Winter 2024 Class Schedule

• Winter 2024 Course Descriptions

Winter 2024 class Schedule

Winter 2024 course descriptions

English 105-0-20: Engineering Fiction: Writing with Machines and Metaphors

Technology is a word with continually shifting meanings. Beyond the physical technologies that surround us every day, ranging from handheld devices to giant airplanes, “technology” also possesses immense metaphoric uses. Literature, a realm for imaginative experiments with technology, is a productive site to investigate all the things that the word technology might imply. In this course, we will read texts including early modern drama, nineteenth century realism, science fiction, and contemporary short stories and cinema, to ponder over how literature thinks about technology. What power dynamics do different technologies mobilize? What do we mean when we say that science and technology are ideologically neutral? How do vectors like race, gender, and empire both rely on and behave as technologies? And How does fiction contextualize and provide a more robust view of technology’s rationales of convenience, speed, efficiency? We will study not only the arguments/plots/themes of our texts, but also their formal and rhetorical strategies (their own technologies). Finally, we will think about how we can do the same – use the technology of language to identify and delineate an audience, make an argument, and support that argument by using evidence.  In other words, in this course we will use the lexicon, history, and politics of technology to become energetic thinkers, efficient writers, and empathetic thinking engines.

English 105-0-21: The Art(s) of Skateboarding: Writing, Journalism, and Film

In this course we will consider the skateboard, the skater, and, of course, this wondrous activity known as skateboarding through the various arts that have come to shape the sport. By reading literature on the subject from personal essays (“On Being the Oldest Guy at Skate Camp” by Cheston Knapp) and poems (“The Rebel” by Jose Hernandez Diaz) to examining journalistic forms like magazine articles and photojournalism in magazines such as Thrasher and Skateism to watching documentaries (Minding the Gap dir. Bing Liu) and films (Skate Kitchen dir. Crystal Moselle)—we will secretly (or not so secretly…) be learning the modes of academic, creative, and public writing. We will pay special attention to how race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other factors of identities come to surface in the tenuous culture of skating.

As self-proclaimed “literary critic and has-been skateboarder,” Jonathan Russel Clark, writes in his book of essays Skateboard, “...the real history of skating exists not in archives or texts but in a hodgepodge of random and iconic videos, tattered photographs, and, mostly, in the blurry memories of the people who lived through it all.” With that in mind, the class looks not at a singular or complete history of skateboarding but a version of it—embracing Clark’s suggestion of the “hodgepodge” while putting pressure on his claim that skating’s “real history” is void of texts. As we will see through poetry, articles, stories, film reviews, essays (some by Jonathan Russel Clark himself…), and much more—one medium that has kept the wacky history of skateboarding alive is very much indeed the writing and reading of texts, in just about every iteration of the term.

English 105-0-22: Expository Writing for Multilingual Students

This section of Expository Writing (English 105-0) 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 in any school, major, and year are welcome and will benefit from the course. Whether you are a beginning or advanced writer, we will work individually to build upon your existing strengths and identify and address areas for improvement. 

This section uses a Critical Language Awareness approach that helps us to practice conventions of US academic writing while we also examine the value systems underlying those conventions. 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. 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. 

English 105-8-20: Bon Appetit! Mastering the Art of Composition

Get hungry! This course explores the art of composition through writing, reading, and talking about food. From reflecting on personal food memories to crafting arguments about how and why we eat what we do, this course will hone your writing skills in areas crucial to college level writing.

English 105-8-21: Writing Race

This course aims to deepen our understanding and appreciation of ways in which “race”, ethnicity and culture are performed in both American writing and contemporary discussions on such topics. “Race” and ethnicity are ideological and cultural categories that include all groups and individuals. Hence, this course is designed in significant part to take a broad look at the intimate connections between qualitative and quantitative research, perception, everyday lived experiences and especially writing about “race”.  The primary focus is on the ideology of “race” as a social construction, how we understand and therefore discuss it, and how we can then effectively write about “race” as it pertains to our cultural norms, and dominant social institutions.

Although “race” and ethnicity are categories that include all groups and individuals, traditional patterns of writing and teaching about “race” and ethnicity have still not equipped us to discuss it comfortably or accurately.  In America we continue to reinscribe the nation’s incomplete historical understanding and willful ignorance towards “race” as a concept and lived reality.  We exclude from analysis the experiences and perspectives of the various ethnic groups that comprise the American mosaic and how we came to know the concept in the first place. In this course we explore racial ideology as part and parcel of American history and culture.  We aim to fully interweave experiences and research into a synthesis of the social construction of race.  We also work together to openly discuss and write about it.

English 105-8-22: Language Diversity & 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.

English 105-8-23: Ecofiction and Human Metamorphosis

Eco-fiction and Human Metamorphosis - We are all familiar with public discourse about environmental concerns: Descriptions of a future where familiar landscapes have been transformed into alien vistas, newly dangerous and hostile to human life. Recent eco-fiction, however, challenges that familiar narrative, proposing ways that we humans may find ourselves transfigured along with the world around us. In this class we will engage with accounts of such human metamorphosis, considering the children’s stories of Dr. Seuss, the hyper-empathy of Octavia Butler, the "new weird" landscapes of Jeff Vandermeer's Area X and a selection of other short works. Film viewings will include Pixar's 2008 Wall-E and Buožytė and Samper’s 2022 dystopian fantasy, Vesper.

Course readings/viewing will include brief readings from literary criticism.  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.  This course will use a traditional grading structure.  Content warning:  Some readings include references to sexual violence, self-harm, and suicide.

English 105-8-24: Humans and Other Animals

In this seminar, we will explore the question of what is and what might be the relationship between human and nonhuman animals. To guide us in that exploration, we'll read, discuss, and write about novels and poems that allow us to imagine ourselves into the lives of animals. These literary works powerfully dramatize the many ways in which we experience animals: as companions and as sources of food, in zoos and in nature, as objects of scientific study and as reflections of ourselves. The readings will offer us the opportunity to reflect on such questions as: Is it possible to know what an animal is thinking and feeling? Why are our pets so important to us? Are we justified in using animals for food and in laboratory experiments? Through class discussion and varied writing assignments, you'll articulate your answers to those and other questions to your colleagues in the seminar.

English 105-8-25: True Fictions

Recent controversies about “fake news” and disinformation would appear to suggest that contemporary mass media is newly unreliable. This course will explore how the distinction between truth and fiction in all media technologies has always been muddy. To do so, we will examine fiction that pretends to be true from 17th-19th century literature and philosophy to documentary-styled novels, films, and radio programs that span the 20th century. We will study the predominance of “found footage” films and digital media in the current millennium that parallel the rise of reality television, YouTube, and the smart phone. We will begin and end the quarter with considerations of "fake news," from founding father Benjamin Franklin’s fabricated newspaper propaganda to contemporary digital media. We will also read selections from philosophy and critical theory that question the concept of truth and the construction of reality through media technologies.

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 282-0: 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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