Fall 2013 Course Offerings

This is an unofficial list of FYWP courses that will be offered in FALL 2013. For a list of non-FYWP English courses, please consult the English department's course descriptions page. For the complete official course offerings, please consult the UIC schedule of classes.

English 070 | English 071 | English 160 | English 161

ENGLISH 070

TUESDAY / THURSDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 070: Culture Wars: Conflicts in Multicultural America
CRN 30498 (TR 9:30-10:45)
Romeo, Robert
This preparatory class emphasizes the second-language writing challenges presented by structure, meaning, and use to those for whom English is not the primary language. The content of English 070 parallels that of English 160 and focuses on the skills needed to produce academic writing. Particular attention is paid to critical thinking and reading. Students will also be introduced to the concepts of Situated Writing--the idea that writing offers a way of understanding the world as well as a way to get things done and that the context for producing a piece of writing, who is writing it and why, helps the writer decide about the form a piece of writing will take The class requires three writing projects and three cover letters in order to allow for more time and instruction on the writing process and on sentence-level skills. The course will focus on the public debates caused by the conflicting needs of our multicultural U.S. society. How do people in the U.S. view themselves and their way of life? How do questions of gender, language, race, education and politics manifest themselves in the “public forum”? Students will participate in these "conflicts" through papers and group discussions.

ENGL 070: Introduction to Academic Writing for the Nonnative Speakers of English
CRN 30497 (TR 8:00-9:15)
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.

 

ENGLISH 071

MONDAY / WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 071: Introduction to Academic Writing
CRN 30505 (MWF 9:00-9:50)
Drown, James
This class will explore the impact of the use of multiple languages in both the U.S. and the world. We will explore global rhetoric, examine the cultural language norms of American Academic English and more commonly used public discourse styles, and look at how identity is, in part, created through language usage. We will be producing three major written projects, in which we will not only write about what we have learned about language, but we will use what we have learned about language to increase the quality of our writing.

ENGL 071: Popular Music and Politics
CRN 30509 (MWF 10:00-10:50); CRN 30515(MWF 12:00-12:50)
Glomski, Chris
This class involves intense writing and considerable reading. It is designed to prepare you for the challenges of writing in the languages of academic and other forms of social discourse. You will be responsible for producing multiple drafts of each writing assignment, and for making substantial revisions to each as needed. You will also work on honing the mechanics of your prose at the sentence level, acquiring active academic reading skills, and broadening your vocabulary. The guiding principle for the course is that what we write about and how we write it matters. In “Popular Music and Politics,” we will investigate subjects that may find us debating such questions as: “Why do the meanings of some words appear to change, depending on who is saying them?” “What might something so basic, so essential, as the music we listen to reveal about our social class?” “Can mere ideas, or products of thought, ever be harmful enough to warrant regulation?” These are some of the starting points for much stimulating critical thought, and written response, we will undertake together this semester.

ENGL 071: Introduction to Academic Writing
CRN 30513 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
Parr, Katherine
English 071 introduces students to the kinds of writing assigned at the college level, especially in English 160. We will explore genres of writing from various academic fields. Students will have access to the electronic forum MyCompLab where they will find helpful exercises and other tools that support our textbook. Students will learn to match their writing appropriately to situation and audience, as well as to their own purpose in writing. Furthermore, students will receive instruction and practice in grammar within the context of their own writing in order to make their essays clear and concise, using Standard American English.

TUESDAY / THURSDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 071: Writing, Identity, and Institutions
CRN 30504(TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 30507(TR 9:30-10:45); CRN 30517(TR 12:30-1:45)
Krall, Aaron
How do college writing courses imagine writers, produce identities, and shape public institutions? In this course, we will develop and pursue a sustained inquiry about the intersections between writers, texts, and institutions. Beginning with our own writing experiences, we will explore the history and function of first-year writing courses, the kinds of writers they hope to produce, the methods they employ, and their effects on students, universities, businesses, and the public sphere. Our course will structure this inquiry 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 their consequences (the changes they might produce in the world). 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: Writing About Representations of Marginalized Groups
CRN 30521 (TR 11:00-12:15); CRN 30519 (TR 12:30-1:45); CRN 32782 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Petrovic, Robin
This section will explore how American popular culture shapes ideologies. Through readings and class discussions, we will analyze how minority groups are represented in advertisements, television, and movies. We will also examine how these groups respond to these mainstream depictions. Through this lens, we will discuss the intended consequences of various written pieces including, but not limited to, articles, essays, and letters. By reading and writing in a variety of genres, we will learn how written forms have evolved to respond to certain situations and how to craft the most appropriate responses to given scenarios. We will also focus on language, and we will employ it as a tool to meet our writing goals.

ENGL 071: Saying What You Like, Or Don't: Opinion and Argument on the Web
CRN 30964(TR 2:00-3:15)
Rutter, Sarah Maria
In this class, our central inquiry will center on the ways in which writing about social issues, especially those that are addressed in popular media, takes shape in public forums on the Internet. How do reviews of products and public venues affect our perceptions of them? How do opinion pages and blogs affect public perception of current political and cultural issues? In what ways do the situations, contexts, and purposes for these texts affect how they're both written and read? We will explore these questions by practicing critical reading strategies, and by writing argumentatively in several types of genres where we focus on language choices, grammar and usage skills, and effective communication.

 

ENGLISH 160

MONDAY / WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 160: Investigating the Media
CRN 29462 (MWF 12:00-12:50); CRN 28743 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Boulay, Kate
This course assumes that “the mass media (newspapers, television and radio [and film, photography, the Internet, social networking, etc.]) are of considerable, and still growing, importance in modern societies” (McQuail 1). In this class, focusing mainly but not exclusively on the news, we will examine how local, national, and international media help shape our daily lives and interactions with others. This semester our readings and writings cover a range of perspectives on the news media. Exploring the local mediascape, interviewing 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, preferences and politics. These projects--as well as our in-class work--are 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: Writing for Social Action
CRN 30965 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Bryson, Chris
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 four pieces of writing in four 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: A Sense of Place
CRN 11337 (MWF 8:00-8:50); CRN 11385 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Buchmeier, Sarah
How are we shaped by the places we’re from? How do we, in turn, shape places and what happens when a place’s identity starts to change? How do we engage with and evaluate the spaces we inhabit here at UIC? In this course, we will hone our writing skills in four different genres to explore notions of place and space. As we practice adapting our writing to a variety of situations, using rhetorical strategies effectively, and choosing the best organization, we will not only become better writers, but we will become more engaged writers.

ENGL 160: Putting Writing to Purpose: The Multigenre Project
CRN 11818(MWF 12:00-12:50)
Carey, Kevin
Like with most skills, becoming a better writer is largely a matter of practice. When practice is wedded to purpose, it becomes even more powerful. Writing about a subject you find interesting or important motivates you to take your writing more seriously. For this class you will identify an area of interest which you will explore through reading, writing, and discussion over the course of the semester. As a class, we will also read about and discuss a number of genres. Genres are conventions or templates for writing which shape both the subject matter and how you write about it. Your inquiry into your subject will take place through writing in four different genres. By the end of the semester, you will not only come to know more about your area of interest, but in the process learn a lot about how genre affects our understanding of subjects. And of course, all of this will serve the main goal of becoming a more effective writer.

ENGL 160: Writing About Race, Sexuality, and Gender
CRN 27286(MWF 9:00-9:50)
Conner, M. Shelly
This course will satisfy ENGL 160 requirements by examining multi-genre writing that participates in the current discourse on race, gender, and sexuality issues. Students will produce four major writing projects: personal statement, manifesto, feature/profile, and an argumentative essay.

ENGL 160: www.writing
CRN 24146 (MWF 8:00-8:50);CRN 30661 (9:00-9:50)
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 writing classroom? Through various assignments, we will examine these and other questions to define common perspectives on twenty-first century writing in public spaces such as the workplace and university.

ENGL 160: Writing and Engagement with Extracurricular Activities
CRN 28746 (MWF 8:00-8:50);CRN 11458 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Doble, Heather
In this class, you will investigate an extracurricular activity at UIC that is new to you, the needs it fills, how it is funded, and the ways in which it does or does not link to the larger Chicago community of cultural events. The information you glean surrounding extracurricular activities and the students they benefit cause you to respond as an engaged citizen. As a result of your desire to become involved at UIC and beyond, you will become knowledgeable about an extracurricular activity that is new to you and share this activity with the rest of the class by writing a blog to be posted on the class site. Your newfound interest will then lead to attendance of a performance, meeting, or competition of your chosen activity which will inspire you to write a review which will also be shared with the class. After learning about the ways your activity fills students’ needs, you will isolate areas of possible improvement in your activity and you will write a proposal that argues for the funding of an extracurricular activity of your own design. Finally, you will create a brochure to persuade other students to join your newly created organization. Through attention to situation, genre, language, and their consequences in your writing, you will become deliberate in your responses and develop methods for moving these critical conversations forward in meaningful ways. You will also learn how your writing choices allow you to engage with issues that are important to you. This is a collaborative class--you will have the opportunity to interact in small group discussions, and to share peer reviews of writing assignments.

ENGL 160: Writing and Rhetoric for a Global Audience   
CRN 30665 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Drown, James
This class is designed to recognize the benefits and advantages of bilingualism, and to serve the needs of bilingual and English-language-learning students. This is not an ESL class--instead, the class will explore global rhetoric, focus on the cultural norms of American Academic and public discourses, and help students find ways to express linguistic diversity while still communicating clearly and effectively with a chosen audience. We will examine both personal and public writing, and also examine how our language choices and forms change when moving in and out of different linguistic contexts. Please note: This section is designed to meet the needs of English-language learners. Instructor permission is required to enroll.

ENGL 160: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN 24124(MWF 10:00-10:50 )
Girman, Chris
A successful act of authorship brings to birth a new being, quite separate from what goes on in the writer’s head, which then takes on a life of its own. In this course, you are going to practice turning “all that stuff” in your writer’s head into a written product that both represents you and exemplifies many of the types of writing projects you will be expected to do in college. We’ll write, rewrite, rip things apart, start anew, and give ourselves an awesome final product. In the process, we’ll hit those annoying things like comma splices, run-on sentences, punctuation mistakes, and other “nuts and bolts” (semantics) of the writing process. If you are already a good writer, be prepared to further advance, integrating semicolons, parentheses, and dashes to liven up your thoughts, along with deepening the connections you make between yourself, the written word and the dynamic world around you.

ENGL 160: Writing in Diverse Workplace and Community Situations
CRN 11332 (MWF 8:00-8:50); CRN 30667 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
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 global retail giant, Walmart. All assignments will expand critical thinking and reading perspectives in order to successfully write not just for the teacher, but for the world.

ENGL 160: Genres and Genres: Writing In and About Music
CRN 11560 (MWF 10:00-10:50); CRN 28744 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Hammes, Aaron
We live in an age where recorded music is in its second century and, with the popularity of archival projects and the digitization of music creation, distribution, and promotion, the art form is as ubiquitous as one could ever have imagined even 20 years ago. Music is discussed is terms of “consumption” and “digestion,” and arguments are commonly made that the quality of music is impaired by how easy it is to produce, that music writing is dead as print media has grown decrepit, that file-sharing has corroded the record industry, and that gas prices and general apathy has destroyed live, original music in the United States. This course does not seek to vindicate music, but it does in some ways seek to champion writing about it, and to consider its popular genres, particularly those of the past 60 years, as a serious art form worthy of our consideration. We will quickly see that anything we say about music, from analyzing individual lyrics to relating experiences about how it has moved us, makes arguments and claims about what is important to us in our world and our experiences as people in the 21st century. We will consider a vast swath of reviewing styles and manner of critiquing and evaluating music. We will act as curators of our own miniature musical museums in the form of mixtapes. We will make arguments for and against a vital and pressing issues which effects most of us in one or various ways. Finally we will attempt to tap into an experience with music in our own lives, perhaps at a more visceral and direct level.

ENGL 160: “Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Fantasy Novels, Comics, and Films”
CRN 30663(MWF 9:00-9:50)
Jones, Adam
In this class you will employ a variety of reading and writing strategies to draft and revise four major writing projects: a film review, a comic, an argumentative essay, and a profile. In each of these projects, your subject will be contemporary fantasy literature and cinema. In order to have something to say, we will examine current trends in fantasy literature and cinema, as well as arguments made about current culture and the audiences driving those trends. Readings will include reviews, historical narratives, critical analyses, informal interviews, and argumentative essays. To accomplish these reading and writing 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: “Fast Food Nation: Writing about Contemporary Food Production and Consumption”
CRN 25972(MWF 9:00-9:50)
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. The course covers a wide range of topics related to industry agriculture, food production, and food consumption. You are invited to take a closer look not only at what we eat, but also how what we eat affects the world we live in, and thus, participate in the ongoing conversation that focuses on important issues of health, economy, and sustainability in the contemporary food industry.

ENGL 160: Academic Writing and Issues of Consumption
CRN 11601 (MWF 11:00-11:50); CRN 28745 (MWF 2:00-2:50); CRN 21750 (MWF 3:00-3:50)
O'Hara, Mary Ellen
This course will focus upon the problems inherent to being a consumer today in the United States. Factory farming, GMO’s and food production, as well as ancillary issues such as landfills, waste issues, and water production/rights will be examined through various in-class discussions, group activities, and writing projects. The course takes a heuristic approach whereby students formulate their response to specific consumer issues based upon their unique moral landscape. Thus, students will explore and define their relationship to sustainable and ethical consumption, boycotting and buycotting, as well as other methods utilized to address problematic consumer issues. This class will employ a variety of writing strategies to draft and revise four major writing projects including a Personal Essay, a Film Review, an Argumentative Essay, and a Newsletter based upon a Service Learning Project regarding the recovery of food for local food banks.

ENGL 160: Writing, Power, and Everyday Life
CRN 11462(MWF 10:00-10:50); CRN 30664 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Pittendrigh, Nadya
In this course, students will constantly be asked to connect the classroom to the “real world.” The class is based on the idea that writing and communication has real consequences in the world, and that if we can just hold that thought for the duration of the semester, we will all become better writers. Students will be asked to read not only a variety of texts and connect them to the real world, they will also be asked to read the complicated social chemistry of real-world social situations and gauge their writing accordingly. Students should be ready to conduct interviews with real-world public figures and take field notes in various neighborhoods in the city. Students should be prepared to publish their writings online and with each other. Students will explore the intersections between “action” and writing. Students will “make real things happen” through their writing.

ENGL 160: Writing the Migrant Experience
CRN 11505 (MWF 11:00-11:50); CRN 30668 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Sandoval, Neri
During the 2012 Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney began his speech repeating what countless other political and cultural figures before him have said about the United States: “We are a nation of Immigrants.” Of course, Romney is saying this after just having advocated the construction of an electric fence across the Mexico-U.S. border during the Republican primaries. So, on the one hand we see a presidential candidate embracing multiculturalism, and on the other we see the very same candidate push forth a political and economic agenda that expropriates those that compose a multiculturalist state. Moreover, one hears this statement so often from both sides of the political aisle (the Democrats and Republicans) that it has become tantamount to a politically meaningless cliché. In resisting such superficial (the “why can’t we all just get along” sentiment) understandings of this social process, this class attempts to dive into the multi-faceted dimensions of immigration as a social and economic process. The exponential rise of highly-lucrative immigration detention centers, the longstanding tradition of exploiting immigrant labor, and the battle over ethnic studies in Arizona can be viewed as symptomatic of an emerging American public anxiety about the changing demographics of the country (i.e. “the browning of America”). For the scope of this course, we will take a step back and attempt to use writing in order to not only map our individual subject positions into the social fabric of Chicago, but also to examine the historical layers of such a social process which spans various ethnicities and nationalities. This positioning will allow us to examine the structures of situation, language, genre, and context. Certain motifs that we will brush up against throughout this course will focus on who, why, and how different groups migrate to the U.S., how they integrate into our economic infrastructure, and how they are portrayed by various news outlets. Specific issues to explore include settlement, education, identity, assimilation/acculturation, discrimination, employment, language, marriage, legal status, and political participation. Over the course of this semester, you will compose, piece-by-piece, a portfolio featuring four writing projects: an interview, a letter to the editor, an argumentative essay, and a team debate. As we draft, edit, and revise these writing projects, we will also discuss how to best manage argumentative structure, tone, rhetorical appeals, and grammar mechanics. More importantly, through the work assigned in this course, students will learn a set of writing practices that, if employed correctly, will empower the student to enact change not only in their college careers, but outside of the university setting as well.

ENGL 160: Writing Your Way into the Conversation
CRN 11330 (MWF 9:00-9:50); CRN 11399 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Shearer, Jay
This course will direct and assist you in a written conversation with the world around you, primarily through (though not limited to) the art of composing an argument. Through articles, case studies, book excerpts and other media, you will examine popular culture, political culture, and your place in the country and world. You will express and examine your opinions regarding these issues and evaluate opinions that differ from your own. You will express your “take” on a given situation via four distinct written forms: the Opinion Piece, the Personal Essay, the Media Review, and the Argumentative Essay. This course should challenge you, improve your writing skills, and engage you in a public conversation. It might even be actual fun.

ENGL 160: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN 11809(MWF 8:00-8:50); CRN 11558 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Shepard, Nathan
Welcome to UIC! As you are now learning, Chicago has been a hotbed of political activity, protests, and questioning (articulating conditions, objections, and arguments for change through language [logos]) for some 160 years. Most if not all of you are either working now while pursuing your studies--whether as a work-study employee, or as a part-time worker--or you have had a job in the past. Indeed, as Adam Kader, Managing Director of Arise Chicago (a worker’s rights advocacy group) recently put it, “we spend more time at work than we do at anything else” (“Wage Theft in Chicago 2011”). With Labor Day coming up, and considering the fact that we are a few feet away from Hull-House, an institution created by Jane Addams in the late 19th century to address, in part, labor conditions in Chicago, this course will address the question of labor, with particular emphasis being placed on how we can become active and articulate agents for change through writing as workers (or as future workers). A note on the word “change”: while this course is designed to teach students how to become articulate writers, it is not a course designed to advocate for one position over another concerning the labor issues we’ll be discussing. In fact, one of the skills we will develop is how to advocate a position we do not personally agree with. Why? Because learning counter arguments allows us to see our interlocutors as human beings while also allows us to sharpen our own arguments.

English 160: Entering the Food Conversation through Writing
CRN 27575(MWF 9:00-9:50)
Sjostrom, Kate
In setting pen to paper, the academic writer is entering a conversation in his or her discipline. In other words, academic writing is what the writer “says” in response to what others in the field are “saying.” Such writing is not merely an exercise in composition; it is a natural response to the ongoing “talk.” To ensure his or her voice is heard, a good academic writer will ground his or her work in the conversation’s context, write with a clear purpose, and write in language and a genre appropriate to the audience and situation. English 160 is designed to prepare you for such situated writing. Because the fields of study of 160 students vary, we will turn to a conversation in which we all participate: the food conversation. You will be given opportunity to consider the messages sent to you through food packaging and marketing; the food activism going on in your own community; the academic, food-related debates being waged on local, national, and international stages; and your own responses to the food you eat. After grounding yourself in these different, though related, situations, you will practice tailoring your language and purpose to the various contexts and audiences. In the process, you will write and revise a letter of complaint or praise to a food company, a profile of a food activist, an argumentative essay, and a restaurant review. All writing projects are designed to invite you into actual, current conversations so that you might experience your “say” being heard as well as the very real consequences of your composition choices.

ENGL 160: Writing About Media
CRN 11526(MWF 11:00-11:50); CRN 11534 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Steuber, Evan
In this class you will create “situated” writing that engages various types of media. You will move from the creation of a traditional academic essay addressing stand-up comedians, to the creation of a brochure with a focus on the effectiveness of advertisements, to a review, and then finally, to a dialogue addressing issues of representation in the news. You will find through the various genres of writing we address that different writing prompts call for different kinds of writing. Not only will your language change and adjust according to the genre, but so will the consequences attending that language. The goals in an academic essay are not the same as the goals in a review, but what they share is a use of rhetoric, language, purpose, and audience. Each situation of writing calls for a different focus, a different use of tools of analysis, a different language adjusted to the proposed audience. Our focus on media will show you the different ways in which media not only entertains and informs, but also makes an argument. It is our goal as a class to get at the rhetoric at the center of these writing genres and forms of media and to develop an understanding of writing that is complex and nuanced and that changes from situation to situation.

English 160: Writing about American Cultural Myths
CRN 11821 (MWF 12:00-12:50); CRN 11446 (MWF 1:00-1:50); CRN 11792 (MWF 3:00-3:50)
Weeg, Marla
In this course you will work on your critical reading and writing skills to help you in your academic career at UIC. The core reading material we will look at will be from Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle’s Rereading America (8th edition). This book centers on some of the prevalent cultural myths in America. The publisher states, “Rereading America takes on the myths that dominate U.S. Culture: family, education, success, gender roles, race and the environment.” Although we will be analyzing and using critical thinking in the readings, primarily this course provides the opportunity to explore writing and its consequences in four different situations and genres. Through a selection of readings centered on the cultural myths of America, you will explore the ways that different written genres have an impact on their audiences and how the rhetorical construction of these genres can be effective in different situations. Each writing project lasts three weeks, and asks students to work in different genres, including personal and argumentative essays, the opinion piece, and a dialogue.

ENGL 160: Writing about Travel and Homecoming
CRN 11339 (MWF 9:00-9:50); CRN 11575 (MWF 11:00-11:50); CRN 11759 (MWF 1:00-1:50)
Zabic, Snezana
In this class, you will read and write about travelers and their destinations. You will examine the places you and others have traveled to, near or far; about how art travels to and from Chicago; and about the place you call home. These habitats, as well as the ways we reach them, are not necessarily pretty, and some might be outright terrifying. You will master the basics of analytical reading, thinking, and writing, by completing four writing projects that will be collected in a portfolio at the end of the semester. These projects are conceived as responses to texts--essays, comics, and documentaries--we will read and view throughout the semester. You will also learn how to write professional cover letters.

TUESDAY / THURSDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 160: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN 21630 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Adcox, James
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, comments on blogs, Facebook, or Twitter, while some of our most important personal conversations now take place through email or texting. Each of these conversations is dependant 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 one’s writing, even if one is unaware of them (perhaps especially if one is unaware of them). And you will engage four concrete situations that require responses through such genres as the Media Review, Literary Analysis, Position Argument, and Photo Essay.

ENGL 160: “The Horror! The Horror!”
CRN 11727 (TR 9:30-10:45); CRN 27282 (TR 11:00-12:15)
Berger, Jessica
All writing exists as part of a situated genre. Over the course of the semester, you will learn to identify, navigate, and effectively respond to diverse writing situations using a genre of a different medium: the horror film. Just as the horror film tends to operate via strict generic conventions as it participates in a larger public conversation, we will explore writing as one of the many ways we can contribute to and participate in our world. Writing is an instrument of community involvement and a tool of social change. Whether the community you choose to involve yourself in is an online one of unabashed movie fandom or larger academic discussion, this course invites you to actively participate in these exchanges. Warning: not for the faint of heart.

ENGL 160: Making Sense of Media 
CRN 11343 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Brecheisen, Davis
We are inundated by media--texts, tweets, email, video, sometimes books. At their best these technologies open avenues for political and cultural expression that were unthinkable even a decade ago. At their most grotesque they are agents of disinformation and propaganda. Usually, it’s somewhere in between, which makes our job as consumers of media--as interpreters of texts--all the more important and difficult. Honing the skills necessary to be good readers and writers of texts enables us to better make sense of our cultural and political moment. This course is an attempt to negotiate the rocky terrain of the media landscape--from music reviews to politics and fiction. We will attempt to make sense of the various ways in which media competes for our intellectual and emotional investment. In particular, we will attempt to look at the challenges and opportunities provided by different genres communicated across different media platforms through close reading and analytical writing.

ENGL 160: Rhetoric and Propaganda
CRN 11514 (TR 11:00-12:15); CRN 27280 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Castellanos, Jose Manuel
Thousands of years ago, Socrates warned us against those who pandered to the masses and sought to control us with sweet words, opinion, and threats. Ignorant people, he warned, can use argument and rhetoric to convince equally ignorant people of things that they are both ignorant about. If Socrates were alive today, one might argue that he would be appalled by the power of language in our age of mass communication. We are convinced almost every day of things such as how a soda will make us enjoy life more, how we are living in true democracy, how shoes will make us superb athletes, how more guns will make us more/less safe, and how the truth of the few and powerful is the truth of us all. We will be exploring several genres of writing that will not only help you understand propaganda and other forms of manipulative discourse, but will also give you an appreciation for the rigorous processes of academic writing, research, and reading. We will begin with our own propaganda piece, the manifesto, in which you will use your own ethos and opinionated logic to convince our classroom to take action for a cause of your choosing. Our next project will be a proposal of a monument to be built in Chicago. Although the monument will be reflective of your values and beliefs, you must carefully consider the expectations and desires of your audience as well as how the monument will benefit the city itself. Next, we will further develop an appreciation for critical thinking, argument, and rhetoric as we analyze pieces of propaganda that we come into contact with in our daily lives. Finally, we will write an argumentative paper on topics concerning mass media and/or censorship.

ENGL 160: Writing About Food
CRN 11766(TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 32836(TR 9:30-10:45); CRN 11784(TR 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 rhetorical analysis, a review, an argumentative essay, and a feature story/profile. 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: Academic Writing I
CRN 11788 (TR 2:00-3:15)
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 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: You I C
CRN 27283 (TR 3:30-4:45)
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. Through your work for this course, you will learn a set of writing practices that will help you become an active participant in your new social and cultural environment. These practices 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 on campus. By the end of the semester you will have developed ideas about the role of student organizations on campus as well as strategies for starting your own student organizations. In short, you will enact in writing ways to establish new opportunities for your campus community to thrive and your issues to be addressed. The writing you will practice in this course will empower you not only to enact change in your environment at UIC, but outside the boundaries of the university as well. You will, after taking this course, be capable of understanding and participating in projects that can be applied to the social and cultural issues of your community, your city, and beyond.

ENGL 160: Writing Into Community Conversations
CRN 11720 (TR 11:00-12:15);CRN 11731 (TR 12:30-1:45); CRN 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: Danger Everywhere! 
CRN 11512 (TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 27372 (9:30-10:45); CRN 11787 (TR 11:00-12:15)
King, Meg
In this course, you will read about and discuss the rhetoric of imminent danger, as it is manifest in contemporary American culture. This includes topics as various as environmental disaster, the dangers of junk food, and gun rights. Your writing projects will either participate in the conversation on impending doom or will analyze the rhetorical devices used to heighten fear. You will compose and revise four writing projects, ranging from a film review to an argumentative essay.

ENGL 160: Writing in the Technological Age
CRN 23460(TR 2:00-3:15)
Konchan, Virginia
We live in a period of sweeping technological change, rapid communication, and increased connectivity. The ability to recognize the implications of these changes and 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 the implications of some of these changes and examine how people are reacting to them. Through these activities, you will begin to situate yourself as a respondent to these events through writing. 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 resulting, ongoing conversation. We will be specifically considering the genres through which individual writers have chosen to respond to this larger situation, and you will be asked to use some of the genres we examine in four major writing projects: a Manifesto, a Review, an Argumentative Essay, and a Dialogue. For each of these projects, you are going to assess arguments made for and against the various aspects of these topics and consider the ways in which the language that we choose influences the consequences of our writing.

ENGL 160: Writing about Class
CRN 11791 (TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 11543 (TR 9:30-10:45); CRN 11390 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Lamm, Zachary
Given the current economic crisis in the U.S. and beyond, the subject of class and the impact of the economy on citizens' lives are very much on people’s minds and in the media. This class will take the topic of class (especially our own class status) as a topic for writing in a variety of genres, including personal essays, argumentative papers, and even film reviews. We will think about how we think about class, how ideas of class shape our culture and political system, and how we might respond through our writing to the challenges we face in light of the ever-changing economic world we live in. Students will complete four writing projects over the course of the semester, and we will divide meeting time between discussion of the subject of the course, methods and practices of writing, and in-class work on students' own writing.

ENGL 160: Writing in Elementary Education
CRN 23461 (TR 12:30-1:45); CRN 11769 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Marincic, David
Why do we write? How do we adapt our writing to the circumstances surrounding it? What can writing do for us? In this course we will critically examine some of the situations in which teachers often write, the effects of those situations on our language and genre choices, and the potential consequences of writing. Our work will focus around current issues in education, and will help you to hone your rhetorical and analytical skills as readers, writers, thinkers, and speakers. We will read and write in multiple genres throughout the term, and for each writing project, you will be asked to understand your audience and your purpose and to gear your writing accordingly. Please note: This section is reserved for Elementary Education majors in the College of Education only. No other students will be permitted to take this class.

ENGL 160: Writing About Work
CRN 11841 (TR 8:00-9:15);CRN 11796 (TR 9:30-10:45);CRN 11801 (TR 2:00-3:15)
McFarland, Scott
In this writing workshop we will examine employment issues in the U.S. from a variety of academic perspectives, from the social to the political, from the literary to the philosophical. Course readings, writing assignments, and class discussions will explore the values and beliefs that have shaped common-sense ideas about jobs, careers, and “opportunity” in 21st-century America. Along the way, you will be asked to examine your career goals and ambitions, i.e. “How do you define success?” We will study many kinds of writing situations, and will produce highly-polished pieces of writing in four genres: the oral history, the satirical news article, the argumentative essay, and the personal essay.

ENGL 160: Writing about Culture in Personal, Public, and Academic Contexts
CRN 11539 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Noll, Brianna
In this course, we will examine the role of culture in our personal, public, and academic lives. You will be asked to consider cultural products critically, countering the tendency to “experience” them passively. Some might believe popular culture, for example, to be too “lowbrow” for serious analysis and study; but why is that? We will consider the ways in which culture, including popular culture, works rhetorically to influence our lives and beliefs, and we will discuss why (or whether) it is, in fact, worthwhile to study. We will read texts about a variety of subjects, from the content of music videos to the role of liberal arts in education, and compose in a variety of genres. You will be asked to write four papers, which we will call “writing projects” because they are not your standard term-papers: a memoir, a rhetorical analysis, an argumentative essay, and a photo essay (accompanied by a cover letter). These projects--as well as our in-class work--will be based on the cornerstone of the UIC composition program: situated writing. We will 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: Writing as a Social Act
CRN 29191 (TR 5:00-6:15)
Oh, Sein
This 160 course proposes that writing matters not merely as a communicative tool but also as a social act that will actually affect the worlds (both abstract and real). Depending on the given situation, we try to find a genre of writing which is rhetorically effective, with proper language and style that accompany both situation and genre, and then see how our writings move the audience or change the world. Also, in our digitized, technologically advanced era, writing also works as an important connector between cyberspace and the real world, as well as between more traditionally defined worlds such as between inner mind and outer experience, between artistic performances and the everyday lives, between an individual and the community to which the one belongs. We will go through four different situations and genres (narrative, proposal, argumentative essay, and film review), and consider how writing becomes constitutive of the society/community we belong to, and will try to make our writing matter.

BLENDED SECTIONS

ENGL 160: Writing Your Way Into the Public Conversation
CRN 11550 (Tuesday 9:30-10:45); CRN 11803 (Tuesday 11:00-12:15); CRN 19880 (Tuesday 12:30-1:45)
Young, Andy
The purpose of this course is for you to examine and develop your “voice”--the sense of self that allows you to be both yourself and a member of a community larger than yourself. Writing, and how you reveal your voice in your writing, is a social activity that creates “public conversation.” The public conversation is defined by the voices of its participants. Writing in the public conversation will require you to coexist in a community which has a tolerance of diversity and respect for others. In this class, we will not only add our voices to the public conversation, but we will try to bring our ideas into useful relation to the ideas of others. Our public conversation will not be dominated by the loudest voices, but will be balanced with both voicing you ideas and opinions and listening to the voices of others. 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.

ENGL 160: Writing and Self-Representation
CRN 32837 (Thursday 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--acts as self-representation. 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 (for instance: blogs, Twitter, and Facebook) and the possible consequences of this type of writing. 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.

 

ENGLISH 161

MONDAY / WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 161: Writing After Globalization
CRN 22420(MWF 10:00-10:50)
Adiutori, Vincent
What is globalization? Where did it come from? And what has it become in the 21st century? This section of 161 focuses on identifying and interpreting globalization's effects throughout the world and more specifically in the U.S. and Chicago. Students are expected to become active members in the classroom and develop individual projects of inquiry. Using Peter Singer's book One World to frame general research and introduction, students will engage problems regarding economics, culture, history, philosophy, public health, environmental sciences, among other disciplines. Final research papers require students to read across multiple texts and arguments through sustained intellectual engagement with their topics. Many research projects negotiate the tensions between local and global as well as individual and social needs in light of globalization's establishment in many spheres of daily life.

ENGL 161: Writing the Dead: Composing on the Decomposed
CRN 21626(MWF 10:00-10:50)
Browning, Annah
The particular “body” of inquiry we will be investigating in this course is (pun intended) the human body after death. How have dominant Western narratives about death affected views of the cadaver? How have these attitudes become manifested in how we handle the dead (physically and emotionally, as well as intellectually and ethically) both in art and in society at large? Through our study, we will explore the various ways in which cadavers serve us--how they have expanded our knowledge of both science and history, the human body, and human society as a whole, and how their use (and non-use) has been, and continues to be, contested. Once you have situated yourself within this body of issues through extensive reading and writing, you will find your own topic of interest. Through your research on this topic, you will not only create a contribution to the larger academic discourse surrounding the dead, but develop a useful set of skills that will serve you throughout your time in academia and beyond. English 161 is a writing course designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage academic inquiry. During the first half of the semester, you will complete three writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, analyze, and synthesize class readings. In the second half of the semester, you will write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research essay using the skills you learned in the first half of the semester.

ENGL 161: Writing about Chicago Architecture
CRN 11868 (MWF 2:00-2:50)
Casey, John
In this course we continue the examination of “situated writing” begun in English 160. Using the four key terms of language, genre, situation, and consequences, we will explore how research is conducted in an academic setting. Specifically we will review how writers have interpreted, and represented architecture in Chicago. Our main text will be a collection of articles written by Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin. In addition, we will read a selection of academic journal articles and excerpts from books on the interpretation of the built environment. These readings will help us conceptualize how to “read” and interpret buildings and their surroundings. They will also help us understand how Chicago’s skyline has been understood over time and whether or not that historic narrative is still valid. Your main assignment for this class is a 10-15 page research paper on one aspect of architecture and/or urban design in Chicago. There will also be three short papers to help you master the skills of Summary, Synthesis, Analysis, and Argument and a variety of short writing assignments and in class activities. The subject of your research might be connected to contemporary events or it might be historical, but it should either reveal to the reader an aspect of the city’s built environment that you feel we are not aware of or change our perception about some aspect that we thought we understood. By the end of this course, you should have an understanding of the process that leads from inquiry to academic writing. You should also have a better understanding of the perception of Chicago in terms of its architecture and design and how that perception relates to the reality of life for this city’s residents. Required Texts: Blair Kamin, Why Architecture Matters: Lessons from Chicago, 2003. [ISBN-13: 978-0226423227] Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide, 2011. [ISBN-13: 978-0312601409] These texts will be available at the UIC Bookstore in the Student Center East. All other course readings will be made available through the class Blackboard site.

ENGL 161: The Pain of the Macho: Writing About Masculinity in the 21st Century
CRN 11952(MWF 9:00-9:50); CRN 11866 (MWF 10:00-10:50)
Cha, Dongho
English 161 is designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage academic inquiry. During the first half of the semester, you will complete three writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, analyze, and synthesize class readings. In the second half of the semester, you will write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research-assisted essay using the skills we learned in the first half of the semester. You will emerge as an incipient scholar joining the masculinity research community and offering your perspective on many of the pertinent debates in the field. In this course we will examine the subject of the so-called “declining American male.” Recent studies in academic journals, magazines, and the mainstream press agree that the American male is in a state of crisis. Rigid definitions of masculinity are outdated and dysfunctional, leading men to a variety of health, economic, and sexual problems, as verified by recent statistical evidence. We will examine the research in a variety of disciplines--psychology, sociology, economics, history, sport, sexuality, and pop culture, among others--and trace the historic roots of contemporary masculinity. In addition, our readings will address several different topics in the masculinity debate, including the nature-versus-nurture divide, the politics of gender, adolescent male development, father-son dynamics, hyper-masculinity in sports, the metrosexual, and cultural constructions of manhood. The central question, as posed by journalist Guy Garcia, is this: can men stop being defensive without going on the offensive? And does the American male have anything to be defensive about? You will be expected to take into account your own experiences and integrate these into the ongoing masculine narrative of contemporary American culture.

ENGL 161: Writing About Globalization
CRN 21629 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
Findeisen, Chris
The main text for this course will be Peter Singer’s One World: The Ethics of Globalization. You will use this book either as a touchstone, or a point of departure, for your own academic inquiries into the broad topic of globalization. The point of the course is to locate yourself as a writer in the public and academic conversation about globalization, while learning the research and writing skills necessary to enter into meaningful academic discourse. In short, this class prepares you to do the work asked of any serious student in a research university. To this end, writing assignments and in-class work will focus on the techniques of summary, analysis, and synthesis, and the course will culminate in a thesis-driven research paper on an issue related to those discussed in class.

ENGL 161: Writing About Global Ethics
CRN 11861 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Godek-Kiryluk, Elvira
English 161 is designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. Approximately half of the course is devoted to developing the intellectual tools that will help you to guide your inquiry, while the other half is devoted to developing a field, or subject of inquiry. In this class, we will examine the development of globalization through a number of texts and disciplines. You will be expected to draw on both experience and research to formulate an inquiry into the effects of globalization. We will focus on the ethical implications of living in a world affected by the results of globalization. The final writing project for the course will be a 10-page, documented research paper where you will develop your own claim stemming from your research in and familiarity with a specialized field that addresses the concerns of globalization.

ENGL 161:Writing About Animal Rights, Ecology, and Civic Engagement
CRN 21697 (MWF 12:00-12:50); CRN 29333 (MWF 1:00-1:50); CRN 29334 (MWF 2:00-2:50)
Jenks, Philip
This course focuses on the relationships between animal rights, ecology, and civic engagement. In this class, you will critically examine our social and individual responsibilities in relationship to the environment, with an emphasis on how diet and consumption affects our social and physical environment. You will visit relevant public institutions (West Loop Meatpacking district) connecting animal rights, sustainability, and our role in the world. By combining the physical experience of exploring the West Loop Meatpacking district with relevant written assignments and readings, you will enhance your research skills considerably. Your written assignments include journaling, summary, extended analysis, a research proposal, and a culminating research paper. In each assignment, you will demonstrate an ability to argue and analyze effectively.

ENGL 161: Writing Back to Globalization
CRN 11851(MWF 11:00-11:50)
Kang, EuiHuack
In this class, we will examine the development of globalization through a number of texts and disciplines. Students will be expected to draw on both experience and research to formulate an inquiry into the effects of globalization. We will focus on the ethical implications of living in a world affected by the results of globalization. The final writing project for the course will be a documented research paper where students will develop their own claim stemming from their research in and familiarity with a specialized field that addresses the concerns of globalization.

ENGL 161: “Chicago Works?” Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor
CRN 11864 (MWF 8:00-8:50); 24055 (MWF 9:00-9:50); 29300 (MWF 11:00-11:50)
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, essays by Malcolm Gladwell 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 Film in a Historical Context
CRN 11956 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
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 to the present.

ENGL 161: Writing About Globalization
CRN 21840 (MWF 12:00-12:50)
Moraghan, Matthew
In this course, we will further develop the skills put to use in English 160. Our ultimate goal is to write a thoughtful and well-organized research paper that addresses the broad question, “What is globalization?”--specifically, by considering its cultural, political, and economic aspects. As summary, analysis, and synthesis are central components of the academic research paper, we will practice these skills in short papers. We will also learn how to search for, and evaluate, a range of primary and secondary sources for the research paper. Our first writing project (summary) will be based on Manfred Steiger’s “Globalization,” and in the next two projects (analysis and synthesis) we will consider Steiger’s arguments in relation to ideas put forward by other globalization theorists. 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 10 page paper, of the semester’s work. By the end of this course, in addition to having fine-tuned writing skills, you will be able to adeptly participate in conversations about the nature and significance of globalization.

ENGL161: Writing for Inquiry and Research
CRN 30673(MWF 1:00-1:50)
Strunk, Trevor
English 161 is a writing course designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage academic inquiry. During the first half of the semester, you will complete two writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, and analyze class readings. In the second half of the semester, you will write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research essay using the skills you learned in the first half of the semester.

TUESDAY / THURSDAY SECTIONS

ENGL 161: Talking to Strangers: Writing about Stand-Up Comedy
CRN 11979 (TR 11:00-12:15); CRN 33322 (TR 12:30-1:45); CRN 21668 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Baez, Marc
In Comedy at the Edge, Richard Zoglin characterizes stand-up comedy in the United States during the 1970s as marking a clear shift from a primarily impersonal, joke-based entertainment into a more varied and ambitious art invested in personal experience and direct social commentary. But while it is clear that Richard Pryor and George Carlin and Andy Kaufman engaged in experimentation that was often in conflict with the older style of stand-up, we will treat this tension between a set-up/punchline joke-telling tradition and the development and success of other approaches in the 1970s as an opportunity to explore connections between this “new” type of stand-up comedy and stand-up’s complicated past, from the Borscht-Belt to Vaudeville to Blackface Minstrelsy. English 161 is designed to provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. So with this in mind, you will complete four writing projects: Summary (2 pages); Extended Analysis (5 pages); a Research Proposal including an annotated bibliography (3 Pages); and a final Research project (10 Pages). Through the first three writing projects, you will develop skills that will enable you to create a well-organized and tightly argued final research paper. Each writing project will include at least two drafts, and the final draft for the research project will be highlighted to show all revisions and will also include a cover letter explaining these revisions.

ENGL 161: Writing the Revolution
CRN 11886 (TR 9:30-10:45);CRN 24008 (11:00-12:15); CRN 11853(2:00-3:15)
Costello, Virginia
In this class, we will analyze Emma Goldman’s highly romantic and wildly impractical theory of anarchism. Since Goldman became an anarchist primarily in response to the treatment of Haymarket anarchists, we will start here in Chicago, 1886, move to the early 1900s when Goldman lectured throughout the U.S., and finally make connections to contemporary movements and politics. We will examine Goldman’s essays, which are rich in references to the work of respected scientists, sexologists, and literary writers as well as a few quacks (!). We will hone our critical thinking skills, develop our own positions, and write about the justice system, education, gender, politics, and class. Finally, we will examine the way in which many of Goldman’s arguments are strikingly relevant today. We will be entering into an intellectual conversation on anarchism and students will be positioning themselves within that conversation. The later half of the semester will be dedicated to employing our critical thinking skills and writing a research paper. Our text, From Inquiry To Academic Writing: A Practical Guide, explains how to develop ideas, analyze essays, synthesize sources, construct a thesis, organize an essay, conduct basic research, and use appropriate styles and forms of citation.

ENGL 161: Science Fiction and the Body
CRN 11958(TR 9:30-10:45)
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: Writing Analytically about Ethics and Politics
CRN 27288 (TR 12:30-1:45); CRN 22416 (TR 3:30-4:45); CRN 27376 (5:00-6:15)
Ford, William, Dr.
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 primary writing text, From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide, 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 (Understand Political Philosophy) that provides a similar overview of political questions and theories as they have been considered and developed throughout the history of Western Civilization up to the present. 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: Writing Urban Secret Histories
CRN 21700 (TR 11:00-12:15); CRN 21667 (TR 3:30-4:45)
Newirth, Michael
This Composition II course focuses thematically on the contested narratives visible in the actual social histories of cities like Chicago and New York. Students will read a variety of texts by writers such as Luc Sante and Marco d’Eramo, while encountering different writing techniques, culminating in an independently researched, thesis-driven 10-page research project. This course should appeal to students who are willing to engage historical narratives as text evidence, and wish to build their writing skills in terms of logic, clarity, and specificity.

ENGL 161: Writing about Chicago: Pursuing Inquiry through Research
CRN 32676 (TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 11854 (TR 11:00-12:15)
Rosenbush, Mimi
Reading about Chicago’s 19th-century emergence as a mighty industrial force is difficult to reconcile with today’s city of Millennium Park, but this dynamic interplay characterizes Chicago’s remarkable story. In reading the history of Chicago, students will gain competence in academic writing through summary and analysis practice. For final research projects on Chicago, students will choose topics that intersect with their own academic and personal interests.

ENGL 161: From Public Duty to Private Business: Writing About the Politics of Waste
CRN 11875 (TR 8:00-9:15); CRN 25973 (TR 9:30-10:45); CRN 11972 (TR 12:30-1:45)
Sherfinski, Todd
The topic 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 of which they belong.

ENGL 161: The Language of “Us” and “Them”: Linguistics and Identity
CRN 11961 (TR 2:00-3:15)
Williams, Charitianne
This class is designed to recognize the benefits and advantages of bilingualism, and to serve the needs of bilingual and English-language-learning students. In this class we will study language variation with a focus on how language shapes our own and other’s sense of identity. Examining major national linguistic events such as the Oakland Ebonics debate and the English-only movement, the class will attempt to separate truth from myth as course members gain mastery of one discourse community in particular: Academia. Please note: This section is designed to meet the needs of English-language learners. Instructor permission is required to enroll.

BLENDED SECTIONS

ENGL 161: Science Fiction and Fantasy as Critical Commentary
CRN 35789 (Tuesday 2:00-3:15)
Wonders, Brooke
As examples such as Hunger Games, Moon, Firefly, Game of Thrones, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 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 criticism of major genre phenomena. Although this course takes up science fiction and fantasy fiction as topics of inquiry, the primary goal of this class is to help you develop your skills as academic writers. During the first half of the course, we will examine science fiction and fantasy in terms of some of the issues these genres raise in relation to the body, technological innovation, and the possibilities of language. We’ll also learn about some of the different lenses or methodologies scholars take up when discussing genre fiction. We will work toward developing intellectual tools to guide us in focused, academic inquiry. During the second half of the class, you will develop a subject of inquiry that will result in a research-based academic paper. In this final paper, you will develop your own claim and research an issue raised in class in a way that is interesting and exciting to you. Please note: This is a blended version of the course, which means class will meet once a week with all other activities completed through online and new media activities and assignments. 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.

ENGL 161: What Can Poetry Teach Us?
CRN 11924 (Thursday 9:30-10:45); CRN 21838 (Thursday 11:00-12:15); CRN 11858 (Thursday 2:00-3:15)
Leavey, Andrea Witzke
The twentieth-century poet, Marianne Moore, begins her poem “Poetry” with the line, “I too dislike it.” The “too” implies, of course, that the speaker is not alone. Poetry is not always easy--even for poets--and yet it has much to teach us, be it as readers, as writers, as thinkers, as people. As Gertrude Reif Hughes puts it in her essay “How Poems Teach Us to Think,” “[i]n trying to understand an obscure poem we have to loosen some of our habitual responses. Riddles are an extreme example. They baffle on purpose, using disguise in order to reveal, so they offer a telling instance of how poems teach us to think.” American poet and businessman Dana Gioia would agree. Gioia felt his poetic training and “background in imagination, in language and in literature” gave him an enormous advantage in the business world. So how does poetry provide a route to developing the “qualitative and creative” skills and “creative judgment” that Gioia believes poetry gave him? In this course, we will examine that question as well as learn methods for reading and understanding many kinds of contemporary poetry. We will also read John Timberland Newman’s How Did Poetry Survive?, a book that explores the links between American poetry and the rise of urban culture over the last century. Students will produce four writing projects over the course of the term, finishing with an extended, documented research paper about a particular aspect of poetry, its relation to American culture, and how it could be used in innovative ways in areas of life and society that aren’t always associated with poetry. 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.

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