes region and at the development of the Chicago skyscraper. Students will choose final research projects on Chicago that intersect with their own academic interests.

ENGL 161: Science Fiction and Fantasy as Critical Commentary
Summer 2012: CRN 16397 (TR 1:30-4:00)
Fall 2012: CRN 24008 (TR 11:00-12:15)
Wonders, Brooke
As examples such as Hunger Games, Moon, Firefly, Game of Thrones, and Eternal Sunshine illustrate, genre fiction—whether by projecting an alternate future or by looking back at an altered past—can also provide political and social commentary on the present. This commentary may be either conservative or progressive and is capable of addressing a wide variety of issues, including race, class, and gender. In this course, we will explore various examples of genre writing and film/television with an eye toward the critical function of such works, and we will read recent criticism of major genre phenomena. Over the course of this class, students will develop their skills of academic inquiry and analytical writing; through a series of shorter writing assignments, the class will culminate in an extended research project of the student’s choosing and related to the topics of the class.

Blended Course (Thursday Only)
ENGL 161: Seeing the World through the Artist’s Eye: Examining Art as a Means for Social Change
CRN 11924 (Thurs. 9:30-10:45); 21838 (Thurs. 12:30-1:45); 11858 (Thurs. 2:00-3:15)
Leavey, Andrea Witzke
In this course, students will read Nato Thompson’s Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Age of Cultural Production (ISBN: 1612190448) among other texts in order to examine the arguments, conversations, and controversies related to art as a means of social change in a consumer-driven, media-layered world. Students will examine the ways that different types of art reflect, influence, and interact with culture and examine the success and/or failure of various artistic initiatives in the U.S. and beyond. Throughout the course, students will explore the following questions: How can art be linked to social change in a world inundated with media images and messages? How do artistic productions (of various kinds) relate to the economy, history, societal shifts, and individual thought? What type of art is most effective at provoking change and why? Who really gets a voice and why in various artistic communities and societies? These conversations and investigations will in turn provide the vehicle for developing students’ advanced, college-level research and writing skills. Students will produce five writing projects over the course of the term, culminating in an extended, documented research paper. Please note: This is a blended version of the course, which means class will meet once a week with all other activities being completed through online and new media activities and assignments.