Fall 2022 Class Schedule
Fall 2022 class Schedule
Fall 2022 course descriptions
Expository Writing for Multilingual Students
This course is an introduction to college-level academic writing designed for multilingual students. Our section is reserved for undergraduate students who self-identify as native speakers of languages other than English or in addition to English. Students will write two longer pieces of expository writing along with several shorter pieces, developing each through a careful process of planning, drafting, community feedback, revising, and reflection. Our section will take a Critical Language Awareness approach to writing that allows us to consider not only what is expected in academic writing, but the ideologies and value systems underlying those expectations and how expectations for language vary across space and time. Class meetings are conducted as seminar discussions and workshops. In addition, the instructor meets regularly with students one-on-one or in teams for conferences.
Expository Writing: Food & Its Literatures
Our daily life is embroiled in food writing: from the New York Times restaurant reviews and Mary Berry’s cookbooks to TikTok recipes and candy bar wrappers! In this course, we will think with our stomachs as we explore a variety of food genres like recipes, memoirs, short stories, reviews, political pamphlets, and academic writing to learn how to evaluate and emulate effective prose across styles and disciplines. As we read, write, and eat, we’ll consider questions like: What is the relationship between the food and the writing that we consume? How are changing foodways played out in food writing? How and why has food been a site of political organizing over the years? This course is designed to use the many modes of food writing as a base to develop critical reading, writing, and research skills, so you can thrive in any writing environment.
Expository Writing: 'lo-fi beats to study/relax to' (Asian America's Conceptualisms since 1990)
We might say that the primary aesthetic or object of the late 20th- and 21st-centuries is “vibe” and its cognates: mood, energy, ambience, aura. That such seemingly vague terminologies nevertheless reflect a certain precision of judgment is testament to their potency as both evaluative criteria ("big mood," "it's a vibe") and aesthetic problem (what isvaporwave, exactly?), especially in a world predicated on the patterns and habits of commodity forms. Drawing from art objects and literary texts, this course will ask you to read across materialities and mediums with the aim of elaborating the relationships between the following concepts: race, media, décor, pattern, texture, scent, and ornament. What does the proliferation of nuclear technologies after 1945 have to do with elevator music? How might the history of air conditioning tell us something about Asian America after the Cold War? Taking our cue from the generic, political, and material provocations staged in the works of Asian American artists and writers like Pamela Lu, Tan Lin, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Nam June Paik, and Anicka Yi, we will work together to thematize the minor and major affects their works both cite and elicit—disgust, boredom, distraction, relaxation, irritation, amusement, awe—and query what stakes ambient, diffuse, and “minor” forms have for how we understand race today more broadly.
First Year Seminar: I Guess this is Growing Up: The Transition to College Life
This course aims to ease some of the transitions that you will experience in your first quarter at Northwestern by defining, exploring, discussing, and reflecting on your own experiences. By reading and discussing novels, essays, short stories, and works of journalism that take up the theme of life transitions, we will work together to cultivate productive study habits and to hone your critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills for Northwestern classes. Our class will serve as a social support system, as we work generously with one another through seminar discussion and a routine exchange of writing.
First-Year Seminar: The Legacy of Race in the United States
We will investigate how media, academics, policy, and popular culture in US society have defined and codified race. Examples of materials include newspaper articles, podcasts, song lyrics, maps, personal essays, TV, and film). 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 conscientious and ethical members of a diverse learning community. Students will demonstrate their new knowledge about racial formation in the United States through drafting and revising journal entries, analytical papers, and creative assignments.
First-Year Seminar: Language Diversity and Linguistic Justice
Scholars of language and writing argue that language and its varieties, genres, modes, and rhetorical strategies are always shifting, flexible, and contested. Thus, sociolinguistic diversity—differences across and within languages and dialects—is inevitable. This seminar will explore how language difference is situated in current US and global discourses, considering language in written, spoken, and signed forms. We will disrupt monolingual ideologies that infiltrate those discourses, focusing on language diversity as an asset to individuals, cultures, and institutions. The course will consider college as one of those institutions and will explore language diversity and linguistic social justice as part of your first-year experience at Northwestern. Using scholarly readings from sociolinguistics and writing pedagogy along with popular non-fiction, the course will consider how we can sustain sociolinguistic diversity, how we can foster equity, access, and inclusion around language difference, and how our sociolinguistic diversity sustains us. You will formulate and explore your own questions about language diversity and linguistic justice in papers, presentations, and class discussions. Our seminar will operate as a community that celebrates our diverse language use and as a system of academic, practical, and emotional support as you begin your college experience. Students of all sociolinguistic backgrounds are welcome in this seminar, and our course design will provide direct benefits to students who identify as international, multilingual, and/or native speakers of non-mainstream Englishes.
First-Year Seminar: 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. Course readings/viewing will include works of fiction, journalism, and writings from the natural and social sciences as well as popular films. We will also consider practical topics such as how University library resources and experts can help students locate and evaluate key sources and develop authoritative arguments.
First-Year Seminar: Coming of Age, Coming to College
Coming-of-age novels and memoirs portray the journey from childhood to adulthood. In this course, we will focus on works of fiction and autobiography that pay special attention to the role that college plays in that journey. These works portray the formative childhood influences and conflicts that shape the protagonists. In the chapters on college, they dramatize the different ways that higher education helps the characters navigate the difficult and confusing task of taking control of their lives and coming to a deeper understanding of who they are and what they want from life. In each work, we also get to see the impact of their college experiences after the characters have graduated and entered the so-called "real world." The works explore such questions as: Does college change who you are or, rather, help you to understand who you are? How does it impact your relationships with your family? What factors contribute to success in college and beyond, and what is even meant by "success"? Through reflection on and discussion, you'll begin to answer those and other questions for yourself too. We will read a variety of books that include: Bread Givers, a novel about a Jewish girl struggling with poverty at the turn of the 20th century; A Particular Kind of Black Man, a novel about the child of Nigerian immigrants who faces discrimination not only from white people but from African Americans; Educated, a memoir about a girl who grows up in an isolated, rural community with almost no formal education; and other literary works. In each work, college is a turning point for the main character, helping them to mature and move forward in their lives with clearer self-understanding and sense of purpose. The readings will offer you the opportunity not only to enjoy and discuss some wonderful books but also to reflect on the path that has led you to Northwestern and the ways you hope you will continue to grow and mature while you're here.
First-Year Seminar: How to Become an Expert in Roughly 10 Weeks
Every day on the Internet, on television, on the streets and in classrooms, we hear people expressing opinions about a variety of topics. The people who are most persuasive, however, are those who are most informed. This course is designed to give you the tools to develop an informed opinion about something that is important to you, to present that opinion to others orally and in writing, and to persuade others to consider (and even accept) your point of view. In other words, the seminar is designed to help you make the transition to a college mindset. We will begin the seminar by quickly exploring a few controversial topics, evaluating how well writers in both the scholarly and the popular press support their opinions and persuade audiences. In the process, you will learn how to evaluate sources, read critically, listen and consider opposing points of view, and develop a powerful response. Then you will have the opportunity to select a controversial topic of your choice and research it in depth, using library resources, the Internet, interviews, and surveys. In addition to learning research techniques, you will also learn techniques for presenting your ideas persuasively, both orally and in writing. By the end of the course, you will be in position to discuss your ideas in a thoughtful, authoritative way, becoming a more effective contributor in college classes as well as in conversations with family and friends. In this sense, you will have earned the right to call yourself an expert on your topic.
First-Year Seminar: The Terror & Triumph of Youth
As you are well aware, being young has many benefits and many drawbacks. For instance, the optimism and creativity that often characterize youth can lead to positive social and societal change. At the same time, though, young people often struggle to be taken seriously, even when their actions and ideas are good ones. Through examining several historic and contemporary case studies, this course will explore both the triumphs and terrors of youth (i.e., teens-twenties). What risks are uniquely available to young people? Which ones are rewarded and which end in regret? How might these outcomes be mediated by other factors (e.g., race, gender, sexuality)? Most importantly, what can we learn from the triumphant and terrible behaviors of others? As we explore answers to these questions through discussion, reading, and writing assignments, we'll also take advantage of your own uniquely youthful status as first-quarter, first-year students. Specifically, we'll think and learn about how both your transition to college and the years ahead present you with opportunities to both capitalize on your youth and cultivate for you and others (especially those who might disparage Gen Z) a more realistic idea of what it really means to be young these days.
First-Year Seminar: Through the Looking Glass: Intersections of Identity
As you begin your first year in college, you’ll encounter many different experiences that may lead you to ask the legendary questions: Who am I? and Who do I want to become? Identity forms an important part of our development, both inside university and outside academia. While we may assume one identity within the university, we may assume an entirely different identity within friend groups or within our families. The intersectionality of identity plays a pivotal role in shaping our world view. It’s also important to consider within the academic setting, as you begin to connect with others from different backgrounds who will form the basis of your peer and academic support and learning groups over the next four years. This class will explore the shaping of identity. You will have the opportunity to explore your own identities, both within university and outside academia. You will also explore how others shape their identities. Of particular emphasis will be the intersectionality of identity. We will consider elements such as sexual orientation, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and race. Emphasis will be placed on identity-shaping phenomena such as life experiences, socialization within communities and families, and popular culture. Together, we will come to a deeper understanding of identity. The culminating project of the class will be a “first-quarter-of-college identity” time capsule. At the end of your fourth year at Northwestern, Professor Zugnoni will send you your time capsule by email so that you can revisit your first days of the university experience.
English 106-1/DSGN 106-1: Writing in Special Context
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.
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.
Practical Rhetoric
Practical Rhetoric is a discussion-based course that explores the practical skills and pedagogical theories behind effective peer-to-peer tutoring in writing centers. The course is practical in that it is designed to prepare incoming tutors for their work at the Writing Place. This course also focuses heavily on both classic and current theories of the teaching of writing and of writing center-specific pedagogies. We will introduce you to classic works of writing center theory while also asking you to engage in more contemporary debates and studies in the field. Through a combination of reading about writing center pedagogies and practicing engaging with those methods in your work at the Writing Place, Practical Rhetoric seeks to prepare you to effectively coach writers at all stages of the writing process. In the spirit of the collaborative writing process that is at the heart of the Writing Place’s mission, as writers this quarter, this course will ask you to regularly bring your own writing to class to workshop in a series of mock consultations and writing exercises with your classmates. You will reflect on your own positionality as a writer–– and consider what that positionality brings to your work at the Writing Place–– in a short writing assignment the first week of the quarter. You will continue to reflect on your learning in Practical Rhetoric and on your experiences working at the Writing Place in a series of weekly tutor journals. We will ask you to contribute to the work of writing center studies through your own research proposal, ideally on a topic or initiative that you can continue developing and perhaps even put into action in later quarters to improve and grow our services at the Writing Place. And at the end of the quarter, you’ll bring everything you’ve learned together to articulate your personal tutoring philosophy.
Advanced Composition
This course will let you focus on the kind of prose writing you want to get better at. Though you’ll have a chance to write in several different genres you can also choose to work in just one genre, such as the academic essay, the op-ed, the personal essay, the feature article, the legal brief, the blog, or the review (of film, music, etc.). We’ll explore how writers have approached several key writing challenges: how to navigate and embrace polarizing topics; how to complicate an initial idea until it’s an essay; how to develop a pivotal, catalytic sentence. An overarching goal of the course will be to tap into some of the myriad ways writing practice can itself be generative, can help us figure out what we didn’t already know.