General Education 111: First Year Writing
Section Descriptions
SEMESTER I, 2008-2009
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 9:05-10:00, M. Trull
WORDS ON FILM. This course will introduce students to the study of narrative film and writing on film. We will begin by exploring how films are made and analyzing narrative and filmic techniques, including mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound in both classic and contemporary films. Class preparation will require a major time commitment, since students are responsible for both viewing the films and reading extensively in film criticism and our writing guide. We will screen films including Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola, Run (1998), and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959).To inspire our own writing, we will read the work of critics including Pauline Kael, Philip Lopate, and Andrew Sarris. Our writing assignments will include film criticism, a film review, a personal essay, and a research project.
Section B: MWF 10:45-11:40, R. Buckstead
WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE. This section emphasizes good writing and the close study of literature. Students will write essays on a variety of subjects. The instructor will meet with students for individual conferences about each essay. We will read and discuss short stories and novels: Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find; Ernest Hemingway, The Short Stories; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; and Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native.
Section C: MWF 10:45-11:40, Jonathan Hill
INNOCENCE. Are we born with innocence, or do we acquire it? Are children necessarily innocent? Is innocence something adults sentimentally ascribe to children? Is ignorance the price of innocence? Is innocence dangerous, as much to others as to oneself? Can we regain innocence once we have lost it? Was there some point in history, or pre-history, when humankind lost its collective innocence? Do men and women define innocence differently? These are the kinds of questions we shall consider in reading a selection of narratives and novels which, though differing widely in subject matter and tone, all in some way touch on the topic of innocence. In past versions of this course the reading has included Genesis 1-4; Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart; F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby; William Golding, The Inheritors and Lord of the Flies; Henry James, The Turn of the Screw; Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird; Ian McEwan, Atonement; Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye; and J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye.
Section D: MWF 10:45-11:50, M. Titus
CURIOSITY. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Dorothy Parker (1893-1967).
First and foremost this will be a class about writing. We will explore the possibilities of the sentence, take on the matter of personal style, experiment with the essay (essay the essay, that is). However, this will also be a class about the relations between looking and understanding. We will read fiction, poetry, and essays, lyric and philosophical, that attempt accurate description, attempt to put the world into words. We will analyze these attempts. We will ask questions about how and why we see what we do. Is seeing truly believing? Can I really see what you mean, or for that matter mean what you see? Do men and women see differently? Can looking lead to understanding? Is the gaze cruel or compassionate? What about the photograph? And finally, if we can’t change the world, can we change how we see it? At the end of this class, we should all be more versatile and self-aware writers and-I hope—irremediably more curious.
Section E: MWF 11:50-12:45, J. Dobbs
WRITING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT. Current discussions about climate change participate in a longer tradition of social protest writing, which seeks to draw attention to our impact on the environment. We will focus on contemporary narratives of the environment in crisis both in film and prose in order to analyze and reflect on their cultural implications. Our experiences and writing will serve as course texts in addition to others: Silent Spring, Lost Japan, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, An Inconvenient Truth, and Soylent Green. As a writing community, our work together will take place in a variety of genres – memoir, travelogue, argumentative essay, research presentation, and participation in a class blog – that will be developed through in-class conversation and out-of-class consultation with the instructor and with each other.
Section F: MWF 12:55-1:50, K. Schwehn
HEROES AND HEROINES. What does it take to be a hero or heroine? How do definitions of heroism influence our society? 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. Heroes and heroines may include Spider-Man, Jesus, King Lear, Alice (from Wonderland) and Tayo (from Ceremony). Writing assignments will include a book review of the graphic novel Marked, a critical assessment of a tragic hero, a profile of a contemporary hero or heroine, and an autobiographical essay—in which you mythologize a member of your family as hero or heroine.
Section G: MWF 12:55-1:50, 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 as you read words and words as 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. 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 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: MWF 2:00-2:55, M. Kelly
TEACHING OUTSIDE THE BOX. An average student may work with over 100 teachers from kindergarten through college commencement but consider only a handful of them stellar. In "Teaching Outside the Box," you will examine unconventional teachers and their impact on students. Through books such as Ms. Moffett's First Year, Punished by Rewards, and Brief Intervals of Horrible Sanity, you will find yourself in the back desk of classrooms in Queens, Boston, Brooklyn, and Brazil. You will spend three hours visiting Northfield K-12 classes and include your observations in an educational issue feature essay. Other writing assignments include a personal essay, book review, critical analysis, and persuasive essay. Through writing, reading, and discussing, you will come to a better understanding of what makes a great teacher.
Section J: T 8:00-9:25 / TH 8:00-9:20, S. Smallen
REASON, BEAUTY, AND WORK FOR PEACE: THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP. This section explores the question “how can your education be work for peace?” and introduces the Bloomsbury Group, their ideas and philosophies, and how these manifest in their work, especially their peace work. We will read literature and essays by and about Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, Keynes, Fry, and Clive Bell, and about concurrent historical events, such as women’s suffrage. We will also look at paintings by Grant, Fry, and Vanessa Bell. After dipping into these different facets, you will have opportunities to write about the Bloomsbury ideas, events, or people most interesting to you, and your own education and work for peace. Primarily a writing course, this section includes writing workshops. Your writing projects will include: research and response papers, literary criticism, and personal reflection.
Section K: T 9:35-11:00 / Th 9:30-10:50, S. Bauer
OUR WORLD THROUGH THE ARTISTIC LENS. This section 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 descriptively 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 the global community and intercultural identities. There will be specific opportunities to explore cultural perceptions with international students on campus. Required attendance at several art exhibits and dance, music and theater performances complement class experiences.
Section L: T 9:35-11:00 / Th 9:30-10:50, J.C. Hill
THE STORIES WE TELL. In this class we will look at the various forms humans use to tell stories “true stories, invented stories, and all that lie between” and explore why certain stories are considered “art” or “literature”; why some stories come to us free and some cost money; who owns a story; and other story-related questions. We’ll start with everyday story telling, then move to folklore and myth; drama (live theater); film (movies); fiction; creative nonfiction; narrative poetry; and journalism. Writing projects will include several critical-analytical essays, an arts review, a research paper, and a creative project that allows you to tell a story. Texts will include a literary anthology, a writing handbook, a novel, a DVD, a graphic novel and assorted online newspapers and magazines.
Section M: T 9:35-11:00 / Th 9:30-10:50, C. Holly
COMING OF AGE IN AMERICA. This course will focus on stories of coming of age in America as they appear in a selection of twentieth-century autobiographies, novels, and films. Students will write personal and expository essays related to the theme of the course, critical essays on the literature, and a research paper. Throughout the semester, students will be expected to participate actively in small and large group discussions on literature and writing. Possible texts and films: Claude Brown, Manchild in the Promised Land, Kent Haruf's Plainsong, Josephine Humphries' Rich in Love, J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Anzia Yezierska’s The Breadgivers, “Breaking Away” and “The Last Picture Show.”
Section N: T 11:45-2:45 / Th 12:45-2:05s, M. Allister
ANIMALS AND HUMANS. In this section, we'll explore our own pasts, watch films, and read essays, a novel, and some children's literature in order to consider why humans treat some animals in such loving ways (those we label "pets") and other animals in such cruel, inhumane ways (those we label "food" or "lab animals"). We will learn about the world of animals as a subject in itself and think about animals for what they can tell us about humans -- our ethics, concerns, and desires. Writers will include Barbara Kingsolver, Sy Montgomery, E. B. White. Students who are free-thinking and willing to take risks with their writing might appreciate this section.
Section O: T 11:45-1:10 / Th 12:45-2:05, J. Hepburn
PERSONAL NARRATIVE. Students write about themselves, employing an array of rhetorical modes, including description, narration, and persuasion. They write all semester on one of three topics from which they choose early in the semester: a family secret, a neighborhood biography, or a migrant or immigrant story. The literature we read as models covers the same subjects. Though students submit separate writing assignments over the course of the semester, in the end they produce a seamless autobiographical statement. In the course of completing this unified statement, too, they learn much about key elements of good writing.
Section P: T 1:20-2:45 / Th 2:15-3:35, J.C. Hill
THE STORIES WE TELL. In this class we will look at the various forms humans use to tell stories “true stories, invented stories, and all that lie between” and explore why certain stories are considered “art” or “literature”; why some stories come to us free and some cost money; who owns a story; and other story-related questions. We’ll start with everyday story telling, then move to folklore and myth; drama (live theater); film (movies); fiction; creative nonfiction; narrative poetry; and journalism. Writing projects will include several critical-analytical essays, an arts review, a research paper, and a creative project that allows you to tell a story. Texts will include a literary anthology, a writing handbook, a novel, a DVD, a graphic novel and assorted online newspapers and magazines.
Section Q: T 1:20-2:45 / Th 2:15-3:35, B. Dalgaard
WORK-PLAY: EAST-WEST. This course explores the notions of work and leisure in comparative perspective. We will use Asia (primarily Japan) and the West (primarily the U.S.) as the basis for our investigation. Short essays, novels, films, and research will form the basis for classroom discussions and provide insights into the historical and contemporary attitudes toward work and leisure and how they are influenced by and in turn affect societal norms. Students will consider how attitudes and norms mold their behavior and what this implies for their lives and livelihoods. In addition to informal writing (personal reflection) and more formal writing (analysis and evaluation), students will undertake collaborative research and present their findings in a public poster session.
Section R: T 1:20-2:45 / Th 2:15-3:35, R. DuRocher
CASES OF CONSCIENCE. In “Cases of Conscience” we meet individuals (both real and fictional) who have taken conscientious stands against authorities in their societies. Our aim in doing so is two-fold: to learn what constitutes conscientious action and how good writing represents it. We examine several theories of conscience proposed by Luther, Kant, Freud, and others. Readings include the following: Sophocles, Antigone; Shakespeare, Hamlet; Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day; Arendt, "Denmark and the Jews"; King, "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Because this is primarily a writing course, I use a variety of methods to develop your writing skills: discussions of the writing process; analyses of model essays; workshops on specific writing skills (e.g., effective conclusions); small groups responding to writing-in-progress; individual conferences. Each student creates a portfolio containing various kinds of writing, including a literary interpretation, an annotated bibliography; a narrative involving research, and a persuasive essay.
