ENGLISH 321: Expository Writing-Writing in the Disciplines & Professions

English 321 is an advanced writing course, which means we’ll focus on extending your flexibility and preparation to address a range of writing situations that will arise for you across your majors, in future professions, and in various roles you take on in everyday life. We’ll be focusing on writing in your major and/or writing in your anticipated professions.

That means that your interests, questions, and professional goals will guide what you choose to research and write about in this course. In other words, you’ll have a lot of say in what you’ll write, and this course is designed to be practically useful to you.

To that end, our classroom will run as a workshop: you’ll write a lot, offer thoughtful feedback on peers’ writing, dialogue with me about your work, revise substantively, and work to develop an awareness of writing in your discipline and profession—and of your strengths and areas for improvement as a writer. I look forward to working together over the next few months.

Learning Outcomes

• Prewrite, compose, revise, respond, edit, attend to language and style, and write with audience and purpose in mind;
• Engage in critical reading and interpretation of important texts;
• Be able to summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply what you study—both orally and in writing;
• Use writing as a means of understanding, organizing, and communicating what you learn;
• Frame complex research questions or problems;
• Produce a coherent, well-supported argument that shows critical thinking and careful consideration of alternative viewpoints;
• Recognize, evaluate, and use a variety of information sources: field research (observation and interviewing), popular and specialized periodicals, professional journals, books, and electronic resources;
• Conduct research that shows evidence of the ability to synthesize, use fairly, and credit the ideas of others using the appropriate citation style;
• Write coherently, drawing from diverse sources, assimilating information and ideas and producing work that represents your position on the material.
• Identify differences in writing genres dependent on discipline and profession—and move between various genres.