General Education 111: First Year Writing
Section Descriptions
SEMESTER II, 2009-2010
First-Year Writing courses emphasize writing and thinking skills. You will be asked to do the following: 1) write frequently, in a variety of genres including expository essays and one or more assignments requiring research; 2) revise some of this writing; and 3) meet your instructor for conferences on your writing. The course is taught in multiple sections and designed for students with varying levels of experience and confidence in writing.
Section A: MWF 8:00-8:55, J. Solomon
FIRST YEAR WRITING: NUCLEAR FAMILY MELTDOWN! The formative experience of family shapes most aspects of human endeavor, yet people are likely to disagree over the most basic aspects of its definition. Americans’ “traditional” image of family—mom and dad, married, with a handful of kids in a single-family home, all happy, fulfilled, and linked by love and loyalty—is surprisingly uncommon among this same population. Furthermore, the nuclear family is easily revealed as neither a historically nor a geographically universal model. In this seminar, we will scrutinize these fissures between the fantasy and the reality of the nuclear family, and the explosions that may result when they meet. We will read a variety of texts closely and analytically as a means for creating insightful arguments, and we will work to present these arguments in evocative prose. Authors include William Faulkner, Doris Lessing, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Section B: MWF 9:05-10:00, J. Kwon Dobbs
WRITING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT. Our connection with the Earth involves not only our external landscapes but our internal ones as well. This course will explore both through contemporary readings in ecology, environmental justice, and food issues. We will focus our discussions on how we use natural resources, how the weight of our tread affects us from the food we eat to the ties that bind our families and communities, and what impact our choices have locally and globally. We will write to explore our individual questions in research papers, personal essays, and presentations to cultivate effective research skills, to strengthen our analytical and imaginative writing processes, and to develop audio/visual literacy. By consulting with one another and with the professor, we will work together as a community of writers who are invested in one another’s development and whose primary text is our own.
Section C: MWF 9:05-10:00, W. Sonnega
AMERICAN DREAMS. This section will explore how the dreams of Americans for a better life have been represented in literature, theater, film, and television, among other mediums. In responding to texts, artifacts, and performances that portray an American Dream, we will write, discuss, and revise a series of essays, personal narratives, and research projects. Our focus will be on the nature of the writing experience and on how thinking, writing and talking about many American Dreams enrich our sense of what constitutes an American life.
Section D: MWF 10:45-11:40, S. Longfellow
IMAGE, WORDS, THE IMAGINATION. A picture is worth a thousand words. What, then, might an entire film of images be worth? But wait. Maybe a book’s image narrative—playing in the theater of your head—has created an imaginary world more profound than any film could touch. In this course, you’ll read images like you read words and words like you read images. You’ll look at our fascination with pictures of the horrific through Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others, read the image narrative inside Sandra Cisnero’s House on Mango Street, find textual similarities between European oil painting and contemporary advertisement in John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, read the film Casablanca like a book, and experience other texts (written, visual, etc.). Along the way, you’ll ask a few questions and propose a few answers (in writing and presentation) concerning image, words, and the imagination. How, for example, has the reading of an image (of the American Flag? the Mona Lisa? a mink coat?) changed over time? What does such change suggest about perspective and context? About reading and meaning? About human perception and imagination?
Section E: MWF 11:50-12:45, M. Westerman
WOMEN’S BODIES IN CONTEMPORARY U.S. CULTURE. Since the social movements of the 1960s, American women have become increasingly visible in politics, business, medicine, and scholarship. And yet our culture persists in treating female bodies as a mysterious blend of the desirable and the repulsive. Where do we learn these lessons about female biology and femininity, and what do they lead us to believe? Through reading, writing, and research, students explore the ways in which contemporary U.S. culture constructs our knowledge of women’s bodies. Assignments include a course web blog, a personal narrative, a literary analysis, and a research report on St. Olaf students’ attitudes regarding women’s bodies.
Section F: MWF 12:55-01:50, S. Cannella
CONSIDERING GLOBAL POVERTY. This course explores questions of poverty on a global level. We will first examine the issues in economic terms. Where are the highest concentrations of poverty in the world? What are its causes? What are the consequences for those regions and for the world if that poverty persists? We will then turn to the human side of poverty. How does poverty affect families and the lives of children? What moral or ethical dilemmas do we face as Americans in this debate? And what about the poor in our own country? To help us respond to these questions, we will read The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs and compare his proposals with those of world leaders such as Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to develop systems of micro-lending throughout Bangladesh and South Asia. Among other texts, we will also read a memoir of growing up in poverty in the United States.
Section G: MWF 2:00-2:55, K. Schwehn
HEROES AND HEROINES. What does it take to become a hero or heroine? What is more heroic: a single act of bravery or a lifetime of smaller accomplishments? How does your own definition of heroism shape the person you are striving to become? In this course we will wrestle with these questions by examining heroes and heroines from mythology, literature, contemporary culture, and our own lives. Texts will include Shakespeare’s King Lear, Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and the graphic novels Spider-Man and Marked. You will hone your understanding of these readings through a variety of assignments: a book review, a critical essay, a presentation on a contemporary heroic figure, and an autobiographical essay in which you mythologize a member of your family as hero or heroine.
Section H: MWF 2:00-2:55, J. Mbele
THE TRICKSTER. "The Trickster" is an engaging and significant phenomenon in the lives of human beings all over the world. Thinking and writing about the trickster will help us discover an important part of ourselves as humans. We will read, discuss, and write about narratives and other discourses dealing with the trickster. These will include folktales, epic and fictional tales, and theoretical works. We will reflect on these readings and respond to them in our writings, particularly by using these materials as sources of inspiration. Student writing will be discussed in conferences with the instructor. Texts include Beti's The Poor Christ of Bomba, Niane's Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Radin's The Trickster, and Sandars' The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Section I: T 8:00-9:25 / TH 8:00-9:20, M. Bresnan
POPULAR SCIENCE. This course explores the role of science and technology in our everyday lives, examining the link between material innovations (e.g., smart phones, genetic testing) and our cultural imagination. In addition to considering the ethical implications of these innovations, we will analyze the ways in which advances in science and technology are made accessible to a general audience, reading and discussing journalism, science fiction, and advertising. Through a variety of writing assignments, you will work to present specialized and technical information with clarity and sophistication-- a key aspect of effective academic writing.
Section J: T 9:35-11:00 / TH 9:30-10:50, S. Bauer
OUR WORLD THROUGH THE ARTISTIC LENS. This course focuses on the artistic creative process of perception, description, interpretation, and evaluation and then applies this process to expressive academic writing. This artistic lens will sharpen our ability to articulate and interpret what we perceive, to compare and contrast the ideas of others, and to relate cultural perceptions and ideas to our own experiences. While exploring the artistic creative process, reflecting on the thoughts of others and reading about current events, we will focus on a range of issues relating to the global community and intercultural identities. There will be specific opportunities to explore cultural perceptions with international students on campus. Required attendance at several dance, music and theater performances, and art exhibits complement class experiences.
Section K: T 11:45-1:10 / Th 12:45-2:05, J.C. Hill
THE STORIES WE TELL. In this course we will examine the many genres humans have devised to tell their stories—"truthful" stories, "invented" stories, and all that lie between. We will look at primary versions of, and secondary readings on, traditional storytelling, drama, balladry, narrative poems, short stories, novels, graphic novels, and movies. In class you will also work on your writing, beginning each essay in class with various drafting exercises. You will be asked to write several critical-analytical essays, a research paper, and an original story (as part of your research project). Over the semester we will discuss how stories are delivered (and perceived) through different forms; why we humans love stories and seem to need an endless stream of them in our lives; why some but not all stories are "literary;" why some stories come free, others cost money; what it means to say a story is true or not true; and a question asked directly or indirectly in many of the stories themselves: who owns this story?
Section L: T 11:45-1:10 / Th 12:45-2:05, J. Hepburn
PERSONAL NARRATIVES. Students is this section work the whole semester to develop a single personal narrative, one made of shorter essays that develop their skill at writing description, analysis, and argumentation. For the short essays, for example, they develop statements that draw on their memories from childhood, involving recollections of a place, person, and incidents. Ultimately, they produce seamless stories that integrate these accounts and incorporate an array of genres. In the course of writing a neighborhood biography or migrant or farm story, or an immigrant account or family secret, or a recession story, they also learn to research in the library crucial details and to gather information from interviews. Finally, after reading models of excellent writing produced by contemporary American authors who focus in their work on issues of American identity and after working regularly in peer groups, they develop a keen sense of their audience.
Section M: T 11:45-1:10 / Th 12:45-2:05, J. Dunning
WRITING HOME. In this course, we will explore diverse experiences of “home,” including that of the refugee, immigrant (both today and historically), transnational, those who move frequently, and those who stay put. What does it mean, we will ask, to be “at home” in a place? In the world? And how does the experience of home intersect with language? Course texts will include poetry, fiction, and memoir by such authors as Li-Young Lee, Sandra Cisneros, Sherman Alexie, Pico Iyer, Scott Russell Sanders, and O. E. Rølvaag, as well as films and critical readings on the concept of home. Writing assignments will include academic essays, informal writing, and creative expression. Students may elect a volunteer service project such as tutoring in a literacy program in place of a final project text.
Section N: T 1:20-2:45 Th 2:15-3:35, M. Allister
FOOD. We’ve seen an explosion in television shows and movies about food. Advertisers have a million ways to get us to buy it. Cultural commentators use the food industry to dissect America. And though we eat food every day, we often know little and think less about food and the act of eating. In this section, we’ll read, think, and write about food , perhaps even prepare and eat it. We’ll consider questions such as the following: Where does our food come from? How and why do ethnic cuisines get constructed? What cultural meanings get connected to various eating acts? In addition to reading essays and books, we’ll watch television and films and make fieldtrips to the supermarket, a slaughterhouse, and local farms.
Section O: T 1:20-2:45 / Th 2:15-3:35, B. Dalgaard
WORK-PLAY: EAST-WEST. This course explores the very different attitudes and behaviors relating to work and leisure in Asian Culture (mainly Japan) and in the West (mainly United States.) Although there is some historical context for the exploration, we spend most of our time looking at contemporary societies. Using a combination of short content articles, novels and short stories, feature films and documentaries, we will compare and contrast the ways people in these two parts of the world work and play. Students will engage in various types of writing, including book critiques, film reviews, and expository essays. In addition, each student will undertake a semester-long research project that will culminate with a poster presentation.
