So many interesting courses this term — how will you choose?

Expanded information about upcoming courses are offered by the professors who will teach them.

ENGLISH LITERATURE & WRITING

WR 105A
Introduction to Creative Writing: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Summer 2013
Jay Ponteri & Hayley Barker

More about this course from the instructors: The workshop focuses on developing a student's skills as a creative writer, visual artist, critical thinker and observer and a brave performer within a generous, diverse community of learners and writers. The program includes introductory and advanced workshops in prose and poetry and introductory workshops in visual arts (photography, graphic design, and mixed media)—all of which encourages students to combine visual elements and text in their work. Students closely study how and why other artists combine text and image—more specifically, how visual elements can enhance text and how text can be used as a visual element. Also we offer intensive instruction on broadside and chapbook production. Students attend public readings and shows.

WR 323A
Academic Writing: The Research Paper
Summer 2013
Beth Watzke & Kirk Howard

More about this course from the instructors: Students will meet with Beth Watzke for the writing part of the course. Using writing exercises and readings from The Curious Researcher, we will explore the writing process, choose a topic and formulate research questions, devise strategies for research, compose tentative thesis, draft, revise, and produce an academic research paper. We meet with Kirk Howard at Shoen Library for the research section of the course, which covers research methods and systems, locating and evaluating sources, citations, bibliographies, and prospectus writing. We return to the writing classroom, where we will take the writing through drafting and workshops to produce a final paper that will meet academic standards.

LIT 381A
Literature and Culture of the Romantic Period
Summer 2013
Bill Rivoire

More about this course from the instructor: The literature of the Romantic Period (1790-1830) is rich with revolutionary fervor, grandeur of spirit, sensuality of expression, and inherent human goodness. From the prophetic cosmology of Blake and the illusory world of Coleridge, to the tragic, ironic, cynical world of Byron, to the need for the "immediate sensation" of Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats, this period, though short, fully explodes with intensity. With the important contributions of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, this course offers an opportunity to view major shifts in society, industry and poetic style. This course will examine selected works of authors whose works have been selected in the context of the history, ideas, and culture of the period. While we will focus on the works of Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats, there will also be discussions of women writers of the period, particularly Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. The Romantic Period (after Blake) is noted for its "sincerity": that is, the closer you write about an experience the more real and powerful it is. This is certainly exhibited in the poetry of Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats. Lord Byron, on the other hand, is more ironic, even cynical in his writings, while Coleridge tends to the bizarre. But taken as a whole, this short (1789-1830) literary period is incredibly rich. The literature of this period can also be described as a return to nature and a denial of the neo-classicists. One of the overarching questions with which we will frame our discussions is WHY this shift and what is its effect on author and reader. We will examine this issue in some detail using individual works of each of the period's major authors.

WR 359A
Writing & Service: Documenting Lives in the City
Summer 2013
Laura Moulton

More about this course from the instructor: This summer, students will spend time at Street Books - a bicycle-powered mobile library for patrons who live outside in downtown Portland--days and times TBA. Students will also do a project that includes finding and documenting a story that might otherwise go untold. Service-learning courses combine academic curriculum with meaningful service in the community. In this class, we will focus on writing that documents a particular time, place and people, seeking out the stories that are often overlooked. Our class will be compressed into six weeks, meeting Wednesday nights during that time, and volunteering in downtown Portland for a few hours every Wednesday or Saturday. Our classroom exercises and discussions on campus will prepare us for our volunteer service downtown. Part seminar, part workshop, we'll examine several different craft elements of nonfiction, and generate lots of new writing. This is the first time the Literature & Writing Department has offered a service-learning class, so it is an exciting opportunity for students looking to expand their academic experience at the university.

WR 221
Introduction to Expository Writing and Critical Thinking
Summer 2013
Susan Denning

More about this course from the instructor: This is an introductory course in which students will be able to work through multiple drafts of several pieces of writing with time to separate the acts of writing and revising. In addition, students will be able to read, reread, reflect, respond to, interpret, analyze, and evaluate a variety of texts. Within broad themes, students will be able to use their interests, backgrounds, and thinking to develop essays that engage the writer and readers alike.

LIT 357A / CMS 325A
Literature in Translation, Latin-American Short Story
Summer 2013
Ivonne Saed

More about this course from the instructor: This course will expose students to seminal works from Latin American literature, introducing them to modern creative movements within the context of world fiction. Besides the well-known "Magical Realism," we will delve into other streams that are also present in the region, as well as into more contemporary works that are shaping its literary world today. Students will read several short stories and novellas by well-known Latin American authors of the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will write frequent annotations in response to the daily reading assignments, in addition to participating in class discussion led by the instructor. One well-structured essay at the end of the term will either: • Present an in-depth literary analysis of a specific work. • Explore a recurrent theme that surfaces in the works we read. • Explore several works by a particular author. • Make a comparative analysis between a literary work we read in class, and an object or movement from a different art discipline. Although all reading assignments are in English, Spanish-speaking students will be encouraged to read both the original and the translation. On certain occasions we will spend some time discussing the translation process. We will explore how these authors said what they did, in terms of their choice of words, symbol, metaphor, and intellectual sources.

WR 223E
Persuasive Writing & Argument
Summer 2013
Cara Hubbell

More about this course from the instructor: Argumentation: Style & Logic helps students learn to write logical and effective argument prose as well as helping them develop awareness of stylistic elements.

WR 323EA
Academic Writing: The Research Paper
Summer 2013
Tiffany Timperman & Canon Crawford

More about this course from the instructors: In this advanced course, students will meet online with Tiffany Timperman for the writing part of the course. We will read from The Curious Researcher and A Writer's Reference and use writing to explore and produce focus. Tiffany's lessons will cover the writing process, choosing and developing a topic, strategies for research, thesis, and prospectus, among others. Students will then meet with Canon Crawford for the research section of the course, where they will cover research methods and systems, locating and evaluating sources, citations, bibliographies, ethics. Students will then take the writing through drafting and workshops to produce a final paper that will meet academic standards. College writers are expected to produce academic research papers on a variety of subjects. This advanced class will help students fulfill the requirements for professional and academic writing. The course teaches essential skills in finding and managing information. Students will learn how to define and focus their information needs in a subject area, how to access and evaluate information, and how to transform information into the foundation for original academic writing. The course reviews and implements the writing process as it applies to the conventions for various academic disciplines. Thesis, organization, process, and documentation will be emphasized; issues such as writing across the disciplines and plagiarism will also be included.

WR 351A
Digital Storytelling: Narrating Lives in the Digital Age
Summer 2013
Perrin Kerns

More about this course from the instructor: This workshop is a studio experience that focuses on writing creative nonfiction and production of short digital stories. This workshop will assist participants in designing and producing three- to five-minute digital stories that join narrative, images, and music. Participants craft and record first-person narratives, collect still images, video, and music to deepen the narrative, and follow a process -- through peer response and instructor support -- to edit their stories. Students will receive information prior to the workshop to help them gather story ideas, still images, video, and music for constructing the story during the workshop. During the first weekend together we will produce ONE digital story. However, the class requires that you use your acquired skills to create another digital story outside of the class time. So you will create 2 digital stories by the end of the term. The first digital story will focus on a personal narrative (a short 300 word piece of creative nonfiction). The assignment for the second digital story is to think of it as a service film in some way (we will talk about this in class). Essentially I'll ask you to tell someone else's story, who doesn't have the ability to tell their own story. The course will include a formal and public screening of student work.

LIT 215E / CMS 215E
Science Fiction: Contemporary Trends
Summer 2013
John Caruso

Starting from odd little tales about medical miracles, intelligent machines, and little green Martians, science fiction rapidly evolved into a way for popular fiction to imagine, and in many cases predict, new inventions and technological advances. Through the years, science fiction has been divided into various subcategories, and has been legitimized and adopted by writers of "serious" literary fiction. But whatever other tropes it has examined, at core science fiction has always been a vehicle for exploring the interaction between technology and human experience. In this course we will explore a broad sampling of contemporary science fiction in an attempt to recognize current trends in the genre. In our efforts to define and understand what the role of science fiction might be in early twenty-first century society, we will also consider films, music and other media.