Winter 2021 Class Schedule

• Winter 2021 Course Descriptions

Winter 2021 class Schedule

Winter 2021 course descriptions

English 105-0-20: Expository Writing

In suburban houses and downtown apartments, housing projects and condos, our immediate living situations shape our lives, work, and relationships as well as our writing. Throughout the quarter, we will read both academic writing and literary texts that engage a strong sense of place rooted in the home or apartment. By looking at these texts and writing about our own living spaces, we will ask: How does housing shape our writing? How do housing conditions enact or constitute inequalities between classes, genders, and racial and ethnic groups? What can housing reveal to us about writing, and what can writing reveal to us about housing?

English 105-0-21: Expository Writing

In this course, we will take games seriously as objects of study that can teach us about social values, cultural narratives, material realities, and historical moments that produce, receive, or reject these games. Things like video games, board games, and the figurative language of games (quit playing games; he’s just a player; in earnest or in game; the fame game; war games; shell game; the blame game; I didn't come to make friends--I came to win; etc.), are materially and rhetorically recognizable. Transcending culture, continent, and time, games are an integral part of our lives and our collective and individual histories. Yet the perceived import of games varies from something as culturally and economically significant as the Olympic Games to games that are often maligned as silly wastes of time. Beginning in the Middle Ages, we will read about popular games that were either encouraged or illicit. We’ll continue on to modern games such as Monopoly and Animal Crossing. We’ll ask what it means to conceive of social phenomenon as games, including war, gossip, and intimate relationships. We will, of course, discuss video games, including their tendency to re-enact, appropriate, or re-imagine the past. Yet we shall also attend to the possible futures games can help us create. We’ll sharpen the precision of our vocabulary by defining our terms through interrogating the difference (if there is one) between games, competition, and sporting events. With each game we study, we will attend to the players, the significance of the rules, and ask: what’s at stake? We will analyze the content and stylistic features utilized by other authors, while also generating writing that draws on your research and analysis of the games that you’re most interested in discussing.

English 105-6-20: Literatures of Addiction

Ever since Pentheus’ fatal decision to spy on the revels of Dionysus, audiences have had a guilty fascination with the spectacle of addiction—a fascination which crosses not only centuries but disciplines, captivating scientists, policymakers, philosophers, artists, and laypeople alike. This class will trace the evolution of literary representations of addiction across several centuries, from classical depictions of god-induced madness, through the Gothic narratives such as Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, temperance classics such as Ten Nights in a Barroom (whose impact has often been compared to that of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), to the twentieth- and twenty-first century comedies and confessionals that make the bestseller lists today. Through these readings and related critical texts, we will examine the ways that such literature provides a staging ground for public controversy and emerging theories about the artistic, cultural, ethical, and scientific significance and ramifications of addiction.  

English 105-6-21: Studying Race in the US: Legacies of Academia, Media, and Popular Culture

You have come to Northwestern to study, or be a scholar (the word ‘scholar' means "a person studying at an advanced level;" that is now you!) But what is ‘scholarship,' and what does it mean study race in the United States? At the root of scholarship is inquiry, or the questioning and investigation into a topic. We will investigate how different facets of US society have defined and codified race. This seminar builds students' informational literacy by looking at how to decipher news sources, do college-level research, analyze artifacts of popular culture (song lyrics, short stories, editorials, personal essays, TV and film), and develop expertise. In studying how we define race, we will also consider the intersections of citizenship and immigration, gender and sexuality, and more. This seminar helps students transition into college-level inquiry and into being a conscientious and ethical member of a diverse learning community.

English 106-1/DSGN 106-1: Writing in Special Contexts

Design Thinking and Communication (DTC), is a required two-quarter course for all first-year students at McCormick. It is also available to any Northwestern undergraduate student interested in design. Every section is co-taught by an instructor from the Writing Program and an instructor from engineering. Part of the Engineering First® curriculum, the course immediately puts students to work on real design problems submitted by individuals, non-profits, entrepreneurs, and industry members. In DTC, all students design for real people and communicate to real audiences.

English 205-0-20: Intermediate Composition

The goal of this course is to develop your ability to write clearly, persuasively, and interestingly for a variety of audiences. Students will learn techniques for writing effective informative, reflective, persuasive, and research essays. These techniques include the effective use of specific details; methods of organizing ideas clearly; strategies for editing sentences for clarity and conciseness; and ways to give your writing a distinctive voice. Students will submit drafts and revisions of essays.

English 205-0-21: Intermediate Composition: From Story to Argument

This course examines the intersection of story and argument, both to investigate how creative storytelling may provide the inspiration for argument and to examine how effective writers and researchers may be seen to build their arguments (legitimately or otherwise) on the foundation of story. Readings will range from discussions of the graphic novel to considerations of how everyday citizens manipulate social media to tell the stories they desire (or vice versa). We will also look at case studies that illustrate how the ever-widening gulf between the stories told by specialists and non-specialists plays out in the public sphere and the making of public policy.

This course is recommended for students who wish to refine their mastery of the essay form while experimenting with a range of creative approaches to articulating arguments and persuading audiences. Key assignments will require research into a question of the student’s own choosing, refined and developed over the course of the quarter. Students are welcome to use this class to deepen their explorations of research problems that they may have begun investigating in other classes or contexts.

English 282-0-1: Writing and Speaking in Business

Eng 282 emphasizes writing and speaking to inform and persuade audiences in business contexts. This course is designed to help you think strategically about how you communicate in written and spoken forms, and to produce documents and presentations that are well-organized, clear, and compelling. In addition to challenging you to write and speak effectively, course assignments provide an opportunity to enhance your critical reading and thinking; your ability to communicate effectively about data; your understanding of visual communication; and your understanding of interpersonal communication.

English 282-0-2 & 3: Writing and Speaking in Business

Across all industries, employers consistently rank written and oral communication in the top five skills that a new employee needs. However, employers also say that students overestimate their ability to communicate effectively in a workplace context. English 282 is designed to address that gap. The course is designed to help you think strategically about communication, make effective communication decisions, and produce writing and presentations that are well-organized, clear, and compelling. In addition, course assignments provide an opportunity to enhance your critical reading and thinking; your ability to communicate effectively about data; your understanding of visual communication; and your understanding of interpersonal communication. There will be no final exam. However, students must be present on the final day of class for team-based presentations.

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