School of Writing, Literature, and Film

AJ 311

MEDIA STORYTELLING

Section 1, CRN 14488

MWF 9-9:50a

St. Jacques, Jill

Whether you’re a seasoned journalist or absolute newcomer, AJ311 enables you to produce compelling news stories in both digital and multimedia style. Starting with the basics of news reporting, participants conduct interviews, gather facts and assemble accurate feature-length stories by deadline. They learn to increase their storytelling range through incorporating graphics, photographs, video clips, audio files, and anything else that brings their reader fully inside. Learning to write news entails an intimate relationship with Associated Press style and copyediting procedures. By the end of the term, students will be fully equipped to produce visually dynamic and factually robust news packages capable of shaping, informing—and maybe even changing the human community. You’ll select the idea and its means of delivery; we’ll help you get that story right on target. The two major writing assignments include a digital news feature and a multimedia news story.

Prerequisite: A minimum grade of B in WR 121, WR 121H, WR 121Z or WR 121HZ

ENG 101

INTRO TO LITERATURE: YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Section 400, CRN 19703

Ecampus 

Harrison, Wayne 

Over the past two decades, the young adult literary novel has quickly become the fastest-growing genre trend in fiction, thanks in part to the award-winning work of such authors as S.E. Hinton, Jason Reynolds, John Greene, Rainbow Rowell, and Nikki Grimes. Of all genres of literature, Young Adult Fiction most explicitly explores themes such as sexuality, identity, social justice, and social media that are currently relevant to college students. Analyzing these novels in an introductory literature class will allow students to think critically about the types of literature many of them are reading on their own. The class will also uniquely prepare students who intend to teach young adult literature in primary education. Weekly lectures describe how the culturally distinct literary works of Young Adult authors develop elements of craft including characterization, significant detail, dialogue, voice, point of view and theme. The online course will make use of lectures, readings and videos, online discussions, quizzes and reading checks, combining approximately 90 hours of instruction, online activities, and assignments for 3 credits.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)

-

ENG 104

INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION

Section 2, CRN 15725

TR 2-3:20p

Norris, Marcos 

This course offers students a rigorous examination of the short story as it has developed artistically and generically in the Western world over the past two centuries. Primary readings include such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and Jorge Luis Borges. Secondary readings include selections from The New Short Story Theories, edited by Charles E. May. Students will develop critical stances on the short story as a genre, they will develop their skills as literary critics, and they will practice the craft of literary criticism, a genre all its own.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 104

INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION

Section 3, CRN 17782

MWF 2-2:50p

Weaver, Damien

This course proceeds on a notion raised by literary critic Lionel Trilling: that a central function of literary fiction is to “reveal the human fact within the veil of circumstances.” Here, we will read and discuss numerous works of short fiction with the aim of cultivating an awareness of writerly craft and “the human fact” it seeks ever to convey. We will familiarize ourselves with the basic elements of narrative character, setting, plot, symbolism, theme, structure, style, tone, and so forth. Overall, we’re concerned with thinking about how different writers seek to convey “the human fact” as a timeless, universal condition and as something shaped by the specific contexts—social, cultural, historical, etc.—in which these stories are set and in which they were written. We’re also concerned with the significance of the text at the time of its reading, i.e., how it is relevant to us in the current moment of 2023.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 104

INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION

Section 400, CRN 12114

Ecampus

Harrison, Wayne 

What is a story? How does fiction create or reflect the culture and historical moment in which they are written? Why do we (or why should we) read literature at all? In this class, we will build answers to these foundational questions. Using a critical lens, we will work to understand both the implied and stated meaning of short stories from across the last two centuries, as well as developing our knowledge of the key elements of fiction. We will discuss these stories in small and large groups, learn about the authors and the historical context in which they were written, and analyze them for a richer understanding and appreciation.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 104

INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION

Section 401, CRN 15685

Ecampus

Delf, Elizabeth

What is a story? How does fiction create or reflect the culture and historical moment in which they are written? Why do we (or why should we) read literature at all? In this class, we will build answers to these foundational questions. Using a critical lens, we will work to understand both the implied and stated meaning of short stories from across the last two centuries, as well as developing our knowledge of the key elements of fiction. We will discuss these stories in small and large groups, learn about the authors and the historical context in which they were written, and analyze them for a richer understanding and appreciation.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 106

INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY

Section 1, CRN 12036

MWF 12-12:50p

Roush, Stephanie 

You’ll be introduced to a variety of published voices from the past and present; you’ll study the basic craft elements of poetry including detail, imagery, voice, and lineation; you’ll practice your close reading skills to become a more skilled and confident reader of poetry; and you’ll establish a routine of checking in with your emotions and deepening your sense of empathy.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 106

INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY

Section 400/401, CRN 18767/19704

Ecampus

Goldsmith, Jenna/TBA 

Offers a broad introduction to the genre of poetry. Encourages students to be more skilled and confident readers of poetry by introducing core concepts, showcasing dynamic living poets, and giving students the opportunity to compose in a personal creative process.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 108

INTRO TO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

Section 400, CRN 19724

Ecampus

Gottlieb, Evan

The roots of science fiction and fantasy lie in myth, folklore, and fairy tales. Although some attention will be paid to these origins, we’ll focus on 19th c., 20th c., and contemporary examples of science fiction and fantasy in print. As befits our increasingly diverse society, moreover, this course is committed to introducing students to a range of voices in these genres. Accordingly, we’ll start with a contemporary graphic novel and end the course with a recent sci-fi/ fantasy novella. In between, we’ll chronologically study Anglo-American sci-fi and fantasy stories by both well-known and now-forgotten authors including Charles Dickens, Isaac Asimov, Zora Neale Hurston, J.R.R. Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, Octavia Butler, and Ted Chiang.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)

-

ENG 201

SHAKESPEARE

Section 2, CRN 15824

MW 2-2:50p

Hybrid (both on-site meetings and online component)

Olson, Rebecca 

An introduction to the first half of Shakespeare’s dramatic career (the Elizabethan period), with attention to the playwright’s continued global influence. This course is designed to help students become confident readers of Shakespeare’s language, articulate the significance of aural and visual elements of Shakespearean scripts, and analyze the plays in light of specific cultural and historical contexts, both early modern and contemporary. Plays include Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and Hamlet.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 204

SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE: BEGINNINGS TO 1660

Section 1, CRN 17547

TR 12-1:50p

Bude, Tekla

This course is an introduction to English literature from its beginnings through Chaucer and Shakespeare. From Old English riddles and charms to bawdy fabliaux, from travel narratives to sonnets and the rise of professional theater, this course will survey nearly a thousand years of English literary forms in their political, cultural, and artistic contexts, with an eye to understanding how premodern literature and language shaped the course of history. In 800 CE, “England” was merely a loose conglomeration of small kingdoms, a backwater in the North Atlantic fighting to survive against Viking invaders. By 1660, the English Empire was a growing colonial power internally fragmented by political and religious dissent. What was literature in this early period of English history, and how did its definition, power, and use change over time? What did it mean to read? What relationship did early English literature have to music, the visual arts, and scientific thought? How did English literature create the idea of an English nation?

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 211

LITERATURES OF THE WORLD: AFRICA

Section 400, CRN 18788

Ecampus

Singh, Jaspal

This course introduces students to a selection of literature produced in colonial and postcolonial Africa: novels, short stories, essays and poetry written by prominent African writers, such as Chinua Achebe, Ousmane Sembene, Albert Memmi and Joseph Conrad and by other emergent writers, such as Kopano Matlwa and Safia Elhillo, among others. The texts cover a broad range of subjects and themes, including colonialism, nationalism, anti-colonial resistance for self-determination and identity, conflicts between ideas of tradition vs. modernity, individualism vs. collective identity, resistance for women’s rights, memories of violence and trauma, neocolonialism and class struggles in a colonial and postcolonial context. The subjects and themes will be read and analyzed from various viewpoints, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, all through an intersectional framework. Course work will be evaluated based on weekly reading, discussion forum, weekly reading responses and two essays (Midterm and Final).

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Cultural Diversity (CPCD)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
Liberal Arts Non-Western Core (LACN)

-

ENG 213

LITERATURES OF THE WORLD: MIDDLE EAST

Section 400, CRN 17623

Ecampus

Kurman, Nirit

This class will focus on modern Middle Eastern literature from multiple perspectives: cultural, political, religious, historical, geographical, linguistic, structural, stylistic, thematic, comparative, and other points of view. Among the topics we will discuss are different languages and dialects of the Middle East, different national and cultural categories, and the idea that the distinctions between these categories are often fluid and dynamic. We will also watch and discuss Middle Eastern cinema, trying to establish connections between Middle Eastern narratives and global cultural and intellectual ideas.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Cultural Diversity (CPCD)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
Liberal Arts Non-Western Core (LACN)

-

ENG 215

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

Section 1, CRN 17548

TR 4-5:50p

Larison, John

In this class, students will explore the lives, beliefs, and myths of the ancient Greeks through one of the most enduring works of world literature, Homer’s The Odyssey. In our work together, we’ll ask hard questions about gender, power, justice, and adventure—in ancient times and now. Students will engage in regular discussions, take minor quizzes and formal exams, and follow their own inspiration as they track the influence of this foundational text through contemporary film and creative writing.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 216

ILLUMINATING HAPPINESS

Section 1, CRN 17549

TR 12-1:20p

Biespiel, David

This course explores a set of questions posed by poets about living a more satisfying life, exploring poems that embody alertness to happiness, stress, joy, love, death, curiosity, imagination, knowledge, history, music, art, politics, psychology, and more, as well as how to flourish in the small moments of living and, even, how to live a more fulfilling life. This course raises the central question: what makes a satisfying life? This course explores the ways that many human beings think matter in daily lives, such as wealth, material possessions, even good grades, don’t and, instead, hinder well-being. Poets have long been interested in these questions. Poets have long been looking for happiness — what is it? where to find it? why it’s elusive? what does it mean? These questions are especially relevant for a detailed examination as students become more and more involved in making the decisions that will shape one’s future and the future of others. This course will develop your thinking about illuminating happiness. Using a set of requirements and re-wirements, students will explore poetry, the pursuit of happiness, and the human community. This course demands carefu observation of both the assigned works and the life you lead. The course is designed to hone your concentration on details and the language that comes from those details, and I hope it helps release you into new ways of thinking about your lives. Our focus will be almost entirely on reading, writing, and doing, Monday-Friday, as if you are studying a new language.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)

-

ENG 217

READING FOR WRITERS

Section 1, CRN 19304

MW 10-11:50

Holmberg, Karen

Many of the activities we do as writers are processes of reading: we read for inspiration, we read as workshop members, we read with particular attention and care when we revise our work. Ultimately, our writing lives may involve reading as editors, reviewers, and performers. This course will give you practice in all these wonderful ways of reading. At the heart of the course will be methods of close reading and interpretation, with an emphasis on how meaning is constructed in at least three genres: nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Our reading will consist of editorial selections published in 45th Parallel, OSU’s graduate-student-run national literary journal. Here you’ll be exposed to diverse writers practicing the (widening) spectrum of subgenres: the interview, “flash” fiction, spoken word poetry, the podcast, graphic/comic literary art, the book review, etc. To prepare you for your creative writing curriculum, you will not only learn interpretive skills as readers but will practice what you are learning through short, low stakes writing exercises which ask you to adopt, adapt, and imitate the devices you encounter in the reading. Visits to the Moreland Print Studio and the Valley Library artists’ book collection will show us how form and visual space influences reading and interpretation. And visits by editors, creative writing faculty, and other writing professionals will give you a chance to learn about other writers’ reading habits.

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ENG 222

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Section 400, CRN 17624

Ecampus

Braun, Clare

Children’s literature has become a political battlefield. Governors and legislators argue over what should count as children’s literature, what its purpose should be, and what literature children need to be “protected” from—questions that used to be asked more by parents and librarians. But these are not new questions, even if the debate around them has recently become more frantic. Embedded in these discussions are cultural understandings of what “childhood” even is. With a focus on close reading, we’ll look at the historical arc of children’s literature, from the “walled gardens” of the nineteenth century to the dystopias of the twenty-first century. We’ll look at how conceptions of childhood have changed over time, shaped by and shaping the literature produced for children. We’ll consider who gets to decide where and how the boundaries around this genre are defined, and we’ll look at how children’s literature works as a powerful tool to reinforce or challenge systems of power within a culture.

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ENG 254

SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: 1900 TO PRESENT

Section 1, CRN 16586

MW 12-1:50

Schwartz, Sam

American Literature 1900-present explores various literary modes—poetry, short fiction, novels, autobiography--and their production in the context of the aesthetic movements, politics, culture, and history that foregrounded their creation. The reading list reflects the diversity of U.S. regional literatures and their respective populations. We will balance between works that are “canonical” with those works that are not as often included in survey-level courses. Students will take written exams, participate in discussions, and collectively annotate selected works.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 260

LITERATURE OF AMERICAN MINORITIES

Section 1, CRN 19623

TR 10-11:50a

TBA

Study of the literature of American minorities: North American Indian, black, Chicano/Chicana, Asian, Middle Eastern, gay and lesbian.

Bacc Core - Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 301

WAYS OF READING

Section 1, CRN 16164

MW 10-1150a

Olson, Rebecca 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Our topic this term is the sonnet. Imported into English from Italian poetic tradition in the sixteenth century, the sonnet continues to serve as a go- to form in which poets explore a wide range of questions and emotions. Our readings include sonnets both early modern and modern, a play (Romeo and Juliet) that includes sonnets, and a novel (The Remains of the Day) that addresses in prose themes made famous in sonnets by Shakespeare and Milton. We will consider the Elizabethan sonnet in its cultural context, but will also trace its legacy over time and in different genres, including literary criticism.

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ENG 318

THE AMERICAN NOVEL: MODERNIST PERIOD

Section 1, CRN 17790

TR 12-1:50p

Elbom, Gilad

Focusing on some of the prominent thematic, stylistic, historical, and cultural aspects of American modernism, this class will combine famous classics with important novels other than the ones commonly perceived as canonical. Through close textual analysis and active participation in ongoing discussions, we will examine novels that have paved the way for previously silenced voices, paying attention to the rise of nontraditional authors, characters, literary strategies, and subject matters.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 330

THE HOLOCAUST IN LITERATURE AND FILM

Section 1, CRN 19305

MW 2-3:50p

Davison, Neil 

Is the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry ultimately beyond the human imagination? Should the generations who did not witness those events compose “stories” about it, or write “poetry” that attempts to envision or search for the redemptive in it? Can there ever be a film that allows us to understand its magnitude, rather than merely make spectacle or heroics from discrete parts of its known history? How do these historical events inform our own era’s violence and mass murder? In this course we will study major pieces of fiction, memoir, and film that indeed attempt to re-imagine and gain insight into the Nazi vision of a world that, in their own terminology, would be completely cleansed of Jews. We will learn through supplementary documents about the history of European Jewry, religious-based anti-Jewishness, and racial anti-Semitism. We will position the Holocaust in the context of the wider racial science of the era, and through this, grapple with how pervasive race and racial hierarchy was, and often remains, to the Western mind. By way of these contexts, we will make reference to other genocidal actions that have occurred after the Holocaust and into our own century. Finally, through each text we study, we will consider the controversy of the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and whether its unimaginable horrors can ever be justly represented in forms that originated during more innocent periods of Western culture that preceded it—forms such as the traditional novel, the short story, poetry, and film. Students will be evaluated through two major assignments: a literary/historical analysis of one of the written texts we’ve studied in an essay mid-term format, and a comparative critique of two of the films we’ve viewed for the course. The second assignment will be a traditional, formal essay and mandate at least five critical sources other than the subject text in question.

Texts:
Selection of essays posted on Blackboard
Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (1960/1986)
Andre Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just (1960)
The World at War: Genocide, Thames Television Documentary (1982)
Schindler’s List, Directed by Stephen Spielberg, (1993)
Europa, Europa, Directed by Agnieszka Holland (1990)

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)

-

ENG 345

INTRO TO LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY

Section 1, CRN 19306

TR 2-3:50p

TBA

This course focuses on the study and analysis of critical frameworks and methodologies for the interpretation of literature and culture.

Successful completion of ENG 301 is a prerequisite for this course, which may be taken concurrently.

Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

ENG 360

NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE

Section 400, CRN 17781

Ecampus

Hausman, Blake

This class studies a range of literary arts and cultural expressions by Native American authors. We’ll consider Native American literatures in their historical, cultural, geographical, political, and legal contexts. Throughout the course, we’ll prioritize Indigenous experiences, worldviews, and intellectual traditions in the study of Native literatures.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Cultural Diversity (CPCD)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
Liberal Arts Non-Western Core (LACN

-

ENG 425

STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE: IMAGINING THE FUTURE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

Section 1, CRN 19624

TR 10-11:50a

Bude, Tekla

It is a simple fact of human existence that our memories of the past appear, at least superficially, to be more accurate than our predictions about the future. But it is partly the future’s amorphousness that renders it a valuable space for ideology and literary creation. The way we predict the future, the things we predict about it, and the ways we attempt to mitigate the risks of an unknowable future while simultaneously attempting to convince ourselves that we know something about it all tell us important things about what our society values and what it doesn’t. For example, our approach to the Global Climate crisis is one particularly important modern example of “futurology.” The medieval period had its own approaches to the future, and in this class we’ll explore some of them, comparing them to present day treatments of time yet to come. How does medieval literature think about ecological crisis, free will, the end of the world, or utopian futures? We will read widely across medieval genres and alongside contemporary theory, including queer theory, ecological critiques/ecocriticism, and speculative literature/sci-fi theory.

Sophomore standing with 8 or more credits of level 200 ENG or above

Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

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ENG 438

STUDIES IN MODERNISM, FIN DE SIÈCLE TO INTERWAR YEARS: FORMALISM, RACE, AND GENDER

Section 1, CRN 17559

MW 8-9:50a

Post 1900

Davison, Neil

This course examines intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of the pre-and-post-World War I era of literature characterized by the practitioners of its day as Modernist. Modernism from its fin de siècle inception onward was a pan-arts movement based on the overarching assertion that 20th-century consciousness mandated new “purified” forms for the arts to match psychoanalytic, gender, race, class, nationalist, and imperialist revisions of 19th-century paradigms of these or what Francois Lyotard later dubbed “master narratives” from a Postmodern perspective. As a studies course, we will narrow our focus to a study of Modernist fiction in particular from 1890’s-1940. Each work studied represents an example of formalist experimentation with former conventions of the novel, novella, or short story that was fundamental to the movement from its beginnings. We will early on trace this formalism as it arises from the overlap of the late-19th-century school of Naturalism with Literary Impressionism/Symbolism; we will also grapple with Modernist Free and Indirect narrative style, stream-of-consciousness, and a late version of Dada/Surrealism. We will examine how these schools represent subjectivity from psychoanalytic, racialized, gendered, and liberal humanist perspectives. Simultaneously we will study political and cultural issues that inform the era along theses same lines with the addition in some works of colonial/post-colonial discourse. Please note that this is an upper-division course: students are expected to have previously studied examples of Modernist literature and to have acquired at least a cursory knowledge of the movement (ENG 206, 214, or 318 are all viable but unofficial prerequisites). Undergraduates will be evaluated through a mid-term essay (7-8 pages), and a term paper essay (10-12 pages). Graduates may submit the mid-term paper, but will be predominately evaluated through a graduate level research/analysis essay modeled on the standard article in the discipline.

Recommended: ENG 301; critical thinking, evaluation, and writing skills

Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

FILM 110

INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES: 1895-1945

Section 1, CRN 15504

TR 10-11:20a & Screening T 6-9:50p

Lewis, Jon

Explores and examines American cinema, 1895-1941, closely examining the important films and filmmakers of the period as well as key events in Hollywood industrial and American cultural (political, economic, and social) history. Weekly screenings to include: Sherlock Jr., Modern Times, Scarface, Stagecoach, and Citizen Kane.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

FILM 145

INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES: 1968-1999

Section 400, CRN 16799

Ecampus

Rust, Stephen

Explores and examines American and European cinema, 1968-1999. Emphasizes important films and filmmakers of the era as well as key events in American and European cultural history.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)

-

FILM 220

DIFFERENCE, POWER & DISCRIMINATION: QUEER CINEMA

Section 1, CRN 15503

MWF 10-10:50a & Screening M 6-9:50p

Price, Zachary 

Queer cinema, despite its counter-cultural roots, must work within the larger movie industry it aims to critique. This class examines how queer cinema since the 1990s intervenes in public debates over the rights and representation of sexual and gender minorities. As a class, we will understand the stakes of this visibility and the consequences of looking closely at desire.

Bacc Core - Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

FILM 245

THE NEW AMERICAN CINEMA

Section 1, CRN 19309

MWF 1-1:50p & Screening W 6-9:50p

Price, Zachary

This class will attend to contemporary American Cinema by closely examining important films and filmmakers of 21st-Century Hollywood (2000-present) along with key events in the business of developing, producing, distributing, and exhibiting motion pictures. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)

-

FILM 252X

INTRO TO SCREENWRITING

Section 400, CRN 17896

Ecampus

Crosslisted with WR 252X

Bohlinger, Joe

Focuses on the basic components of screenwriting. Explores professional examples of documents intrinsic to the craft—coverage, story treatments, storyboards, script outlines, series bibles and production drafts for films and television shows. Creates students’ versions of several of these forms to generate creative content through a series of “recipes” designed to teach the core concepts of character, setting, dramatic conflict and visual storytelling.

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FILM 445

DOCUMENTARY FILM STUDIES

Section 1, CRN 19310

TR 12-1:20p & Screening M 6-9:50p

Lewis, Jon

An in-depth study of the history of the documentary film coupled with a practical introduction to the production of non-fiction, filmed content. Weekly screenings span the history of the genre: Nanook of the North, Gimme Shelter, Roger and Me, OJ: Made in America, My Octopus Teacher and assignments will include discussion of historically important documentaries and exercises in the production of non-fiction filmed content, matching history/theory with creative practice.

WR 121Z

ENGLISH COMPOSITION

See the Course Catalog for available sections

English Composition is designed to help you develop skills and confidence in analytical writing, and to foster your rhetorical awareness—your perception of where, how, and why persuasion is occurring. This 3-credit course places emphasis on the process of writing, including acts of reading, researching, analytical thinking, freewriting, drafting, review, revision, and editing. Complementing this approach is our focus on the final product—quality compositions that demonstrate rhetorical awareness and evidence of critical thinking. 

Bacc Core, Skills - Writing I (CSW1)

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WR 201

WRITING FOR MEDIA

Section 1, CRN 10695

MWF 10-10:50a

St Jacques, Jill

In our bright, new, post-Millennial culture, news bombards us from every direction, 24-7. From venerable news organizations like The Washington Post and The New York Times to newcomers such as Reddit, Facebook and TikTok. Either way, the news feeds never stop. WR201 Writing for Media will introduce students to reporting across a variety of media forms. Participants will try their hands at writing in newspaper, radio, broadcast, blog, digital reporting and photoessay styles. Successful completion of the course will require students to conduct multiple interviews with complete and utter strangers, compile credible research from reputable sources, and turn in publishable copy by deadline. Associated Press Style is bedrock for the course. The final WR201 assignment, a photojournalistic essay, requires a substantial time commitment outside class – but then again, reporting the news always necessitates bold time management skills.

Prerequisites: B or higher in WR 121 or WR 121H and 30 wpm typing speed

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 214

WRITING IN BUSINESS

See the Course Catalog for available sections

As college students, you will soon enter a job market driven by new technologies, a changed economy, and the need to communicate with different audiences from all over the globe.  The ability to write clearly and effectively for a wide range of purposes and audiences will be a vital skill in your future, regardless of your field of work. This course will develop your understanding of rhetoric, audience, and conventions to improve your communication skills; we will focus on the practical uses of clear and effective writing that can be applied to a variety of workplaces. 

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121, WR 121H, 121Z, 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121’

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 224

INTRO TO FICTION WRITING

See the Course Catalog for available sections

WR 224 is an introduction to the writing of fiction. Our approach in this fiction writing workshop will be to develop your skills as a creative writer through several means: careful reading and analysis of our own work; careful reading and analysis of established writers’ work; the execution of several meaningful fiction exercises; and a constant commitment to revision. Assessment methods include creative writing exercises, quizzes and reading checks on textbook craft sections, peer review, and the evolution of a short story from first to final, polished draft by the end of the term.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121, 121H, 121Z, 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121’

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

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WR 227Z

TECHNICAL WRITING

See the Course Catalog for available sections

Technical writing is practical written communication for a specialized need and a specific audience, typically instructive and/or informative, which may or may not be about science or technology. Nearly all workplaces require technical documents. Some workplaces hire trained technical writers, but in most cases technical writing is just one of your duties, often not even on the job description. Technical writing requires a problem-solving process focused on user centered design for a specific audience, purpose, and context, which is why it is sometimes called Information Management. Information must be procured, packaged, and presented in clean, attractive, error-free copy for a specific audience. This class requires you to present information in various documents, with focus on the writing in your field. Research (both primary and secondary) is required. Conferences and peer review will help. OSU’s Writing Center located in Waldo with an annex in the Valley Library provides excellent assistance with writing projects.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 227Ze

TECHNICAL WRITING FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Section 1 / 5, CRN 19427 / 19431

MWF 2-2:50p / MWF 11-11:50a

Elbom, Emily / Bennett, Dennis

In the “Technical Writing for Engineers” sections of WR 227, students use an engineering communication textbook and engage with the course objectives and learning outcomes through engineering-specific activities and assignments. This approach serves two purposes. First, by focusing specifically on principles of effective engineering communication, the course builds proficiency in the kinds of communication practices you will be tasked with both in pro-school and in the engineering workplace. Second, your engagement with fundamental engineering concepts in each of the course assignments will both solidify and extend your repertoire of technical knowledge. In other words, participation in this course not only will help you become a better engineering communicator but will also lead to greater conceptual and technical fluency in your chosen field. These are Engineering Communication sections and are open to engineering students only.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 230

ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Section 400, CRN 15157

Ecampus

Bushnell, J.T. 

You know grammar. It’s there in your head, helping you form coherent speech every day of your life. But how do you know it? How does it work? How do you translate it into your writing? Where, for example, do the commas really go? When should you use “whom,” and to whom does it matter? And is it really so wrong to start a sentence with “and”? This course will answer these questions and many others, introducing you to the structure of sentences with a focus on beginning grammar, so that your own writing choices can be more conscientious and effective—whether you stick to the rules or not.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 240

INTRO TO NONFICTION WRITING

See the Course Catalog for available sections

Creative nonfiction is the genre of creative writing that bridges the act of making literary prose--the crafting of vivid scenes, a thoughtful narrative voice, and meaningful formats--with the kinds of practical personal writing often required in our academic and professional lives. We will discuss several published pieces from the creative nonfiction genre, including personal essays, memoir, and lyric essay. More importantly, we will also write, edit, workshop, and revise several pieces of our own creative nonfiction. Expect a lively class with lots of imaginative prompts, free-writes, and hardy discussion.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121, 121H, 121Z, 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121’

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

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WR 241

INTRO TO POETRY WRITING

See the Course Catalog for available sections

"The art of poetry is ultimately an art of attention—Michael Blumenthal.” We will consider the tools necessary to approach poetry more attentively as both readers and writers. This course will provide a firm grounding in the rudiments of poetic craft such as word choice, line breaks, imagery, structure, and other devices, as well as an introduction to different forms available to poets. We will consistently work through writing exercises and read/ discuss the work of various poets in order to aid us in the generation of our own poems.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121, 121H, 121Z, 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121’

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

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WR 250

PODCAST STORYTELLING

Section 1, CRN 17789

TR 2-3:20p

Griffin, Kristin

We’ll study the practice and conventions for writing, recording, and editing podcasts. We’ll listen to and analyze some of the best and most influential podcasts from the past few years—from Radiolab to Serial to Ologies—and see what makes that writing and recording successful, before we write our own podcasts. You can expect to learn the more practical skills involved in podcasting, such as audio recording and editing, as well as more complex elements like how to nail an interview and how to structure a multi-part audio essay to make it as compelling as possible. We’ll stress the importance of engaging multiple voices, developing a podcasting style, researching your topic, and appealing to your audience through narrative.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121 and WR 121H

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 252X

INTRO TO SCREENWRITING

Section: 400, CRN: 17897

Ecampus

Crosslisted with FILM 252X

Bohlinger, Joe

Focuses on the basic components of screenwriting. Explores professional examples of documents intrinsic to the craft—coverage, story treatments, storyboards, script outlines, series bibles and production drafts for films and television shows. Creates students’ versions of several of these forms to generate creative content through a series of “recipes” designed to teach the core concepts of character, setting, dramatic conflict and visual storytelling.

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WR 303

WRITING FOR THE WEB

Section 400, CRN 14324

Ecampus

Ribero, Ana

Writing for the Web prepares students to produce engaging, informative, and rhetorically savvy writing for Web-based locations. Students will read, discuss, and write about topics relevant to writing online, and will practice writing in various genres geared toward online audiences. As a class, we will explore the implications of online writing on society. Instruction is grounded in rhetorical theory and by current research in digital literacies and multimedia writing practices. This class requires that students read assigned materials carefully and critically, write the assigned responses, and prepare for weekly class work and discussions.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of D- in WR 121 and WR 121H

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 310

WRITING THE YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Section 400, CRN 18789

Ecampus

Drummond, Rob

Explores the literary Young Adult (YA) novel by analyzing the plot, character, language, setting, and voice of established authors. Incorporates YA-specific craft elements to produce novelistic and literary writing. Develops and adapts an established structure and outline for a YA novel. Embarks on YA novel writing journey with rigorous revisions from peer review and instructor feedback.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- is required in WR 224 and WR 224H

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WR 311

SPECIAL TOPICS: STUDIES IN FANTASY, SCI-FI AND SPECULATIVE FICTION

Section 1, CRN 17838

TR 4-5:50p

St. John, Brandy

A craft course for writing in the science fiction and fantasy genres, also known as speculative fiction. Students will analyze contemporary, literary, science-fiction and fantasy short stories and novels to identify craft techniques that can be used to strengthen their own writing. Readings include authors Madeline Miller, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Carmen Maria Machado. Supplemental readings include critical essays on the socio-political implications of these genres, and craft essays on creating theme and point of view. Students will examine the ways in which these genres comment on our current social constructs and imagine new ones. Assignments include creative writing exercises on genre-specific elements, such as the hero’s journey narrative structure, worldbuilding, and rules of technology or magic. Students apply concepts learned in a two-week, multi-media, group story writing project that incorporates elements like art, music, or technology.

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WR 320

NARRATIVE MEDICINE

Section 1, CRN 16472

MW 12-1:50p

Richter, Jen

Focuses on contemporary poetry and nonfiction by writers who are also medical professionals, patients, and caregivers. Studies the authors’ different perspectives to consider the griefs and joys, concerns and comforts they have in common with their readers. Encourages a heightened sense of empathy. Explores the body’s struggles and failures, recoveries and triumphs. Develops a practice of thoughtful self-examination through in-depth class discussions and weekly writing prompts.

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WR 323

ADVANCED WRITING AND ARGUMENTATION

See the Course Catalog for available sections

While continuing the concerns of WR 121, WR 323 emphasizes the development of argumentation skills and the control of style to suit a variety of writing situations. Students will develop skills through critical thinking; discussing the style and mechanics of good writing; and workshopping and drafting formal essays. You will also study the work of professional writers for inspiration and guidance in your own writing, and approach them with a critical mind. In your reading you will learn to adopt the habit of looking closely and questioning the reliability of opinions; to identify, evaluate, and use the elements of argument; to distinguish between observation, fact, inference, etc.; to discern invalid evidence, bias, fallacies, and unfair emotional appeals; to understand how assumptions operate; to draw reasonable conclusions based on induction and deduction; and to distinguish subjective and objective approaches.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 324

SHORT STORY WRITING

Section 1, CRN 16500

TR 8:30-9:50a

Hybrid (on-site meetings and online component)

Scribner, Keith

We’ll study the basic elements of fiction—character, dialogue, point of view, tone, and so on—to further develop our understanding of fictional techniques.  Our class will combine reading, writing, and discussion.  Assignments will include two full-length short stories (7-10 pages each), a short-short (if time allows), writing exercises, presentations, and written critiques on workshop stories. 

In order to understand how fiction is put together—how the raw material of inspiration is transmuted into art—we will read and discuss in class a selection of short stories.  We will try to understand these works in terms of why the author has made the aesthetic choices he or she has made.  Why first person?  Why third person?  Why is X the narrator rather than Y?  Why the present tense?  Why dramatize this scene; why narrate this information?

With the published work and your own stories and exercises we’ll be asking what makes a work of fiction get under our skin, move us emotionally, reveal things about us, rise to the level of art…  Why do we read and why do we write?  The following quotations will help to guide our thinking:

"The very reason I write is so I might not sleepwalk through my entire life."  —Zadie Smith

“The value of great fiction...is not just that it entertains us or distracts us from our troubles, not just that it broadens our knowledge of people and places, but also that it helps us to know what we believe, reinforces those qualities that are noblest in us, leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations.” —John Gardner, The Art of Fiction

“There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader or a writer of didactic fiction....and Lolita has no moral in tow....For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with the other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.” —Vladimir Nabokov (from the essay at the end of Lolita)

“A story is a way to say something that can’t be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is.”  —Flannery O’Connor 

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.  Begin it now."  —W. H. Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition 

A “sense of kinship is what makes stories important to us.  The pleasure we take in cleverness and technical virtuosity soon exhausts itself in the absence of any recognizable human landscape. We need to feel ourselves acted upon by a story, outraged, exposed, in danger of heartbreak and change.” —Tobias Wolff 

“Art hurts. Art urges voyages—and it is easier to stay at home.”  —Gwendolyn Brooks

Genre fiction, such as sci fi, bodice-ripping romance, mystery, fantasy, young adult, will not be considered.

A minimum grade of D- is required in WR 224 and WR 224H

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

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WR 362

SCIENCE WRITING

Section 1, CRN 19719

MWF 3-3:50p

Perrault, Sarah

Students learn and practice the conventions for writing scientific material for a variety of audiences. Involves writing and research assignments, multimedia presentations, lecture, and in-class and online activities.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121 and WR 121H

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 362

SCIENCE WRITING

Section 400 / 401, CRN 15703 / 19705

Ecampus

Griffin, Kristin / Snyder, Wes

Online Science Writing explores the practice and conventions for writing about science to a public audience of non-professionals. We will read and analyze some of the best and most influential science journalism from the past few years to see what makes that writing successful. The course addresses the practical skills involved in writing about complex scientific information and the models of science communication that those skills enable. Then we’ll write our own news pieces and feature articles that communicate that information to the public. Students will explore their specific areas of scientific interest and work to inspire that same interest in their audience, both in print and online. Reading and writing assignments have been designed to help students gain greater insight into the issues and challenges of science writing in a variety of contexts.

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121 and WR 121H

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)

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WR 411

THE TEACHING OF WRITING

Section 1, CRN 19324

TR 8:30-9:50

Hybrid (on-site meetings and online component)

WIC/Pedagogy

Pflugfelder, Ehren

We’ll study research about the teaching of writing and practice what it means to assign, evaluate, and respond to student writers. This course is designed to introduce current and future teachers of writing to theory and pedagogy in composition studies, to help us become aware of and strengthen our own writing processes, and to enable us to make and express connections between classroom experience and composition theory. We’ll be looking at assessment, response, assignment creation, grammar, literacy, multimedia, process, and genre as we explore composition and writing. Coming out of this class, you’ll be better prepared to teach and evaluate your students’ writing and likely feel more confident in your own writing.

Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)

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WR 424

ADVANCED FICTION WRITING

Section 1, CRN 14888

W 10-11:50a

Hybrid (on-site meetings and online component)

Bhanoo, Sindya

We will look at several books of published short fiction, and workshop student work. Looking beyond standard craft topics, we will consider what it is that makes certain works of fiction powerful and deeply moving. We will consider too, what it is that is unique about fiction as a genre. What can fiction do that other genres cannot? How can we use this to our advantage when we write our own stories?

Prerequisites: A minimum grade of D- is required in WR 324

Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)

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WR 435

SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION CAPSTONE 

Section 1, CRN 17985

T 10-10:50a

Project

Pflugfelder, Ehren

This one-credit course provides an opportunity for students enrolled in the certificate in scientific, technical, and professional communication to compose and design a portfolio of their existing work for future professional use. The course covers the purpose and goals in creating a portfolio, the selection and organization of materials, the formation of an editing and revision plan, the development of contextual summaries, the writing of an introductory letter, and the delivery of a finished portfolio project. Faculty will assist students in these decisions throughout the five-week course, each week focusing on smaller elements of the portfolio project. The portfolio will be proof of the work students have completed in their certificate program and assist students in representing those abilities to others.

Recommended: Completion of 18 credits towards the Scientific, Technical, and Professional Communication Certificate

Enrollment is limited to students with a program in Scientific, Tech, & Prof Comm (C750)

Department Approval Required: SAPR