ENGL 151-09, First Year Writing Seminar: Culture Wars, Spring 2007

Abstract

True to its title, the primary aim of this course is to improve student writing. More broadly, however, our goals also stress a greater understanding of different kinds of rhetoric, including both successful and unsuccessful strategies and examples. We'll explore how to organize arguments, how to find and evaluate evidence, and how to use research to persuade. Toward this end, our particular section will be reading a number of texts that all deal with the theme "culture wars." This includes a variety of contemporary debates, from gay marriage to capital punishment, from Wal-Mart to reality television. We'll work our way through three major units: "Bodies and Body Politics," "Images and Realities" and "Commodities and Consumption." In this way, I hope our time together becomes more than a "writing seminar," including lively and provocative discussion of some of our age's most pressing issues. Welcome to English 151.