ENGL 151- , Critical Thinking and Writing, Spring 2005

Abstract

The purpose of this course is to develop the skills needed to produce college-level writing. However, this course takes as a given that in order to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader, both of conventional texts (e.g. literature, history, philosophy) as well as the texts that surround us all the time and that we constantly “read” without even being aware that we’re doing so. We will read and discuss a series of essays by cultural critics who present arguments about the meanings of commodities (the stuff we buy that surrounds us) and advertising (the messages that bombard us). In your writing you will be engaging with these critics—agreeing, disagreeing, or modifying their arguments—and you will also be learning from them how to read and write about popular culture.