For classes in Creative Writing see additional listings under English.
Writing
Note: the courses on this page reflect Summer Term 2008 offerings.
Please check back on December 15 for a list of courses available during Summer Term 2009.
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program
The purpose of the CAS Writing Program is to help students read challenging works
with critical discernment, to write with a refined sense of style, and to speak
with appropriate eloquence. Although the topics of the seminars differ, all
seminars are designed to foster lively discussions about works of literature
that serve as models for effective writing. Every writing seminar teaches grammatical
correctness and stylistic versatility. All seminars lead students through a
common assignment sequence that stresses the process of revision. Students
enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences are required to complete two courses
of formal instruction in writing, reading, research, and speaking. The two-course
sequence CAS WR 100 and WR 150 is the usual means of satisfying this requirement.
WR 097 (not offered in summer) and WR 098 are reserved for ESL (English as
a Second Language) students whose score on the BU Writing Assessment (BUWA)
indicates a need for preparatory work prior to enrolling in WR 100-150. The
BUWA will be administered in each of the following courses on the first day
of class to ensure that students have registered at the appropriate level.
Tutorial assistance is available to students enrolled in summer composition
courses. To make an appointment with a tutor, please call the Writing Center
(730 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 301) at 617-358-1500.
CAS WR 098 Introduction to College Reading and Writing in English
(English as a Second Language only)
Intended for students whose first language is not English. Emphasis
on analytical and persuasive writing. Intensive study of prose mechanics and
essay structure. Grammar and punctuation: patterns for composing sentences
and paragraphs; proper citation of sources in support of a thesis. Extensive
reading, including one long reading and works that exemplify a variety of styles.
Individual conferences. 4 cr.
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CAS WR 100 Writing Seminar
Imaginative engagement through reading and writing with a theme or
topic in literature, thought, and society. Emphasis on assimilation of challenging
readings into essays that are clear, accurate, persuasive, and engaging. Practice
in classroom discussion of ideas and refinement of speaking skills. Special
attention to comparison and synthesis. Individual conferences. 4 cr.
WR 100 Seminar theme: The American Short Story: Tradition and Evolution
This seminar explores the evolution of the American short story from its
early forms to contemporary experiments. Our concern is to understand
both the formal qualities of the short story (plot, setting, characterization,
point of view) and the range of themes that have found expression
in this brief but potent prose genre. We consider short stories as individual
entities and as works grouped together into collections. The course
also includes a comparison of American short stories with British and European
models.
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WR 100 Seminar theme: Harlem Renaissance
This seminar explores the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a movement that encompassed many arts;
thus, we study fiction, poetry, drama, visual art, and music. In addition,
we read criticism by and about writers of the Harlem Renaissance in order
to gain an understanding of their literary experiments and the political and
social context of the 1920s. Readings include McKay’s Home to
Harlem,
Fauset’s Plum Bun, Larson’s Passing, and Johnson’s The
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.
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WR 100 Seminar theme: Sympathy for the Devil
The concept of a Prince of Darkness or Evil anti-God has proved fruitful in
literature, from simple folk-lore to sophisticated epic poetry. And literature
has influenced and altered the theological view of the devil. Milton made
the serpent of Genesis into a kingly and in some respects heroic Satan; Goethe
took the simple tempter Mephistopheles and added the character of a slightly
underbred clever cynic. Devil characters have proved invaluable for examining
and exposing aspects of human conduct. The Faust legend has lent itself to
Christian moralizing, romantic deism, and satire on the inadequacy of human
dreams. C.S.Lewis found the devil a splendid instrument for examining the
ethical pitfalls awaiting modern Christians, while Mikhail Bulgakov used
a team of comic devils to carry out his wish-fulfilment and inflict ferociously
hair-raising punishment on Stalinist timeservers, counterpointing this against
the tragedy of Pontius Pilate as a bureaucrat without the courage to follow
his conscience in defiance of a corrupt regime. Selected readings include
two poems by Burns, parts of Paradise
Lost and Goethe’s Faust, Marlowe’s Dr Faustus,
Max Beerbohm’s
Enoch Soames, Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, and
Bulgakov’s The
Master and Margarita.
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WR 100 Seminar theme: The American
Short Story
This seminar explores the evolution of the American short story from its early
forms to contemporary experiments. Our concern is to understand both the
formal qualities of the short story (plot, setting, characterization, point
of view) and the range of themes that have found expression in this brief but
potent prose genre. We consider short stories as individual entities and
as works grouped together into collections. The seminar compares American
short stories with British and European models. Readings are selected from
the stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Irving, Herman
Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, Kate Chopin, O. Henry, Willa Cather, Jack
London, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, John Edgar Wideman, Eudora
Welty, John Gardner, John Updike, and William Gass, among others.
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CAS WR 150 Writing and Research Seminar
Imaginative engagement through reading and writing with a theme or
topic in literature, thought, and society. Emphasis on research techniques,
including the location, evaluation, and synthesis of secondary sources. Special
attention to the role of evidence in persuasive writing. Assignments include
oral presentations and two research papers. 4 cr.
WR 150 Seminar theme: Stranger Than Fiction: Autobiography
in the 20th Century
In this course, we read provocative examples of twentieth-century American
autobiographical writing. Building on reading and writing skills taught in
WR100, we explore the strategies and devices that a few interesting
writers have used to narrate their lives. Secondary sources help us
to better understand what the resulting autobiographical texts reveal and
obscure about the writers, their experiences, and the times in which they
lived. These texts offer an opportunity for us to enter into scholarly
debates about identity, representation, and the nature of autobiography itself.
Readings include Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Sylvia Plath’s
The Bell Jar, and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: Literary Journalism in America
This seminar studies texts that complicate the distinctions between literature
and journalism. Some of the issues we explore include: formal distinctions
between fiction and journalism; differing audience concerns and their textual
implications; competing claims to authority; and evolving historical constructions.
Moving chronologically from the 19th to the 21st century, the course
situates texts within larger contexts: journalistic and literary history,
social history, and literary criticism. Readings include the following: The
Confessions of Nat Turner, How the Other Half Lives by Jacob
Riis, various articles by Stephen Crane, excerpts from Let Us Now Praise
Famous Men by
James Agee, and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, among others.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: Innovation in Technology and Science: Historical
Perspectives
Hewlett-Packard started in a garage with spare electronics, and Bill
Gates dropped out of Harvard to write MS-DOS. Most innovations have less dramatic
beginnings and evolve from careful processes that can be analyzed and learned.
This seminar explores the art and mindset of innovation and seeks the essential
ideas underlying successful design and invention. We examine case studies
of successful (and not so successful) designs of consumer objects, disruptive
technologies, and scientific breakthroughs. Some readings address the mindset
needed to persevere and progress in innovative thinking. Readings are taken
from Daniel Boorstin’s The Republic of Technology, Henry Petroski’s The Evolution of Useful Things, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure
of Scientific
Revolutions, Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey’s Major Problems
in
the History of American Technology, John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity,
and David Edgerton’s The Shock of the Old.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: The Virtue of Rhetoric
The first teachers of writing based their instruction on the examples set by
effective speakers. The art of rhetoric transformed patterns of successful
oratory into guidelines for composition. During this seminar, we study
the history and practice of rhetoric in the Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance
periods in order to test the assertion that traditional pedagogy still
has much to offer students of composition today. Readings are selected
from among the following: Plato's Gorgias, selections from Quintilian, Shakespeare's
Henry V, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" and "Letter
from Birmingham Jail," and contemporary editorials and speeches. Course
readings provide an opportunity for frequent in-class recitations. We
conclude our investigation by applying rhetorical concepts and tools
to contemporary discourses.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: Modernist Literature and Society
Writers in America and Britain from the 1890’s to the 1950’s were
acutely aware of rapid change in their societies. We examine how their formally
innovative works of fiction, poetry, and drama reflect on European imperialism,
struggles for gender and racial equality, two world wars, and the challenges
and promises of Western modernity.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: American Political Eloquence
As the U.S. Presidential election nears, candidates’ speeches and debates
recall for us the historic words of earlier political leaders, such as Lincoln,
Roosevelt, and Kennedy. How has the eloquence of the past helped shape Americans’ understanding
of this nation and its ideals? For students interested in political campaign
and wartime rhetoric, this seminar examines speeches made during times of national
transition and crisis. Students read rhetorical theory and research speeches
within the context of major historical events, such as the Civil War, the Great
Depression, and the World Wars. Essay assignments allow students to explore
recurring and competing political visions of America from its founding to the
present. For a model of academic research, we read Garry Wills' Lincoln
at Gettysburg. Other readings include the Declaration of Independence, Abraham
Lincoln’s “House Divided” and “Gettysburg Address,” and
the war rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and George W. Bush.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: The Novel Now
For some, the interactive, instantly gratifying world of online entertainment
spells doom for the art of the novel. But there are signs that the contemporary
novel is not only surviving but thriving in the new millennium. The focus
of this class is on the particular kind of life—linguistic inventiveness,
passion, originality, and energy—that only powerful novels provide.
Readings include Aboulela's The Translator, Whitehead's Apex
Hides the Hurt, Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart, and McCarthy's The
Road.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: American Capitalism and the Democratic Imagination
Since the establishment of the American republic, the democratic commitment
to public virtue has conflicted with the individualist premises of economic
democracy. This seminar explores this tension through readings in literature,
political theory, social criticism, economic thought, and history that critically
examine the relationship between American capitalism and American democracy.
The class analyzes specific issues and themes pertaining to the formation
of America’s system of democratic capitalism and its attendant culture:
the American character as a product of an abundant economic system, the political
and economic construction of individualism, and the politics of mass culture.
Writing assignments and class discussions focus on the formal study of language
and teach expository writing and research technique. Readings include works
by Edward Bellamy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Betty Friedan, bell hooks, and others.
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WR 150 Seminar theme: American Homestead
The aim of this course is to spotlight the processes of writing and research
as we explore the American conception of the homestead in literature and
culture: What does it mean to be “at home” in a country with
a history of romancing frontier settlement? How do older views of the American
West persist in our culture and influence our ideas of home? How much does
land ownership affect personal and cultural identity? As we seek answers
to these questions we also focus on all stages of composition and research—coming
up with ideas, crafting theses, developing arguments, finding and working
with sources, and revising drafts—all of which should prove helpful to
you throughout your college career.
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College of Communication
College of Communication Writing Program
The College of Communication Writing Center, located in Room B27A at the College
of Communication, is available to Communication students who would like
help
with their writing. Writing fellows staff the Writing Center four hours
a day, Monday through Thursday. Students may sign up for an appointment online
at www.rich17.com/bu. Call 617-353-6632 for further information.
COM CO 201 Introduction to Communication Writing
Prereq: CAS WR 100 or permission of the instructor. The core writing course for communication students. Students review
grammatical and stylistic skills and apply those skills to professional writing
assignments: news stories, memoirs, proposals, film reviews, and profiles.
Weekly written assignments and writing workshops with an emphasis on revision.
Prepares
students to write with confidence in communication fields. 4 cr.
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Courses of Related Interest
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