Current Semester Courses
WRTG 10600-all sections ACADEMIC WRITING I LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: None.
STUDENTS: Available only to freshmen, sophomores, and transfer students. Students cannot get credit for this class and WRTG 10800 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This introductory, freshman-level course teaches students how to read perceptively and write coherently in college courses. Students learn to comprehend, critique, and respond to college readings by writing analytical essays ranging from single-source papers to evaluations of the claims and evidence in a number of readings. Typical assignments include single-source critiques and multiple-source syntheses. The course emphasizes thoughtful and responsible use of sources.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Six to eight hours of reading and writing per week and additional Center tutoring as needed. Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 11100-all sections ACADEMIC WRITING II LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Any level-1 composition course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
STUDENTS: Available only to freshmen, sophomores, and transfer students. May satisfy departmental and school requirements for a second level-1 writing course.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Refines and advances writing and reasoning abilities taught in Academic Writing I. Focus is on complex synthesis of material from diverse sources to analyze and evaluate significant issues. Students study library research methods and complete an independent research project.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Six to eight hours of reading and writing per week. Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 17500-all sections INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING LA FA 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Any level-1 composition from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty. Not open to students who have previously received credit for WRTG 23600 or WRTG 23800.
STUDENTS: Required for all Writing majors, strongly recommended for Writing Minors. Open to non-majors. Recommended for students who have completed the 100-level writing requirement and plan to take Fiction I or Poetry I.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Elements and techniques of writing fiction and poetry introduced through instruction, analysis of models, experimentation, and practice. Fiction-writing techniques include developing character and plot, using dialogue, creating scenes, learning narrative structure, and acquiring narrative voice. Poetry-writing techniques include traditional poetic forms, poetic imagery, and descriptive and figurative language.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Six to eight hours of reading and writing per week. Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 20100-all sections ARGUMENT LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing or above; any level-1 composition course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
STUDENTS: Required for Writing majors and minors. Open to non-majors. Of particular interest to pre-law and journalism students and students who wish to prepare for graduate work in the humanities.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Prepares students to write convincing arguments by learning logical strategies for presenting and defending ideas. Introduces a variety of forms that arguments can take, emphasizing the traditional essay. Particularly recommended for students who wish to strengthen their ability to present their point of view persuasively, intelligently, and ethically.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 20500-all sections PERSONAL ESSAY LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Any level-1 composition course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
STUDENTS: Required for Writing majors and minors. Open to non-majors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Personal Essay is a course in writing essays based on analysis of students' experience, ideas, and feelings. Writing essays based on analysis of students' experiences, ideas, and feelings. Emphasis is placed on narrative, descriptive, and organizational techniques, as well as development of style. Readings are intended to deepen students' understanding of their own lives and provide models for creative interpretations of their own experience.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 21100-all sections WRITING FOR THE WORKPLACE LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITE: Sophomore standing or above ; any 100-level writing course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
STUDENTS: Required for Writing majors with a professional/technical concentration. Recommended for all Writing majors, minors, and students from other disciplines who anticipate leading professional lives requiring on-the-job writing.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Basic on-the-job writing necessary to join, manage, and promote any organization, whether profit or nonprofit. Focus is primarily on short forms: résumés, memos, business letters, summaries, brochures, newsletters, press releases, informal proposals, and reports. Course also explores how various social, economic, and ethical issues affect workplace writing.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-21300-01, TECHNICAL WRITING LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITE: Sophomore standing or above and any 100-level writing course, or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty, except WRTG-17500.
STUDENTS: Recommended for all majors and minors with a professional interest in technology.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Fundamentals for communicating technical information to general and specialized audiences. Class emphasizes the foundations of technical writing, their formats and applications, context-specific writing strategies, basic visual design, and ethics. Some reading in and discussion of the history of technology and its influence on human society and culture. Using Leonardo Da Vinci as a guide, this section will explore the relationship between technical communication and Western humanism.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, and workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: All readings and writing assignments, regular attendance and in-class participation. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 22500-01,02 GRAMMAR AND USAGE LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing or above; any level-1 composition course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty.
STUDENTS: Writing majors and minors, English majors, modern language majors, teacher education students, and students in other disciplines who desire a greater command of English grammar and usage.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Intensive study of the patterns of English grammar and their influence on sentence structure, punctuation, and usage. Daily exercises in contemporary usage and writing assignments prepare students for refining their own academic prose and for editing the work of others.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Daily written exercises at the sentence and paragraph level. Quizzes and exams. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 23600-all sections FICTION WRITING I: SHORT STORY LA FA 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing or above; either WRTG 17500 or WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Workshop in writing fiction, emphasizing plot, characterization, dialogue, description, narration, mood, tone, and viewpoint. Analysis of both professional and student writing. A final portfolio of revised work is required.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 23800-01,02 POETRY WRITING I LA FA 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18 per section
PREREQUISITES: Sophomore standing or above; either WRTG 17500 or WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Workshop in writing poetry, in which students develop poetic strategies and practice a range of poetic forms and modes. Analysis of published models (both historical and contemporary) and student writing. A final portfolio of revised work is required.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements vary by section. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-30100-01, AUTOBIOGRAPHY LA FA 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; WRTG-20500 or WRTG-23600
STUDENTS: Juniors or seniors who have met prerequisites.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In this advanced course in personal writing, students will tell the stories of their own lives. Writing autobiography well requires an understanding of the interactions of memory, imagery, and form in this genre. Discussion will be in workshop format, with students providing detailed feedback and editorial suggestions for each other; this will require that students read work in progress to the class. We will also read published autobiographies and autobiographical essays, and discuss form, language, imagery and ways of discovering significance in the events of an ordinary life as well as of conveying that significance to the reader in an innovative and creative manner.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Informal workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Autobiographies are generally at least 50 pages in length, often longer.
Grades are A-F.
WRTG 31700-01 PROPOSAL AND GRANT WRITING NLA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above or permission of instructor; any one of the following: WRTG 20100, WRTG 21100, or WRTG 21300.
STUDENTS: This course: 1) caps the department’s PTW (professional and technical writing) curriculum for its own majors and minors; 2) provides a unique writing forum for non-majors interested in producing long documents for corporations, government agencies, and non-profits; 3) creates possible opportunities for service learning within the larger Ithaca community; 4) offers IC staff and other adult students an important and marketable professional skill.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Advanced workplace writing concentrating on proposals and grants. Students address problems in the local community while studying the interplay among business, education, government, and nonprofits. Attentive to civic responsibility in the marketplace, this course teaches research and assessment, project management, editing, and document design. Group work emphasizes social networks and service learning.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop, service-learning project teams.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: All readings and written assignments, regular attendance, and in-class/out-of-class participation. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 31800-01 WRITING FROM CULTURAL EXPERIENCE LA HU 3a 3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; either WRTG 20100 or WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Appropriate for any students who recognize their life experience as distinct by virtue of their nationality, race, religion, region, gender, sexual preference, or culture.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Advanced essay course in which students explore the significance of their own ethnic and cultural identity, background, and experience. Writing assignments encourage students to employ a variety of essay styles and structures—from personal to public and from narrative to analytical.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements to be announced. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-31900-01, WRITING AS A NATURALIST LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above and either (1)WRTG-20100 or WRTG-20500; or (2)any level-1 composition course from WRTG-10600 through WRTG-16500, or an Ithaca Seminar taught by Writing Department faculty, and two courses in environmental studies above level-1.
STUDENTS: Students from all disciplines who feel the wonder of the natural world and share a commitment to understanding, appreciating, and respecting it through language.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This upper-level expository writing course focuses on the theme of humanity’s interaction with the natural world, with particular emphasis on the importance of seeing nature clearly as the foundation for analyzing and evaluating the ways we have appreciated, used, and abused it. Readings for the course will be drawn from the works of past and modern naturalists, scientists, poets and environmentalists.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: The class will combine excursions into nature, walking and talking about what we see, with seminar-style discussions of the readings, the issues, writing assignments, and each other’s work.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Grades are A-F.
WRTG 32000-01 PUBLIC ESSAY LA HU 3a
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; either WRTG 20100 or WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Juniors and seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: A public essay is a vehicle for making sense of the world, for offering commentary about it that deepens the reader's understanding and awareness of our condition. This advanced expository course provides students the occasion to write reflective literary essays on topics of public interest and significance. Students bring their own values, perspectives, insights, and voice to bear on matters of community concern.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements to be announced. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-32500-01 WRITING CHILDREN’S LITERATURE LA FA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: WRTG-20500; WRTG-23600; junior standing or above.
STUDENTS: Imaginative juniors and seniors who love literature.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: To learn the skills necessary for writing short stories, nonfiction articles, chapter books, and novels for children and young adults.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Primarily workshop, with periodic lecture/discussion about approaches to writing and about books read and workshop of students’ stories. Usually one guest speaker.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Grades are A-F.
WRTG 33100-01 FEATURE WRITING LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; either WRTG 20100 or WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Juniors and seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This is course for students interested in the art and craft of journalistic writing. It will introduce students to the practical and literary skills necessary to write interesting, informative articles for print or online media platforms. Students will select real-life story assignments through which they’ll develop interviewing, note-taking, and research skills. They’ll also be tasked with finding an audience—i.e. a publication—for which to tailor their stories and they’ll be expected to slant their writing style to suit the needs and conventions of a target publication. Artistic as well as practical, Feature Writing is a foundation course for any writing majors or minors interested in taking Magazine Writing.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Several articles, assorted readings, consistent attendance, active participation, and a serious work ethic. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 33400-01 HUMOROUS WRITING LA FA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; either WRTG 20500 or WRTG 23600.
STUDENTS: Those who take their humor like their coffee, strong and black.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This section of Humorous Writing focuses on satire, from Ancient Rome to the present. We will study satire’s origins and development, experiment with its different forms and techniques (such as monologue, parody, caricature, and irony), define its strengths and limitations, and debate its ethical, political, and philosophical significance.
COURSE FORMAT AND STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Readings from classic and contemporary satires and some critical essays. Intensive practice in humorous writing through 13 short exercises (inspired by class readings and discussion) and a final creative portfolio. Students also will write a 5-page research paper on a major satirical work not studied in class. Participation in class discussion and presentation essential. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 33600-01 FICTION WRITING II LA FA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; WRTG 23600.
STUDENTS: Juniors and seniors.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: An advanced workshop for students with a serious commitment to writing fiction. Builds on the work begun in WRTG 23600. Emphasis on reading, writing, and revising literary short fiction.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Close reading of contemporary fiction, craft annotations, and two full-length short stories. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-33800-01, POETRY II, LA FA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: WRTG-23800; junior standing or above.
STUDENTS: Junior standing or above. For students with a serious commitment to the art of writing poetry.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course continues and develops work begun in WRTG-23800. Intensive reading of good poetry and essays on craft will inform the creation of new poems in free verse and form.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, discussion, workshop.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Each student’s frequent writing will culminate in a portfolio of 20-25 pages of polished poetry. Steady attendance and class participation is expected. Grades are A-F.
WRTG-34000-01, MAGAZINE WRITING LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES: WRTG-33100 or JOUR-11100; junior standing or above.
STUDENTS: Juniors and seniors who wish to write works of literary journalism/literary reportage.
Of interest to Writing majors and minors, Communication students, English majors, Sociology majors, Anthropology majors, etc.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: To provide students a practical and theoretical education in becoming nonfiction writers capable of reporting and writing long-form, magazine-style feature stories suitable for a variety of publications, ranging from glossy magazines to small-press literary magazines. Students will analyze different types of magazines, examine magazines based on their identity and editorial slant, discuss reportage techniques and apply them to their own work, write a variety of feature stories, and practice querying editors. Interviewing, Reportage, Nonfiction Writing skills will be emphasized.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lectures, discussions, workshops, interviews, magazine and article analyses. Active participation required.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Regular attendance and class participation; reporting and interviewing and researching done outside of class; several original nonfiction reportorial essays/stories both in short forms (750-1,000 words) and long forms (1,000+ words); reflective writer’s statements; query letters; in-class workshops; written analyses of chosen magazines; and a heavy amount of assigned readings. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 34100-01 Travel Writing
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 18
PREREQUISITES:
STUDENTS:
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE:
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING:
Grades are A-F.
WRTG 36000-01 COMPOSITION THEORY LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 15
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; WRTG 20100; WRTG 20500.
STUDENTS: Junior and senior Writing majors and those interested in writing theory, research, and pedagogy.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to the research and scholarship shaping the theory and practice of composition studies. The course covers major philosophies of composing, as well as studies in language and learning that inform writing theory. The class considers the social and political dimensions of literacy learning, including issues of race, class, and gender, as well as how new technologies affect language use, learning and community life. This is a writing intensive class, which provides background knowledge in the field of composition, as well as a language for talking about students’ own writing processes.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements to be announced. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 36500-01 POETICS LA HU
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 15
PREREQUISITES: Junior standing or above; either WRTG 23600 or WRTG 23800; any other writing course above level 1.
STUDENTS: For Writing majors and minors; other students seriously committed to understanding theories inherent in their own creative writing endeavors may enroll by permission of instructor.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to Western theories of creative writing as a means of investigating the relationships between writer, text, and world. Addresses cultural/political, psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic concerns. Students analyze their own creative work and process in the context of these theories.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Seminar.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: Specific requirements to be announced. Grades are A-F.
WRTG 41500-01,02 SENIOR SEMINAR LA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 12 per section
PREREQUISITES: Senior standing; permission of the instructor; and 2 writing courses beyond level 1, at least one of which must be at level 3. Other specific prerequisites to be determined by the subject of the seminar. May be repeated for credit so long as focus of seminar varies. At least one seminar is required of all Writing majors.
SECTION 01: New Literacies in the Digital Age
STUDENTS: Writing majors; other seniors with appropriate qualifications may be considered.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: As new writing technologies emerge from social cultural contexts and activity systems, new definitions of literacy also are emerging and continue to evolve. For college students to be literate in the digital age, it is not enough to only know how to read and write alphanumeric text. Students are expected to navigate complex information databases to retrieve, organize, and integrate information into coherent arguments. They are expected to be critical of the visual representations that are used daily by businesses, governments, collectives, and individuals to persuade people and transform consciousness. Moreover, students are expected to develop a critical and introspective stance regarding the very writing technologies they are using to participate in virtual and non-virtual communities of practice. The objective of this course is to examine these new definitions of literacy that continue to shape or transform decisions about learning in education and social participation in communities of practice. With traditional definitions of literacy, in what ways have technologies like the Internet, blog-authoring tools and sites, computers, or cellphones/smart phones have challenged what counts as reading and writing literacy.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, student-led presentations of readings, discussion.
SECTION 02: Truth and Artifice in Memoir
STUDENTS: Writing majors; other seniors with appropriate qualifications may be considered.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course uses the controversies surrounding “fake” or “compromised” memoirs such as Binjamin Wilkomirski’s Fragments and James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces to discuss the line between fact and fiction in contemporary memoir. In addition to discovering what nonfiction writers such Vivian Gornick, Joel Agee, and Lee Gutkind have to say about where and why we draw the line between fact and fiction, students delve into cultural criticism to understand how this line is defined and complicated by the conditions of American post-modernity. Subjects such as body modification, reality television, online role-playing games, the construction of authenticity, and the marketplace for fiction and memoir are taken into consideration.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, student-led presentations of readings, discussion.
SECTION 03: The Personal Lyric: History, Theory, & Practice
STUDENTS: Writing majors; other seniors with appropriate qualifications may be considered.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is an exploration of the history and theory of lyric poetry and autobiographical nonfiction, and in addition to studying our subject traditionally—by reading poets, essayists, and scholars—the course invites students to write poems and essays themselves and to explore the personal meanings inherent in these works. Half our class time will be devoted to the study of the philosophy, history, and the psycho-social role lyric poetry and autobiographical nonfiction have played in Western culture, from Sappho to Billy Collins and Joan Didion, and half of the class will be devoted to workshopping students’ own works and discussing their explorations of the meanings of those works in their lives. Students will gain a historical and philosophical understanding of the role lyric poetry and autobiographical nonfiction have played for writers coping with the conditions of modernity. They will also gain an understanding of how their own writings can be seen as helping them cope with their personal struggles, perhaps in the context of that historical and philosophical study.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture, student-led presentations of readings, discussion.
WRTG-43600-01 SHORT NOVEL LA FA
3 credits
ENROLLMENT: 15
PREREQUISITES: Junior or Senior standing. WRTG-17500 (or its equivalent), WRTG-20500, WRTG-23600; one of the following: WRTG-30500, WRTG-32500, WRTG-33400, or WRTG-33600; and one literature course in the departments of English or Modern Languages.
STUDENTS: For students of junior or senior standing with a strong commitment to the writing of a novel.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Writing the Short Novel offers students the opportunity to complete a long work of fiction. The course extends previously learned narrative elements, such as characterization, plot, setting, point of view, tone and voice, and applies them to a broader, more complex literary canvas. Students will create narratives that allow for multiple characters who interact within an expanded social context, or that permit the extended exploration of a single character in considered detail.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Workshop, discussions, and individual conferences.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS & GRADING: A novel-in-progress of at least one hundred pages of polished prose. Responses to the assigned readings. Regular attendance and in-class participation. Final grade will be based on workshop participation, quality of class discussion, attendance, written responses to the readings and the completion of sixty pages of polished prose. Grades are A-F.