Three Winter Quarter Courses

We know that many of you have made your class selections for winter term, but Professors Kordecki and Sirles would like to call your attention to three special-topics courses that may serve your scholarly interests and professional goals. All three are being offered at the Lincoln Park Campus, and you can get brief descriptions of these classes by visiting the WQ course descriptions page.

On Thursdays Prof. Melinda Turnley is teaching ENG 409 "Computers and Composition." This class looks at some of the latest trends in writing and technology and should be of special interest to composition specialists, writing teachers, and individuals in technical areas of writing and communication. "Computers and Composition" fulfills a requirement in both the Professional & Technical Writing and the Writing Pedagogy & Theory major concentrations in the MAW. It may also be used as an elective for both the MAE and MAW programs.

On Wednesdays Prof. Christine Tardy is teaching ENG 409 "Genre Theory." In recent years compositionists and stylists have turned their scholarly attention not simply to different genres of writing (poetry, short stories, technical reports, academic style) but also to the role that genre plays in our understanding of the production of writing. "Genre Theory" fulfills a requirement in the Writing Pedagogy & Theory major concentration in the MAW, and it may also be used as an elective for both the MAE and MAW programs.

Finally, Prof. Jonathan Gross will be teaching ENG 475 "A Brief History of Private Life--Scrapbooks, Letters, Diaries" on Tuesday evenings. This course follows from Professor Gross's recently published Thomas Jefferson's Scrapbooks, which explored the private writings of America's third president, and students will read diaries and other nonpublic writings from a number of people, famous and not so well-known. For MAE students, this course is a good introduction to writings that typically lie at the edge of literary studies, and for MAW students pursuing the Literary Writing concentration, this course will dovetail well with classes they have already taken in literary nonfiction writing. This section of ENG 475 serves as an elective in both MA programs.

If you have questions about how any of these courses will fit into your own course of study, please contact Jan Flood or your program director.