Intermediate Composition (205-0-21)
Instructors
James Richard O'Laughlin
8474918916
1908 Sheridan Rd., Rm. 206
Office Hours: Wednesday, 4-5 p.m. Thursday, 1-2 p.m.
Meeting Info
Parkes Hall 213: Mon, Wed, Fri 3:00PM - 3:50PM
Overview of class
This course is designed to help you write more clearly, coherently, and complexly about what's important to you. It aims to give you more control of different stages of the writing process—invention, development, revision. Among other things, we'll explore ways of using writing as a tool for discovery. There will be regular, brief writing exercises and three essays: two shorter essays (3-5 pp); and one longer research essay (6-8 pp.) on a question of your own choosing.
The draft-revision sequence for the main essays, which includes peer feedback and individual conferences with me, is meant to enable a progressive development of ideas for each essay. We'll take seriously the notion that writing can change us and can change the world, and we'll aim to create interesting, illuminating, transformative essays.
Learning Objectives
The goal is for each of you to improve your ability to:
a. Write clear, effective, possibly memorable sentences.
b. Analyze the specific strategies in a piece of writing; evaluate the benefits and limitations of a writer's
approach.
c. Effectively review other class members' essay drafts to identify strengths as well as
areas for possible improvement/further explanation/deepening.
d. Develop more complex arguments.
e. Find and develop interesting topics/questions to write about.
f. Manage the writing process, from identifying a topic/idea, to generating material for a draft, to
revising a draft after feedback.
g. Write clear, coherent essays.
Class Materials (Required)
Course readings will be available through Canvas