Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces students to the relationships between writing and purpose, between the features of texts and their meaning and effects. May focus on one or more literary or non-literary genres, including (but not limited to) essays, oratory, autobiography, poetry, and journalism. Includes attention to writing skills. Students with credit for ENGL 104W may not take this course for further credit. Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Essays. We all know and love them (maybe). But have you ever wondered about the history of the essay (where did the genre come from) or how they evolved over time to have a variety of features and characteristics? How has the essay come to dominate the world of academic writing?

In this course, we attempt to answer those questions. We start by going back in time to consider how the  essay developed in tandem with an earlier “new medium”: print. The essay was in fact a form of writing that developed as the market for print evolved in the long eighteenth century. We briefly consider the history of the essay, then move to examine a selection of effective and important historical and contemporary essays by both academic and non-academic writers. These essays address a range of issues (including science and society, gender and race, language and identity). We finish the course by considering the differences between digital and print prose writing, and reflect on the possible future of the essay form -- both in an academic and non-academic situations.

Over the course of the semester, students will develop a toolbox of critical skills which they will use to analyze the works studied. Through weekly tutorial writing assignments, students will practice their critical skills, creating and revising their own written work and honing their own writerly voice. The weekly low-stakes assignments will form the basis for the longer assignments. 

This course consists of TWO 1-hour lectures and ONE 1-hour tutorial/workshop each week. Attendance at both lectures and tutorials is required. Students are expected to complete the assigned reading BEFORE each lecture and to prepare in advance for the tutorial—tutorial workshops will feature one of the following skills each week: writing, self-editing, peer editing and revising.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the course, students will:  
1.     Understand the definition and history of the essay:
   a.     identify the generic characteristics of the essay
   b.     demonstrate an understanding of the history of the essay within the context of the “new media” of the 17th and 18th centuries  

2.     Develop a toolbox to use to analyze the works of expository prose studied in the course textbook, taking into account the following:
   a.     the main point (logos) of the work and the assumptions upon which the writer bases his/her work
   b.     the affective elements (pathos) of the work at the level of particular words, sentences, paragraphs
   c.      the writer’s situation (ethos), the implied audience and the actual audience in analyzing the effectiveness of the work
   d.     the structure of the work, including the following specific techniques: analysis, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, classification, definition, narration, description, humour and satire
   e.     the medium in which the work appears  

3.     Apply the critical skills developed in analyzing the works in the textbook to reflect on and improve their own writing in the following manner:
   a.     be able to use in their own writing the following specific techniques in non-fiction prose and understand the contexts in which they are effective: analysis, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, classification, definition, narration, description, humour and satire
   b.     through low-stakes intensive writing exercises, draft revision, peer editing and longer assignments, develop a sense of their own writerly voice  

4.     Reflect critically on the distinctions between expository prose works and digital communicative genres such as texting, tweeting, etc.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: