Winter 2025
Please see the 2024-25 Catalog at https://catalog.oregonstate.edu/ for locations and times.
AJ 312
ADVANCED MEDIA STORYTELLING
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 1
CRN: 33649
This class will operate like a living, breathing newsroom in which students are reporters. We will, above all, cultivate a spirit of curiosity. We will consider how our own varied interests and backgrounds – as scientists, artists, writers, engineers, fans of cooking or skydiving, as people with experiences from across the state, nation and world - might inform the reported stories we choose to pursue as journalists. Together we will read and discuss stories from local and national publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, and NPR. Students will pitch, report, and write stories of their own. We will primarily produce written stories, but there will be opportunity to work in other forms (photojournalism, audio, and video) for those who are interested.
Prerequisite: Minimum grade of B in AJ 311
ENG 101
INTRO TO LITERATURE: YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Harrison, Wayne
Section 400
CRN: 37252
Ecampus
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 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
J.T. Bushnell
Section: 1
CRN: 30612
Understanding a story is one thing, but experiencing its impact is another. In this course, you’ll discover the simple routes into the heart of a story and witness how they’re enriched by more subtle literary elements. The goal will be not just to understand how fiction operates but to access its full range of emotional and intellectual rewards.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
A STUDY OF THE SHORT STORY
Norris, Marcos
Section: 2
CRN: 35279
50/50 Hybrid
What is a short story? The first thought that comes to mind is probably a story that’s short. But this definition is reductive, one with which many critics have disagreed. E.M. Exjebaum, for example, describes the short story as “a bomb dropped from an airplane” that strikes “its war-head full-force on the target.” For Exjebaum and many others, the short story is so much more than a story that’s merely short. This course offers students a rigorous examination of the artform as it developed artistically and generically over the past two centuries. Primary readings include stories from Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and Jorge Luis Borges. Secondary readings include essays from Charles E. May’s The New Short Story Theories (1994).
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
Delf, Liz
Sections: 400
CRN: 31573
Ecampus
It’s easy to think of ourselves as totally separate and disconnected from the past. Aren’t we more sophisticated, complicated, and interesting than people a hundred years ago? Not so fast! In this class, we will read and discuss stories and a novel covering the last two hundred years and consider how these authors grapple with questions that are still relevant today. How does power impact personal relationships? How do we grow up? What do we do with our trauma? Can we ever truly return home? We’ll discuss all of these questions and more.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
Weaver, Damien
Section: 401/402
CRN: 34593/37253
Ecampus
This course proceeds on a notion raised by literary critic Lionel Trilling: that a central task of literary fiction is to reveal “the human fact” within “a world of circumstance.” 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 2025.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 106Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY
Davison, Neil
Section: 1
CRN: 33776
This class will be an introduction to poetry written in English. We will conduct an initial, brief study of the rudiments of poetic form and poetic-linguistic conventions, then spend most of the term studying a sampling of poets and poems of major movements of English and American poetry from the period known as the Romantic movement (1790’s onward) to that of Contemporary era (1950’s onward). Students will be responsible for the assigned readings as they are due in accordance with the syllabus. The scope of the class will link close readings, conducted in class, of each poem’s structure and meaning with relevant historical, psychological, and aesthetic backgrounds. Students will be expected to introduce and explain each poem’s details (structure, metaphors, figurative language, impliedngs, etc.) and contexts (historical period, etc.) as an aspect of their interpretations. Students will be evaluated and graded through bi-monthly (every other week) in-class quizzes and a mid-term and final examination. The format for the quizzes will be short answer questions; format for the exams will be multiple-choice, short-answer questions, and a prompt for a long-answer question.
ENG 106Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY
Goldsmith, Jenna/Nirit Kurman
Section: 400/401
CRN: 31948/37254
Ecampus
Eng 106Z offers a broad introduction to poetry. Encourages students to be more skilled and confident readers of poetry. Develops an understanding of poetic craft by studying the basic elements of poetry. In the course, we will encounter contemporary poetry and study poetic terms such as occasional poetry, illuminated poetry, persona poetry, ekphrastic poetry, elegies, and more. Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 108
INTRO TO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
Rubado, Annette
Section: 400/401
CRN: 37255/39600
Ecampus
The roots of science fiction and fantasy lie in myth, folklore, and fairy tales. While we begin with these origins, we will focus on modern and contemporary science fiction and fantasy in print. The course introduces students to a range of voices and formats in these genres. Accordingly, we’ll start with a contemporary graphic novel and end the course with a recent sci-fi/ fantasy novel. In between, we’ll study sci-fi and fantasy stories by both well-known and now-forgotten authors, including H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and Ted Chiang.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
ENG 205
SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE: RESTORATION TO ROMANTIC ERA
Gottlieb, Evan
Section: 1
CRN: 39609
This course presents a chronological survey of British Literature from the late seventeenth century and runs through the first decades of the nineteenth century. As we examine the best-known writers of the age, we will read great works of both poetry and prose. Our challenge will be to understand these texts in their socio-historical contexts while simultaneously assessing their aesthetic qualities and analyzing their socio-political commitments. Grades will be based on attendance and participation, two exams, and a term paper; major texts to be studied include significant excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost and Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 212
LITERATURES OF THE WORLD:
MESO/SOUTH AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Rubado, Annette
Section: 1
CRN: 36002
How is Latin American identity imagined and negotiated in prose and poetry? How do Latin American cultural texts use style to explore and contest relationships between self, community and world in the context of imperialism, dictatorship, and economic, racial and gender inequalities? We will address these questions through close reading of 20th-century texts from across the diverse geopolitical landscapes of the Americas. In addition to examining the ethical and political dilemmas proposed by Latin American artists, we will practice meaningful literary engagement with these texts and one another. While we read in translation, we will think through language and power. As this is an introduction, no prior knowledge of Latin American literature is needed.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Cultural Diversity (CPCD)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
Liberal Arts Non-Western Core (LACN)
ENG 215
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Please see the Course Catalog for available sections.
Retellings of stories from ancient Greece and Rome tend to celebrate heroes: Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, Aeneas. This class flips the script and instead foregrounds the losers in Classical mythology—the gods, individual humans, civilizations, and monsters that are conquered in some of the most foundational stories of Western culture.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 220
DIFFERENCE, POWER AND DISCRIMINATION:
SEXUALITY IN FILM (crosslisted with FILM 220)
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 1
CRN: 33650
Non-binary. Genderqueer. Cis-male, pan and trans. How are sexualities constructed within contemporary cinema—and how do those constructions affect how viewers interact with actual human beings? That’s the central question for ENG/FILM220 students, as we closely analyze an array of films depicting intersecting sexualities for multifarious political and libidinal ends. Because decoding the distribution of difference within
any cultural venue is central to each Difference, Power and Discrimination course, participants in Sexualities & Film do not merely evaluate the intersection of different sexualities—they will explore how these sexual subject positions are represented as further intersecting with other subjective vantage points,
like class, race and age. Along with learning how to closely read films, students make connections with diverse and sometimes oppositional critical theories, including but not limited to psychoanalytic, feminist, (post)feminist, post-structural and queer theories. This transdisciplinary interlacement will serve as the basis for a generous amount of research, writing, group discussion and personal reflection.
Bacc Core- Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 221
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: LITERATURE OF THE JAZZ AGE
Norris, Marcos
Section: 400
CRN: 36025
Ecampus
Between WWI and the stock market crash of 1929, significant changes took place within the African American community. Urbanization, industrialization, and the migration of six million black southerners to northern states introduced a “New Negro” whose art, literature, and music came to define an era now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Foremost among these emerging art forms was jazz music, an exciting but controversial new sound out of New Orleans, Louisiana based on syncopated rhythms and improvisation. The hallmarks of this new sound can also be applied to the literature of the era as writers and their characters would improvise unprecedented expressions of blackness and black identity that were sometimes “out of rhythm” with their post-Victorian worlds. This course examines 1920s culture, the early reception of jazz music, its relationship to literature, and the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 240
INTRO TO ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE
Jensen, Ian
Section: 001
CRN: 38532
This course examines American literary works concerned with the natural world. We’ll begin in the antebellum 19th century and read through the 20th to the 21st century. Our primary goal is to see how various American literary imaginations have conceived of and put into practice notions of nature. We are also interested in whether these artworks—if they so be—provide us with explicit or implicit responses to our contemporary climate change crisis. Some guiding questions: What is environmental literature? What is nature writing? What is meant by nature? From whence do our understandings of “nature” stem? What is the relationship between the non-human world and the very human world of culture, in our case the literary?
Texts will include: Emerson’s Nature, Thoreau’s Walden, Mary Austin’s The Land of Little Rain, Leopold’s Sand Creek Almanac, Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, and Dungy’s Trophic Cascade.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
ENG 253
SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: COLONIAL TO 1900
Hausman, Blake
Section: 400
CRN: 35764
Ecampus
This course introduces students to a body of works known as early American literature and covers works from about the 17th to the 19th century (a few selected works will be notably earlier or later). We will pay close attention to how the ideologies of “an American identity” were formulated and contested through diverse voices and experiences by covering genres such as travel writings, settler narratives, sermons, poetry, slave narratives, political writings, maritime literature, fiction, short stories, drama, and history. We will also examine the dynamics of early environmental writings and their implications in the policies and politics of land appropriation, capitalism, labor, the Enlightenment, and American exceptionalism.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 260
LITERATURE OF AMERICAN MINORITIES
Blomgren, Olga
Section: 1
CRN: 37593
This course explores the ways in which 20th and 21st century American Literatures and theorizations of difference inform and offset one another. It introduces central figures of American thought and literature, including major works encompassing multiple forms of difference by authors such as W.E.B. DuBois, Gloria Anzaldúa, David Henry Hwang, and Edward Said. We will study the ways “minoritized” authors weave newness and variation into American literatures and challenge longstanding narratives. The course readings will help generate questions about literary creations and human experiences. We will reflect on the human conditions that emerge across cultural boundaries and historical periods. The course explores literary works in their social context, especially with a critical examination of power structures. Insights will be applied to issues in communities beyond the classroom. As such, some guiding questions for the course are: How does difference emerge from literary texts? How do readers engage with unique or unfamiliar texts and forms without creating hierarchies or repeating colonialisms? What ideas about confronting the normalization of racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism can be learned from writers of the 20th century and recent past?
Bacc Core- Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 275
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE
Elbom, Gilad
Section: 001
CRN: 38533
This class will address the inherent complexity of biblical literature from multiple perspectives: historical, theological, political, psychological, linguistic, philosophical, and other points of view. Paying attention to style, genre, conflict, characterization, narrative strategies, poetic devices, and other literary components, we will broaden and deepen our understanding of the Bible while refraining from reducing it to clear messages, unequivocal truths, or agreed-upon lessons.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 301
WAYS OF READING – THE SPECULATIVE NOVELLA
Gottlieb, Evan
Section: 001
CRN: 37592
What’s the difference between reading a book for pleasure and reading it for a class? What kinds of skills are necessary for upper-level work as an English major? What exactly is literary criticism? Pursue these questions by studying a selection of texts paired with works providing historical and critical context. Learn how to think and write like a literary critic by reading carefully, discussing these works in class, and writing analytical essays.
ENG 302
WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Blomgren, Olga
Section: 1
CRN: 34793
WIC
This course will demystify the conventions of academic writing in the English major, with the goal of developing original textual interpretations and situating those interpretations in relation to secondary sources. In doing so, we will develop an understanding of a broader scholarly conversation by writing about issues of difference, including but not limited to categories of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability. In tandem with one-credit library lab co-requisite (ENG 200), we will practice evaluating scholarly resources, including secondary sources and archival research.
A minimum grade of D- is required in ENG 301.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
ENG 317
AMERICAN NOVEL: BEGINNINGS TO CHOPIN
Schwartz, Samuel
Section: 1
CRN: 38534
Students will read foundational novels, narratives, excerpts, and novellas from the following list (though which specific texts are chosen varies from term to term): Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Frederick Douglass’s Autobiography, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener (and/or selections from Moby-Dick), Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 318
AMERICAN NOVEL: MODERNIST PERIOD
Elbom, Gilad
Section: 400
CRN: 37256
Ecampus
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 321
STUDIES IN WORD, OBJECT, IMAGE:
INTRO TO GRAPHIC NARRATIVES
Malewitz, Ray
Section: 1
CRN: 38536
This course provides a rapid introduction to some of the key artists, styles, and theories associated with the literary genre called graphic narrative. The key questions that we will ask concern the productive tensions that are generated in graphic narratives by the fusion of “low” comic forms and “high” narrative themes. We will explore the ways that contemporary graphic narratives repurpose superhero conventions to make political and philosophical arguments about the world. We will examine the ways that comic artists use the form to document personal and filial conflict and tragedy. We will explore the ways in which these personal stories often intersect with larger national and global histories. Finally, we will investigate the methods by which literary artists represent race, class, gender, and sexuality within and beyond the United States. In so doing, we will determine how graphic narratives relate to more conventional narratives within the period labeled “postmodern.”
ENG 360
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
Hausman, Blake
Section: 1
CRN: 38537
50/50 Hybrid
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 362
AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS
Balachander, Surabhi
Section: 1
CRN: 39605
The goals of this course are: 1) to consider the complexities of Asian American identity formation and the role of transnational histories and policy in shaping Asian America; 2) to practice literary analysis skills by examining different forms of memoir, from graphic nonfiction to nature writing; and finally, 3) to experiment over the course of the term with writing our own short pieces of memoir, showing that creative practice is useful as a mode of critical analysis. Authors include Mira Jacob, Thi Bui, and Putsata Reang.
ENG 418
ENGLISH NOVEL: VICTORIAN PERIOD
Ward, Meghan
Section 1
CRN: 39596
1700-1900
50/50 Hybrid
Tracing a life at its most transformational moments, the coming-of-age novel asks what it means to grow – and to be grown-up. Also called the bildungsroman or novel of development, this genre gives us insight into how the Victorians defined growth in terms of gender, sexuality, religion, race, and power. We’ll read a selection of nineteenth-century novels from England, India, and the Caribbean for a global perspective on this personal subject.
ENG 440
STUDIES IN MODERN IRISH LITERATURE
Davison, Neil
Section: 001
CRN: 38538
This course will conduct an in-depth study of three of the four major works of the 20th Irish writer James Joyce. We will examine these works in the contexts of Modernist aesthetics, Irish cultural and political history, and discussions of race, class, gender, and religion as these become essential sites of arguments over empire, nation, and art. On the formalist level of Modernist experimentation with traditional literary conventions, we’ll explore Joyce's progress as a technical innovator of the short story and novel genres. We’ll also examine the critical implications of his work pertaining to cultural assumptions of pre-Holocaust Europe and colonial Ireland—especially as regards the politics of empire, race, and gender. We will focus on these issues through close readings of a selection of stories from Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), and Ulysses (1922). By the term’s close, we may also touch on select passages of Finnegans Wake (1939) as well. Contextual readings from sources such as Joycean biography, Irish history, Irish-Jesuit Catholicism, and fin-de-siècle anti-Semitism will be mandatory Canvas file readings. We will also rely on a traditional guide-book study to help us conduct our examination of Ulysses. Students will be evaluated through a take-home essay mid-term exam and a major term-paper that focuses on an episode or two of Ulysses..
ENG 480
STUDIES IN LITERATURE, CULTURE & SOCIETY:
Bude, Tekla
Section: 001
CRN: 37649
We in the 21st-century are heirs to intersecting frameworks of gender, sexuality, race, and class that grew out of Enlightenment-era (18th- and 19th-century) imperialism and capitalism. These frameworks include the gender binary, the hypersexualization of black bodies, and the marginalization and criminalization of sex workers. In this class, we will look to the period BEFORE the Enlightenment for a better understanding of how these frameworks came to be, but also to understand other, alternative ways of understanding sex, gender, and sexuality that the premodern offers. What models for gender and sexuality – and their intersections with race and class – do the medieval and early modern periods offer? The answers might surprise you: from queer nuns to cross-dressing sex workers, from female Jesuses to black Madonnas, and from trans heroes of medieval fiction to the all-male casts of Early Modern drama, premodern literature provides us with some startling counterpoints to our received notions of gender, sex, and sexuality.
ENG 485
STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: MANIPULATING TIME IN NARRATIVE
Scribner, Keith
Section: 001
CRN: 35591
WIC, 75/25 Hybrid
In this WIC class specifically offered for creative writing majors, we’ll explore how time is manipulated to tell a better story and how narrative dramatizes those moments in our lives when we feel we’re living in the past, present, and future all at once. We’ll read novels and short stories that collapse, compress, fragment, and reverse time asking why these authorial choices make a more compelling story and more effectively reveal lived experience and perception. In writing exercises and a final project you’ll model your own narratives on the published work we’re reading.
Sophomore standing; 8 credits of ENG 200-level or above .
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 125
INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES, 1945-PRESENT
Lewis, Jon
Section: 001
CRN: 34381
An exploration and examination of American cinema, 1942-1968. Of particular interest are the important films and filmmakers of the era as well as key events in American (and more narrowly, Hollywood) cultural history. Weekly screenings to include Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968).
ENGF - $20.00 Flat Fee
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 145
INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES, 1968-1999
Rust, Stephen
Section: 400
CRN: 35012
ECampus
Explores and examines American and European cinema, 1968-1999. Emphasis on 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 AND DISCRIMINATION:
SEXUALITY IN FILM (crosslisted with ENG 220)
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 001
CRN: 34380
Non-binary. Genderqueer. Cis-male, pan and trans. How are sexualities constructed within contemporary cinema—and how do those constructions affect how viewers interact with actual human beings? That’s the central question for ENG/FILM220 students, as we closely analyze an array of films depicting intersecting sexualities for multifarious political and libidinal ends. Because decoding the distribution of difference within any cultural venue is central to each Difference, Power and Discrimination course, participants in Sexualities & Film do not merely evaluate the intersection of different sexualities—they will explore how these sexual subject positions are represented as further intersecting with other subjective vantage points, like class, race and age. Along with learning how to closely read films, students make connections with diverse and sometimes oppositional critical theories, including but not limited to psychoanalytic, feminist, (post)feminist, post-structural and queer theories. This transdisciplinary interlacement will serve as the basis for a generous amount of research, writing, group discussion and personal reflection.
ENGF - $20.00 Flat Fee
Bacc Core - Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 452
STUDIES IN FILM: ANIMATION
Lewis, Jon
Section: 1
CRN: 38540
Early experiments in cine-animation coincide with the earliest movies; the very idea of motion pictures was itself a mode or version of animation (of still images into movement, of stationery objects into seeming action). This class will provide an in-depth look at animation history from the early experiments by Lotte Reninger and Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland) and ventures into silent-era narrative (Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan’s Felix the Cat) through the several golden ages at Disney (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Silly Symphonies, Snow White, Pinocchio), the jazz-age cartoons made by the Fleischer brothers (Betty Boop, Popeye, Gulliver’s Travels), and the 35mm short subjects made at Warner Bros. (“starring” Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck). More modern works to include: the hand-painted experiments of Portland, Oregon’s Joanna Priestly and Japan’s Studio Ghibli’s epic watercolors (Princess Mononoke), modern stop-motion (Tim Burton and Henry Selick) and puppetry (Trey Parker and Matt Stone), and computer animation (Pixar). Students can opt out of the final paper and instead produce their own animated videos.
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)
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- is required in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121Z.
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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
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)
WR 227Z
TECHNICAL WRITING-ENGINEERING
Elbom, Emily
Section: 3/10
CRN: 37225/37232
In the “Technical Writing for Engineers” sections of WR 327, 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)
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. In this course, 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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 241
INTRO TO POETRY WRITING
Cutter, Lila
Section 2/401
CRN: 31617/38519
In person/Ecampus
“The art of poetry is ultimately an art of attention—Michael Blumenthal.” Throughout this course, 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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 250
PODCAST STORYTELLING
Griffin, Kristin
Section: 1
CRN:36003
In this class, 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 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 250
PODCAST STORYTELLING
Ross, Selene
Section: 2
CRN:39640
In this class we will explore stories told through sound. We’ll listen to some of the best and most important podcasts of the last decade and unpack them to see what makes them so satisfying. You’ll learn how to identify elements of compelling storytelling and write and deliver scripts tailored to specific audiences and genres. While we will utilize audio software as necessary, the majority of this class will focus on the scripting and structure of podcasts, rather than the production. We will approach all topics with eager curiosity and within the context of a timeless dedication to oral storytelling, of which we are now the heirs.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ. Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 301
PUBLISHING AND EDITING
Drummond, Rob
Section: 400
CRN: 38520
Ecampus
Invites students to learn about editing and copyediting techniques, broader editorial decisions, and current publishing platforms. Students will learn about scholarly publishing in
the U.S. and about how social media and public relations fit into this world. Participants will also explore editing within a rhetorical dimension, considering purpose and audience, as well as conventions of grammar, mechanics, and usage. Students will review a scholarly article reporting on research in editing and/or publishing; as well as develop a publication-ready work of their own. As part of a final project, the class will work toward a collaborative publication.
Successful completion of Writing 121 is a prerequisite for this course.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 303
WRITING FOR THE WEB
Kelly, Kristy
Section: 400
CRN: 34125
Ecampus
Writing for the Web considers the role of the human writer in an increasingly automated, impulsive, and filtered information environment. The course builds writing skills in digital genres that prioritize interactivity, social connectivity, and resilience of key messages across platforms. Students will analyze the inner workings of online communities, adapt written and visual content to shifting audiences, and apply best practices for designing engaging texts for mobile and often-distracted readers. The course also examines the role of artificial intelligence for digital writers, providing both practice with AI and deeper consideration of its ethical implications.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of D- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 323
ADVANCED WRITING AND ARGUMENTATION
See the Course Catalog for available sections.
While continuing the concerns of WR 121Z, 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)
WR 324
SHORT STORY WRITING
St. Germain, Justin
Section: 400
CRN: 35205
Ecampus
Study and writing of the short story.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 330
UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR
Bushnell, J.T.
Section: 400
CRN: 34126
Ecampus
WR 330 is an advanced study of traditional grammatical structures and functions. We’ll study the sentence, its patterns, its required slots, its optional slots, its alternative structures, its modification, its punctuation, and your own intuitive knowledge of these concepts. In the process, we’ll gain the vocabulary to discuss grammar and linguistics, explore various (and sometimes oppositional) theories about linguistic “correctness,” and develop an appreciation of language, form, and style.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- is required in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121Z.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 340
CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING
Smith, Cleavon
Section: 1
CRN: 37247
Writing 340 is OSU’s intermediate creative writing course in creative nonfiction: personal essays, memoirs, travel narratives, feature journalism and lyric essays. Students who have taken a 200-level creative writing course are welcome to enroll. Students will generate several very short pieces of creative nonfiction–”flash essays”--workshopping a select number as a class. Along the way, students will also read and discuss recently published essays to understand the wide variety of creative nonfiction expressions.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 240.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 341
POETRY WRITING
Cutter, Lila
Section: 2/401
CRN: 31617/38519
Uses skills learned in WR 241 to practice writing, critiquing, and close-reading poems. Practices the stages of writing—from generative brainstorming to composing solid drafts to polishing accomplished work—through in- and out-of-class exercises; employs revision strategies at every stage. Examines students’ poems in depth in a rigorous, supportive workshop. Encourages useful, insightful written and oral feedback. Studies a variety of contemporary poets as models and inspiration.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 241.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 362
SCIENCE WRITING
See the Course Catalog for available sections.
Scientists and other experts understand their field, but they don’t always know how to communicate that understanding to the general public. WR 362: Science Writing teaches you strategies for identifying your audience so you can write to their interests and needs. You’ll practice research, drafting, and revision skills to hone your ability to write clear documents for audiences who want learn about science and how it affects them.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z and WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 383
FOOD WRITING
Griffin, Kristin
Section: 400
CRN: 35676
Ecampus
From the recipe to the memoir essay, the investigative feature to the food crawl, this online course will expose you to the booming world of food writing. We’ll discuss the classics in American food writing and read deeply in what’s current, from personal blogs like Smitten Kitchen to online magazines like Serious Eats to print magazines like Saveur. Once you have a sense of the genre and its possibilities, each student will become writer, editor, and designer of a new issue of Buckteeth Magazine, an online food magazine associated with the class and produced collaboratively over the course of the term. You’ll assign yourself a food-focused story, learn effective strategies for pitching it, and hone your revision skills, earning yourself a spot on the masthead and a publication for your resume.
See course catalog for registration restrictions.
WR 390
HABITS OF CREATIVE PRACTICE
Braun, Clare
Section: 400
CRN: 38522
Ecampus
So you’re making a thing (thesis/essay/story/poem/song/painting/sketch/wooden spoon/chair/canoe/music/etc.). You sit down to work. Now what, exactly, is supposed to happen? How do you make inspiration strike? When it does, how do you turn the idea into the thing? We’ll experiment with components and conditions of active creative work (boredom, writing implements, journaling, fresh air, mindfulness, maybe a little light spellcasting, etc.,) to better understand and shape our habits of production. Whether or not you’re working on a large project, you’ll craft intentional creative practices to remove friction and make creative work more satisfying.
WR 406
LETTERPRESS PROJECTS
Holmberg, Karen
Section: 2
CRN: 34282
This 1 credit, 2-day course introduces students to the basic techniques of letterpress printing. During the intensive (providing 10 hours of instruction), students will learn:
•Basic history and terminology of moveable type and letterpress printing;
•Introductory design skills using typefaces, spacing, and ornaments;
•Hand type-setting;
•How to proof and correct;
•Operation of the proofing press and demonstration of the Chandler and Price hand press.
This course is required for students seeking supervised access to the Moreland Letterpress Studio during its open hours for the Winter term.
Departmental Approval Required
WR 414
ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING
St. Jacques, Jill
Section:1
CRN: 38984
TikTok, Vanity Fair, YouTube influencers and spam. All of these media denizens rely on one thing for survival: advertising. On the advertising side of the spectrum, it’s inconsequential whether their client is promoting fashion, soda pop or political activism—what matters is that their message effectively breaks through the clutter to reach you. By examining the ways in which content delivery interfaces with written rhetoric in advertising and public relations, students will learn to write for both fields. At first blush, these two fields might seem worlds apart, but advertising and public relations share a deeply intrinsic task: both fields deploy language to motivate target audiences to take a desired action. By necessity, professionals in advertising and public relations must be sufficiently adaptable to write in any media form that conveys their message most expediently. Through assembling (and critiquing) two multi-document portfolios – an advertising campaign and a press kit – WR414 participants will hone their skills at writing for advertising and public relations in an increasingly nuanced media marketplace.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of B in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
WR 420
WRITING WOMEN’S LIVES
Detar, Liddy
Section: 1
CRN: 35206
How do we transform our lives from lived experience into written texts of many different forms: from autobiography, memoir, poetry, fiction to personal essays and academic writing? While challenging the very category of “woman,” this course explores what moves us to write the stories of our lives or someone else’s and how questions of genre and form are related to the stores we need to tell – and the narratives we must resist, about ourselves and our communities. We will read and discuss many different kinds of memoirs together, and writings and other sorts of activities will include both creative and critical projects.
WR 424
ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
Bhanoo, Sindya
Section: 1
CRN: 38524
In this workshop we will read and write literary fiction. Using published stories as models, we’ll discuss methods of characterization, plotting, scene-setting, dialogue, and so on. Much of our work together will involve close reading and analysis of the texts in question. Our emphasis will be on writing more complicated and sophisticated stories with concision and economy.We are writers in this class, and we’ll be reading as writers. We will ask, over and over, three questions:
• what is the effect of a sentence, paragraph, word, or image?
• what techniques produce these effects?
• of these techniques, which might we borrow, steal, or avoid?
Our first question will always be: What can we use here? Ideally, you’ll discover new ways to do things you’re already doing – while also discovering how your stories can be more ambitious. Through close reading we’ll try to determine how certain mysterious effects are produced – why you feel joy or sorrow, why you feel excitement or boredom, why you see pink or white when those colors aren’t mentioned explicitly. We’ll be spending our days with our noses in these pages, so you must underline and write in the margins as you read. Often we’ll spend several minutes on a single sentence. Don’t be afraid to “fondle details,” as Nabokov instructs – to wonder why a dress is a certain color, or why a window is open, or why a character mentions bread instead of wine. At the same time we’ll be careful to remind ourselves that writing is an art, and that not every act of writing is a conscious act. Too much conscious attention to tiny matters of craft can be paralyzing – and we’ll talk about ways to avoid this kind of unhappy ending.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 324.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 441
ADVANCED POETRY WRITING
Richter, Jen
Section: 1
CRN: 38544
Builds on writing, workshopping, critiquing, and close-reading skills practiced in WR 241 and 341. Focuses on all stages of writing with an emphasis on revision. Offers a wide variety of poets as models and inspiration. Encourages the development of one’s own poetic voice in the context of the larger poetic tradition.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 324.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 462
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
Larison, John
Section: 400
CRN: 35677
Ecampus
This course explores how environmental content is communicated and why this communication matters. We’ll analyze the discourse of environmental topics from multiple perspectives, genres, and styles, including nature writing, science journalism, and contemporary feature essays, while also composing quality environmental writing of our own. From early conservationism to deep ecology, climate science to indigenous rhetorics, this class will journey through a forest of diverse voices.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 462
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
Jensen, Ian
Section: 401
CRN: 38170
Ecampus
Writing about environmental topics from multiple perspectives. Includes science journalism, research and writing on current scientific issues and controversies, and theories of rhetoric and environmentalism.
A minimum grade of C- is required in WR 121, WR 121H, WR 121Z and WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 466
ADVANCED TECHNICAL WRITING
Pflugfelder, Ehren
Section: 400
CRN: 39606
Ecampus
Introduces students to the texts, contexts, and concepts important to the practice of professional communication in organizational contexts, addressing practical writing skills, rhetoric, and ethics. Course readings concern what professional technical writers do and what theories govern their actions, bridging the gap between real-world problems and research. Emphasizes on solving writing and communication problems with empirical research, usability testing, and information design.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 497
DIGITAL LITERACY AND CULTURE
Kelly, Kristy
Section: 1
CRN: 35593
Hybrid (both on-site meetings and online component)
From fanfic to 4Chan, from cute cats to QAnon: the internet is a chaotic, compelling, and often treacherous place. In an information environment that prioritizes instant gratification, hot takes, and clickbait, how do we build ethical online spaces that value community, conversation, and authentic connection? Through critical examination of artificial intelligence, interface design, and social media algorithms designed to capture and redirect our attention online, we’ll ask ourselves what it means to be literate in the digital age. Exploring everything from algorithmic bias and online radicalization to generative AI and misinformation, we’ll navigate the mayhem of internet culture with an eye toward social, racial, and economic justice.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121 or WR 121H.
ADVANCED MEDIA STORYTELLING
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 1
CRN: 33649
This class will operate like a living, breathing newsroom in which students are reporters. We will, above all, cultivate a spirit of curiosity. We will consider how our own varied interests and backgrounds – as scientists, artists, writers, engineers, fans of cooking or skydiving, as people with experiences from across the state, nation and world - might inform the reported stories we choose to pursue as journalists. Together we will read and discuss stories from local and national publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Oregonian, and NPR. Students will pitch, report, and write stories of their own. We will primarily produce written stories, but there will be opportunity to work in other forms (photojournalism, audio, and video) for those who are interested.
Prerequisite: Minimum grade of B in AJ 311
ENG 101
INTRO TO LITERATURE: YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
Harrison, Wayne
Section 400
CRN: 37252
Ecampus
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 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
J.T. Bushnell
Section: 1
CRN: 30612
Understanding a story is one thing, but experiencing its impact is another. In this course, you’ll discover the simple routes into the heart of a story and witness how they’re enriched by more subtle literary elements. The goal will be not just to understand how fiction operates but to access its full range of emotional and intellectual rewards.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
A STUDY OF THE SHORT STORY
Norris, Marcos
Section: 2
CRN: 35279
50/50 Hybrid
What is a short story? The first thought that comes to mind is probably a story that’s short. But this definition is reductive, one with which many critics have disagreed. E.M. Exjebaum, for example, describes the short story as “a bomb dropped from an airplane” that strikes “its war-head full-force on the target.” For Exjebaum and many others, the short story is so much more than a story that’s merely short. This course offers students a rigorous examination of the artform as it developed artistically and generically over the past two centuries. Primary readings include stories from Edgar Allan Poe, Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, and Jorge Luis Borges. Secondary readings include essays from Charles E. May’s The New Short Story Theories (1994).
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
Delf, Liz
Sections: 400
CRN: 31573
Ecampus
It’s easy to think of ourselves as totally separate and disconnected from the past. Aren’t we more sophisticated, complicated, and interesting than people a hundred years ago? Not so fast! In this class, we will read and discuss stories and a novel covering the last two hundred years and consider how these authors grapple with questions that are still relevant today. How does power impact personal relationships? How do we grow up? What do we do with our trauma? Can we ever truly return home? We’ll discuss all of these questions and more.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 104Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: FICTION
Weaver, Damien
Section: 401/402
CRN: 34593/37253
Ecampus
This course proceeds on a notion raised by literary critic Lionel Trilling: that a central task of literary fiction is to reveal “the human fact” within “a world of circumstance.” 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 2025.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 106Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY
Davison, Neil
Section: 1
CRN: 33776
This class will be an introduction to poetry written in English. We will conduct an initial, brief study of the rudiments of poetic form and poetic-linguistic conventions, then spend most of the term studying a sampling of poets and poems of major movements of English and American poetry from the period known as the Romantic movement (1790’s onward) to that of Contemporary era (1950’s onward). Students will be responsible for the assigned readings as they are due in accordance with the syllabus. The scope of the class will link close readings, conducted in class, of each poem’s structure and meaning with relevant historical, psychological, and aesthetic backgrounds. Students will be expected to introduce and explain each poem’s details (structure, metaphors, figurative language, impliedngs, etc.) and contexts (historical period, etc.) as an aspect of their interpretations. Students will be evaluated and graded through bi-monthly (every other week) in-class quizzes and a mid-term and final examination. The format for the quizzes will be short answer questions; format for the exams will be multiple-choice, short-answer questions, and a prompt for a long-answer question.
ENG 106Z
INTRO TO LITERATURE: POETRY
Goldsmith, Jenna/Nirit Kurman
Section: 400/401
CRN: 31948/37254
Ecampus
Eng 106Z offers a broad introduction to poetry. Encourages students to be more skilled and confident readers of poetry. Develops an understanding of poetic craft by studying the basic elements of poetry. In the course, we will encounter contemporary poetry and study poetic terms such as occasional poetry, illuminated poetry, persona poetry, ekphrastic poetry, elegies, and more. Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 108
INTRO TO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
Rubado, Annette
Section: 400/401
CRN: 37255/39600
Ecampus
The roots of science fiction and fantasy lie in myth, folklore, and fairy tales. While we begin with these origins, we will focus on modern and contemporary science fiction and fantasy in print. The course introduces students to a range of voices and formats in these genres. Accordingly, we’ll start with a contemporary graphic novel and end the course with a recent sci-fi/ fantasy novel. In between, we’ll study sci-fi and fantasy stories by both well-known and now-forgotten authors, including H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, and Ted Chiang.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
ENG 205
SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE: RESTORATION TO ROMANTIC ERA
Gottlieb, Evan
Section: 1
CRN: 39609
This course presents a chronological survey of British Literature from the late seventeenth century and runs through the first decades of the nineteenth century. As we examine the best-known writers of the age, we will read great works of both poetry and prose. Our challenge will be to understand these texts in their socio-historical contexts while simultaneously assessing their aesthetic qualities and analyzing their socio-political commitments. Grades will be based on attendance and participation, two exams, and a term paper; major texts to be studied include significant excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost and Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 212
LITERATURES OF THE WORLD:
MESO/SOUTH AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Rubado, Annette
Section: 1
CRN: 36002
How is Latin American identity imagined and negotiated in prose and poetry? How do Latin American cultural texts use style to explore and contest relationships between self, community and world in the context of imperialism, dictatorship, and economic, racial and gender inequalities? We will address these questions through close reading of 20th-century texts from across the diverse geopolitical landscapes of the Americas. In addition to examining the ethical and political dilemmas proposed by Latin American artists, we will practice meaningful literary engagement with these texts and one another. While we read in translation, we will think through language and power. As this is an introduction, no prior knowledge of Latin American literature is needed.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Cultural Diversity (CPCD)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
Liberal Arts Non-Western Core (LACN)
ENG 215
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
Please see the Course Catalog for available sections.
Retellings of stories from ancient Greece and Rome tend to celebrate heroes: Hercules, Theseus, Achilles, Aeneas. This class flips the script and instead foregrounds the losers in Classical mythology—the gods, individual humans, civilizations, and monsters that are conquered in some of the most foundational stories of Western culture.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 220
DIFFERENCE, POWER AND DISCRIMINATION:
SEXUALITY IN FILM (crosslisted with FILM 220)
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 1
CRN: 33650
Non-binary. Genderqueer. Cis-male, pan and trans. How are sexualities constructed within contemporary cinema—and how do those constructions affect how viewers interact with actual human beings? That’s the central question for ENG/FILM220 students, as we closely analyze an array of films depicting intersecting sexualities for multifarious political and libidinal ends. Because decoding the distribution of difference within
any cultural venue is central to each Difference, Power and Discrimination course, participants in Sexualities & Film do not merely evaluate the intersection of different sexualities—they will explore how these sexual subject positions are represented as further intersecting with other subjective vantage points,
like class, race and age. Along with learning how to closely read films, students make connections with diverse and sometimes oppositional critical theories, including but not limited to psychoanalytic, feminist, (post)feminist, post-structural and queer theories. This transdisciplinary interlacement will serve as the basis for a generous amount of research, writing, group discussion and personal reflection.
Bacc Core- Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 221
AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: LITERATURE OF THE JAZZ AGE
Norris, Marcos
Section: 400
CRN: 36025
Ecampus
Between WWI and the stock market crash of 1929, significant changes took place within the African American community. Urbanization, industrialization, and the migration of six million black southerners to northern states introduced a “New Negro” whose art, literature, and music came to define an era now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Foremost among these emerging art forms was jazz music, an exciting but controversial new sound out of New Orleans, Louisiana based on syncopated rhythms and improvisation. The hallmarks of this new sound can also be applied to the literature of the era as writers and their characters would improvise unprecedented expressions of blackness and black identity that were sometimes “out of rhythm” with their post-Victorian worlds. This course examines 1920s culture, the early reception of jazz music, its relationship to literature, and the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 240
INTRO TO ENVIRONMENTAL LITERATURE
Jensen, Ian
Section: 001
CRN: 38532
This course examines American literary works concerned with the natural world. We’ll begin in the antebellum 19th century and read through the 20th to the 21st century. Our primary goal is to see how various American literary imaginations have conceived of and put into practice notions of nature. We are also interested in whether these artworks—if they so be—provide us with explicit or implicit responses to our contemporary climate change crisis. Some guiding questions: What is environmental literature? What is nature writing? What is meant by nature? From whence do our understandings of “nature” stem? What is the relationship between the non-human world and the very human world of culture, in our case the literary?
Texts will include: Emerson’s Nature, Thoreau’s Walden, Mary Austin’s The Land of Little Rain, Leopold’s Sand Creek Almanac, Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, and Dungy’s Trophic Cascade.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
ENG 253
SURVEY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: COLONIAL TO 1900
Hausman, Blake
Section: 400
CRN: 35764
Ecampus
This course introduces students to a body of works known as early American literature and covers works from about the 17th to the 19th century (a few selected works will be notably earlier or later). We will pay close attention to how the ideologies of “an American identity” were formulated and contested through diverse voices and experiences by covering genres such as travel writings, settler narratives, sermons, poetry, slave narratives, political writings, maritime literature, fiction, short stories, drama, and history. We will also examine the dynamics of early environmental writings and their implications in the policies and politics of land appropriation, capitalism, labor, the Enlightenment, and American exceptionalism.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 260
LITERATURE OF AMERICAN MINORITIES
Blomgren, Olga
Section: 1
CRN: 37593
This course explores the ways in which 20th and 21st century American Literatures and theorizations of difference inform and offset one another. It introduces central figures of American thought and literature, including major works encompassing multiple forms of difference by authors such as W.E.B. DuBois, Gloria Anzaldúa, David Henry Hwang, and Edward Said. We will study the ways “minoritized” authors weave newness and variation into American literatures and challenge longstanding narratives. The course readings will help generate questions about literary creations and human experiences. We will reflect on the human conditions that emerge across cultural boundaries and historical periods. The course explores literary works in their social context, especially with a critical examination of power structures. Insights will be applied to issues in communities beyond the classroom. As such, some guiding questions for the course are: How does difference emerge from literary texts? How do readers engage with unique or unfamiliar texts and forms without creating hierarchies or repeating colonialisms? What ideas about confronting the normalization of racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism can be learned from writers of the 20th century and recent past?
Bacc Core- Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 275
THE BIBLE AS LITERATURE
Elbom, Gilad
Section: 001
CRN: 38533
This class will address the inherent complexity of biblical literature from multiple perspectives: historical, theological, political, psychological, linguistic, philosophical, and other points of view. Paying attention to style, genre, conflict, characterization, narrative strategies, poetic devices, and other literary components, we will broaden and deepen our understanding of the Bible while refraining from reducing it to clear messages, unequivocal truths, or agreed-upon lessons.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Western Culture (CPWC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 301
WAYS OF READING – THE SPECULATIVE NOVELLA
Gottlieb, Evan
Section: 001
CRN: 37592
What’s the difference between reading a book for pleasure and reading it for a class? What kinds of skills are necessary for upper-level work as an English major? What exactly is literary criticism? Pursue these questions by studying a selection of texts paired with works providing historical and critical context. Learn how to think and write like a literary critic by reading carefully, discussing these works in class, and writing analytical essays.
ENG 302
WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Blomgren, Olga
Section: 1
CRN: 34793
WIC
This course will demystify the conventions of academic writing in the English major, with the goal of developing original textual interpretations and situating those interpretations in relation to secondary sources. In doing so, we will develop an understanding of a broader scholarly conversation by writing about issues of difference, including but not limited to categories of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability. In tandem with one-credit library lab co-requisite (ENG 200), we will practice evaluating scholarly resources, including secondary sources and archival research.
A minimum grade of D- is required in ENG 301.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
ENG 317
AMERICAN NOVEL: BEGINNINGS TO CHOPIN
Schwartz, Samuel
Section: 1
CRN: 38534
Students will read foundational novels, narratives, excerpts, and novellas from the following list (though which specific texts are chosen varies from term to term): Edgar Allen Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Frederick Douglass’s Autobiography, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener (and/or selections from Moby-Dick), Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s The Sport of the Gods.
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
ENG 318
AMERICAN NOVEL: MODERNIST PERIOD
Elbom, Gilad
Section: 400
CRN: 37256
Ecampus
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 321
STUDIES IN WORD, OBJECT, IMAGE:
INTRO TO GRAPHIC NARRATIVES
Malewitz, Ray
Section: 1
CRN: 38536
This course provides a rapid introduction to some of the key artists, styles, and theories associated with the literary genre called graphic narrative. The key questions that we will ask concern the productive tensions that are generated in graphic narratives by the fusion of “low” comic forms and “high” narrative themes. We will explore the ways that contemporary graphic narratives repurpose superhero conventions to make political and philosophical arguments about the world. We will examine the ways that comic artists use the form to document personal and filial conflict and tragedy. We will explore the ways in which these personal stories often intersect with larger national and global histories. Finally, we will investigate the methods by which literary artists represent race, class, gender, and sexuality within and beyond the United States. In so doing, we will determine how graphic narratives relate to more conventional narratives within the period labeled “postmodern.”
ENG 360
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
Hausman, Blake
Section: 1
CRN: 38537
50/50 Hybrid
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 362
AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS
Balachander, Surabhi
Section: 1
CRN: 39605
The goals of this course are: 1) to consider the complexities of Asian American identity formation and the role of transnational histories and policy in shaping Asian America; 2) to practice literary analysis skills by examining different forms of memoir, from graphic nonfiction to nature writing; and finally, 3) to experiment over the course of the term with writing our own short pieces of memoir, showing that creative practice is useful as a mode of critical analysis. Authors include Mira Jacob, Thi Bui, and Putsata Reang.
ENG 418
ENGLISH NOVEL: VICTORIAN PERIOD
Ward, Meghan
Section 1
CRN: 39596
1700-1900
50/50 Hybrid
Tracing a life at its most transformational moments, the coming-of-age novel asks what it means to grow – and to be grown-up. Also called the bildungsroman or novel of development, this genre gives us insight into how the Victorians defined growth in terms of gender, sexuality, religion, race, and power. We’ll read a selection of nineteenth-century novels from England, India, and the Caribbean for a global perspective on this personal subject.
ENG 440
STUDIES IN MODERN IRISH LITERATURE
Davison, Neil
Section: 001
CRN: 38538
This course will conduct an in-depth study of three of the four major works of the 20th Irish writer James Joyce. We will examine these works in the contexts of Modernist aesthetics, Irish cultural and political history, and discussions of race, class, gender, and religion as these become essential sites of arguments over empire, nation, and art. On the formalist level of Modernist experimentation with traditional literary conventions, we’ll explore Joyce's progress as a technical innovator of the short story and novel genres. We’ll also examine the critical implications of his work pertaining to cultural assumptions of pre-Holocaust Europe and colonial Ireland—especially as regards the politics of empire, race, and gender. We will focus on these issues through close readings of a selection of stories from Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), and Ulysses (1922). By the term’s close, we may also touch on select passages of Finnegans Wake (1939) as well. Contextual readings from sources such as Joycean biography, Irish history, Irish-Jesuit Catholicism, and fin-de-siècle anti-Semitism will be mandatory Canvas file readings. We will also rely on a traditional guide-book study to help us conduct our examination of Ulysses. Students will be evaluated through a take-home essay mid-term exam and a major term-paper that focuses on an episode or two of Ulysses..
ENG 480
STUDIES IN LITERATURE, CULTURE & SOCIETY:
Bude, Tekla
Section: 001
CRN: 37649
We in the 21st-century are heirs to intersecting frameworks of gender, sexuality, race, and class that grew out of Enlightenment-era (18th- and 19th-century) imperialism and capitalism. These frameworks include the gender binary, the hypersexualization of black bodies, and the marginalization and criminalization of sex workers. In this class, we will look to the period BEFORE the Enlightenment for a better understanding of how these frameworks came to be, but also to understand other, alternative ways of understanding sex, gender, and sexuality that the premodern offers. What models for gender and sexuality – and their intersections with race and class – do the medieval and early modern periods offer? The answers might surprise you: from queer nuns to cross-dressing sex workers, from female Jesuses to black Madonnas, and from trans heroes of medieval fiction to the all-male casts of Early Modern drama, premodern literature provides us with some startling counterpoints to our received notions of gender, sex, and sexuality.
ENG 485
STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE: MANIPULATING TIME IN NARRATIVE
Scribner, Keith
Section: 001
CRN: 35591
WIC, 75/25 Hybrid
In this WIC class specifically offered for creative writing majors, we’ll explore how time is manipulated to tell a better story and how narrative dramatizes those moments in our lives when we feel we’re living in the past, present, and future all at once. We’ll read novels and short stories that collapse, compress, fragment, and reverse time asking why these authorial choices make a more compelling story and more effectively reveal lived experience and perception. In writing exercises and a final project you’ll model your own narratives on the published work we’re reading.
Sophomore standing; 8 credits of ENG 200-level or above .
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 125
INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES, 1945-PRESENT
Lewis, Jon
Section: 001
CRN: 34381
An exploration and examination of American cinema, 1942-1968. Of particular interest are the important films and filmmakers of the era as well as key events in American (and more narrowly, Hollywood) cultural history. Weekly screenings to include Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942), Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968).
ENGF - $20.00 Flat Fee
Bacc Core, Perspectives - Literature and the Arts (CPLA)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 145
INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES, 1968-1999
Rust, Stephen
Section: 400
CRN: 35012
ECampus
Explores and examines American and European cinema, 1968-1999. Emphasis on 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 AND DISCRIMINATION:
SEXUALITY IN FILM (crosslisted with ENG 220)
St. Jacques, Jill
Section: 001
CRN: 34380
Non-binary. Genderqueer. Cis-male, pan and trans. How are sexualities constructed within contemporary cinema—and how do those constructions affect how viewers interact with actual human beings? That’s the central question for ENG/FILM220 students, as we closely analyze an array of films depicting intersecting sexualities for multifarious political and libidinal ends. Because decoding the distribution of difference within any cultural venue is central to each Difference, Power and Discrimination course, participants in Sexualities & Film do not merely evaluate the intersection of different sexualities—they will explore how these sexual subject positions are represented as further intersecting with other subjective vantage points, like class, race and age. Along with learning how to closely read films, students make connections with diverse and sometimes oppositional critical theories, including but not limited to psychoanalytic, feminist, (post)feminist, post-structural and queer theories. This transdisciplinary interlacement will serve as the basis for a generous amount of research, writing, group discussion and personal reflection.
ENGF - $20.00 Flat Fee
Bacc Core - Difference, Power, and Discrimination (CPDP)
Liberal Arts Humanities Core (LACH)
FILM 452
STUDIES IN FILM: ANIMATION
Lewis, Jon
Section: 1
CRN: 38540
Early experiments in cine-animation coincide with the earliest movies; the very idea of motion pictures was itself a mode or version of animation (of still images into movement, of stationery objects into seeming action). This class will provide an in-depth look at animation history from the early experiments by Lotte Reninger and Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland) and ventures into silent-era narrative (Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan’s Felix the Cat) through the several golden ages at Disney (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Silly Symphonies, Snow White, Pinocchio), the jazz-age cartoons made by the Fleischer brothers (Betty Boop, Popeye, Gulliver’s Travels), and the 35mm short subjects made at Warner Bros. (“starring” Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck). More modern works to include: the hand-painted experiments of Portland, Oregon’s Joanna Priestly and Japan’s Studio Ghibli’s epic watercolors (Princess Mononoke), modern stop-motion (Tim Burton and Henry Selick) and puppetry (Trey Parker and Matt Stone), and computer animation (Pixar). Students can opt out of the final paper and instead produce their own animated videos.
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)
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- is required in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121Z.
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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
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)
WR 227Z
TECHNICAL WRITING-ENGINEERING
Elbom, Emily
Section: 3/10
CRN: 37225/37232
In the “Technical Writing for Engineers” sections of WR 327, 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)
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. In this course, 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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 241
INTRO TO POETRY WRITING
Cutter, Lila
Section 2/401
CRN: 31617/38519
In person/Ecampus
“The art of poetry is ultimately an art of attention—Michael Blumenthal.” Throughout this course, 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.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 250
PODCAST STORYTELLING
Griffin, Kristin
Section: 1
CRN:36003
In this class, 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 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 250
PODCAST STORYTELLING
Ross, Selene
Section: 2
CRN:39640
In this class we will explore stories told through sound. We’ll listen to some of the best and most important podcasts of the last decade and unpack them to see what makes them so satisfying. You’ll learn how to identify elements of compelling storytelling and write and deliver scripts tailored to specific audiences and genres. While we will utilize audio software as necessary, the majority of this class will focus on the scripting and structure of podcasts, rather than the production. We will approach all topics with eager curiosity and within the context of a timeless dedication to oral storytelling, of which we are now the heirs.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ. Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 301
PUBLISHING AND EDITING
Drummond, Rob
Section: 400
CRN: 38520
Ecampus
Invites students to learn about editing and copyediting techniques, broader editorial decisions, and current publishing platforms. Students will learn about scholarly publishing in
the U.S. and about how social media and public relations fit into this world. Participants will also explore editing within a rhetorical dimension, considering purpose and audience, as well as conventions of grammar, mechanics, and usage. Students will review a scholarly article reporting on research in editing and/or publishing; as well as develop a publication-ready work of their own. As part of a final project, the class will work toward a collaborative publication.
Successful completion of Writing 121 is a prerequisite for this course.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 303
WRITING FOR THE WEB
Kelly, Kristy
Section: 400
CRN: 34125
Ecampus
Writing for the Web considers the role of the human writer in an increasingly automated, impulsive, and filtered information environment. The course builds writing skills in digital genres that prioritize interactivity, social connectivity, and resilience of key messages across platforms. Students will analyze the inner workings of online communities, adapt written and visual content to shifting audiences, and apply best practices for designing engaging texts for mobile and often-distracted readers. The course also examines the role of artificial intelligence for digital writers, providing both practice with AI and deeper consideration of its ethical implications.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of D- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 323
ADVANCED WRITING AND ARGUMENTATION
See the Course Catalog for available sections.
While continuing the concerns of WR 121Z, 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)
WR 324
SHORT STORY WRITING
St. Germain, Justin
Section: 400
CRN: 35205
Ecampus
Study and writing of the short story.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 330
UNDERSTANDING GRAMMAR
Bushnell, J.T.
Section: 400
CRN: 34126
Ecampus
WR 330 is an advanced study of traditional grammatical structures and functions. We’ll study the sentence, its patterns, its required slots, its optional slots, its alternative structures, its modification, its punctuation, and your own intuitive knowledge of these concepts. In the process, we’ll gain the vocabulary to discuss grammar and linguistics, explore various (and sometimes oppositional) theories about linguistic “correctness,” and develop an appreciation of language, form, and style.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- is required in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ or minimum score of 1 in ‘Exam for Waiver - WR 121Z.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 340
CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITING
Smith, Cleavon
Section: 1
CRN: 37247
Writing 340 is OSU’s intermediate creative writing course in creative nonfiction: personal essays, memoirs, travel narratives, feature journalism and lyric essays. Students who have taken a 200-level creative writing course are welcome to enroll. Students will generate several very short pieces of creative nonfiction–”flash essays”--workshopping a select number as a class. Along the way, students will also read and discuss recently published essays to understand the wide variety of creative nonfiction expressions.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 240.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 341
POETRY WRITING
Cutter, Lila
Section: 2/401
CRN: 31617/38519
Uses skills learned in WR 241 to practice writing, critiquing, and close-reading poems. Practices the stages of writing—from generative brainstorming to composing solid drafts to polishing accomplished work—through in- and out-of-class exercises; employs revision strategies at every stage. Examines students’ poems in depth in a rigorous, supportive workshop. Encourages useful, insightful written and oral feedback. Studies a variety of contemporary poets as models and inspiration.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 241.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 362
SCIENCE WRITING
See the Course Catalog for available sections.
Scientists and other experts understand their field, but they don’t always know how to communicate that understanding to the general public. WR 362: Science Writing teaches you strategies for identifying your audience so you can write to their interests and needs. You’ll practice research, drafting, and revision skills to hone your ability to write clear documents for audiences who want learn about science and how it affects them.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z and WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing II (CSW2)
WR 383
FOOD WRITING
Griffin, Kristin
Section: 400
CRN: 35676
Ecampus
From the recipe to the memoir essay, the investigative feature to the food crawl, this online course will expose you to the booming world of food writing. We’ll discuss the classics in American food writing and read deeply in what’s current, from personal blogs like Smitten Kitchen to online magazines like Serious Eats to print magazines like Saveur. Once you have a sense of the genre and its possibilities, each student will become writer, editor, and designer of a new issue of Buckteeth Magazine, an online food magazine associated with the class and produced collaboratively over the course of the term. You’ll assign yourself a food-focused story, learn effective strategies for pitching it, and hone your revision skills, earning yourself a spot on the masthead and a publication for your resume.
See course catalog for registration restrictions.
WR 390
HABITS OF CREATIVE PRACTICE
Braun, Clare
Section: 400
CRN: 38522
Ecampus
So you’re making a thing (thesis/essay/story/poem/song/painting/sketch/wooden spoon/chair/canoe/music/etc.). You sit down to work. Now what, exactly, is supposed to happen? How do you make inspiration strike? When it does, how do you turn the idea into the thing? We’ll experiment with components and conditions of active creative work (boredom, writing implements, journaling, fresh air, mindfulness, maybe a little light spellcasting, etc.,) to better understand and shape our habits of production. Whether or not you’re working on a large project, you’ll craft intentional creative practices to remove friction and make creative work more satisfying.
WR 406
LETTERPRESS PROJECTS
Holmberg, Karen
Section: 2
CRN: 34282
This 1 credit, 2-day course introduces students to the basic techniques of letterpress printing. During the intensive (providing 10 hours of instruction), students will learn:
•Basic history and terminology of moveable type and letterpress printing;
•Introductory design skills using typefaces, spacing, and ornaments;
•Hand type-setting;
•How to proof and correct;
•Operation of the proofing press and demonstration of the Chandler and Price hand press.
This course is required for students seeking supervised access to the Moreland Letterpress Studio during its open hours for the Winter term.
Departmental Approval Required
WR 414
ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING
St. Jacques, Jill
Section:1
CRN: 38984
TikTok, Vanity Fair, YouTube influencers and spam. All of these media denizens rely on one thing for survival: advertising. On the advertising side of the spectrum, it’s inconsequential whether their client is promoting fashion, soda pop or political activism—what matters is that their message effectively breaks through the clutter to reach you. By examining the ways in which content delivery interfaces with written rhetoric in advertising and public relations, students will learn to write for both fields. At first blush, these two fields might seem worlds apart, but advertising and public relations share a deeply intrinsic task: both fields deploy language to motivate target audiences to take a desired action. By necessity, professionals in advertising and public relations must be sufficiently adaptable to write in any media form that conveys their message most expediently. Through assembling (and critiquing) two multi-document portfolios – an advertising campaign and a press kit – WR414 participants will hone their skills at writing for advertising and public relations in an increasingly nuanced media marketplace.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of B in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
WR 420
WRITING WOMEN’S LIVES
Detar, Liddy
Section: 1
CRN: 35206
How do we transform our lives from lived experience into written texts of many different forms: from autobiography, memoir, poetry, fiction to personal essays and academic writing? While challenging the very category of “woman,” this course explores what moves us to write the stories of our lives or someone else’s and how questions of genre and form are related to the stores we need to tell – and the narratives we must resist, about ourselves and our communities. We will read and discuss many different kinds of memoirs together, and writings and other sorts of activities will include both creative and critical projects.
WR 424
ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
Bhanoo, Sindya
Section: 1
CRN: 38524
In this workshop we will read and write literary fiction. Using published stories as models, we’ll discuss methods of characterization, plotting, scene-setting, dialogue, and so on. Much of our work together will involve close reading and analysis of the texts in question. Our emphasis will be on writing more complicated and sophisticated stories with concision and economy.We are writers in this class, and we’ll be reading as writers. We will ask, over and over, three questions:
• what is the effect of a sentence, paragraph, word, or image?
• what techniques produce these effects?
• of these techniques, which might we borrow, steal, or avoid?
Our first question will always be: What can we use here? Ideally, you’ll discover new ways to do things you’re already doing – while also discovering how your stories can be more ambitious. Through close reading we’ll try to determine how certain mysterious effects are produced – why you feel joy or sorrow, why you feel excitement or boredom, why you see pink or white when those colors aren’t mentioned explicitly. We’ll be spending our days with our noses in these pages, so you must underline and write in the margins as you read. Often we’ll spend several minutes on a single sentence. Don’t be afraid to “fondle details,” as Nabokov instructs – to wonder why a dress is a certain color, or why a window is open, or why a character mentions bread instead of wine. At the same time we’ll be careful to remind ourselves that writing is an art, and that not every act of writing is a conscious act. Too much conscious attention to tiny matters of craft can be paralyzing – and we’ll talk about ways to avoid this kind of unhappy ending.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 324.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 441
ADVANCED POETRY WRITING
Richter, Jen
Section: 1
CRN: 38544
Builds on writing, workshopping, critiquing, and close-reading skills practiced in WR 241 and 341. Focuses on all stages of writing with an emphasis on revision. Offers a wide variety of poets as models and inspiration. Encourages the development of one’s own poetic voice in the context of the larger poetic tradition.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of D- in WR 324.
Liberal Arts Fine Arts Core (LACF)
WR 462
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
Larison, John
Section: 400
CRN: 35677
Ecampus
This course explores how environmental content is communicated and why this communication matters. We’ll analyze the discourse of environmental topics from multiple perspectives, genres, and styles, including nature writing, science journalism, and contemporary feature essays, while also composing quality environmental writing of our own. From early conservationism to deep ecology, climate science to indigenous rhetorics, this class will journey through a forest of diverse voices.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121Z or WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 462
ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING
Jensen, Ian
Section: 401
CRN: 38170
Ecampus
Writing about environmental topics from multiple perspectives. Includes science journalism, research and writing on current scientific issues and controversies, and theories of rhetoric and environmentalism.
A minimum grade of C- is required in WR 121, WR 121H, WR 121Z and WR 121HZ.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 466
ADVANCED TECHNICAL WRITING
Pflugfelder, Ehren
Section: 400
CRN: 39606
Ecampus
Introduces students to the texts, contexts, and concepts important to the practice of professional communication in organizational contexts, addressing practical writing skills, rhetoric, and ethics. Course readings concern what professional technical writers do and what theories govern their actions, bridging the gap between real-world problems and research. Emphasizes on solving writing and communication problems with empirical research, usability testing, and information design.
Bacc Core, Skills – Writing Intensive Courses (CWIC)
WR 497
DIGITAL LITERACY AND CULTURE
Kelly, Kristy
Section: 1
CRN: 35593
Hybrid (both on-site meetings and online component)
From fanfic to 4Chan, from cute cats to QAnon: the internet is a chaotic, compelling, and often treacherous place. In an information environment that prioritizes instant gratification, hot takes, and clickbait, how do we build ethical online spaces that value community, conversation, and authentic connection? Through critical examination of artificial intelligence, interface design, and social media algorithms designed to capture and redirect our attention online, we’ll ask ourselves what it means to be literate in the digital age. Exploring everything from algorithmic bias and online radicalization to generative AI and misinformation, we’ll navigate the mayhem of internet culture with an eye toward social, racial, and economic justice.
Prerequisites: A minimum grade of C- in WR 121 or WR 121H.