First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-20)
Topic
The Japanese Role-Playing Game
Instructors
Thomas Gaubatz
847/491-2766
1880 Campus Drive, Kresge Hall, Office 4-345
Office Hours: varies by quarter, please contact instructor
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L05: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM
Overview of class
AY25 This course is an introduction to academic writing in the humanities. More than technical skills and stylistic norms, we will focus on understanding how academic writing at the university level differs from that taught in high school. Students will be taught to approach academic writing as a practice of knowledge production aimed at communicating original ideas to an informed audience. We will develop these skills through an introduction to game studies--the academic study of video games--and the genre of the Japanese role-playing game (JRPG).
Learning Objectives
As a First Year Writing Seminar, this course focuses on developing skills of academic writing. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to do the following:
• Effectively summarize and explain scholarly debates in a given discipline (game studies)
• Describe cultural texts (games) from given disciplinary perspectives
• Analyze cultural texts (games) in terms of given disciplinary concepts
• Form original arguments in the context of disciplinary debates and support them through the analysis of specific materials.
• Correctly identify different types of secondary sources, effectively deploy them in service of an original argument, and properly cite them to indicate their role in the argument.
In addition to writing skills, this course also offers an introduction to game studies and to the genre of the JRPG. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to do the following:
• Summarize and discuss major theoretical questions and scholarly debates surrounding video games and the methods for studying them
• Describe formal qualities of interactive narrative as manifest in the JRPG and in individual games
• Situate digital games (or tropes, techniques, genres, and styles of the same) in relation to relevant social, cultural, and historical contexts
• Understand scholarly writing on relevant topics and apply it to deepen understanding of games
Teaching Method
Lecture, Discussion, Workshop
Evaluation Method
Attendance and participation, informal weekly journal, formal writing assignments, final paper
Class Materials (Required)
All class materials will be provided digitally in PDF format.
Class Attributes
WCAS Writing Seminar
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.