ENGL 281, the second class in the UW’s expository writing stream, is meant to help you sharpen the skills you acquired in your freshman writing course: academic writing and critical reading. My goals for the class are as follows: to develop your awareness of the goals and assumptions of particular writing styles (what we will call genres); and to recognize that particular writing situations require specific persuasive moves. That is to say, writers need to become familiar with the codes that govern writing in their area of the university, their discipline. You need to know about disciplinarity because, as a student who writes, you must be able to adapt your writing style, not only to the surface forms, but also to the codes, beliefs, and meanings that make up your discipline.

To find our bearings in our exploration of the notion of writing genres, we will investigate how various types of writing differentially construe peoples and objects in the Northwest. While most of the styles of writing that we will look at are found other places as well as just in the Northwest, our limiting of the scope of our exploration to texts about peoples and objects in the Northwest will provide us with a shared point of reference for entering the notion of genre, a very abstract and fluid concept. While we will read some creative works, most of the texts we will read will be of the non-fiction variety. The texts we will read will include the following: native narratives, anthropological tracts, scholarly work in the social and physical sciences,
journalism, and a novel. The ultimate goal of the course is to get you writing, and you will be doing plenty of it. Expect to write three short papers of approximately three pages and two longer six-page papers.

This section English 281 is computer-integrated, with students moving between a wired of seminar room and a computer lab during most class meetings. The lab setting allows students to view and offer feedback on their peers' writing, collaborate on group activities, and conduct research. However, computer savvy is not a course prerequisite; students will receive instruction in all technical tools used in the classroom.

Readings:
Course Packet.
Jack Hodgins. The Invention of the World
David Guterson. Snow Falling on Cedars (Popular Fiction)

Prerequisites:

While 281 has no formal prerequisite, this is an intermediate writing course, and instructors expect entering students to know how to formulate claims, integrate evidence, demonstrate awareness of audience, and structure coherent sentences, paragraphs and essays. Thus we strongly encourage students to complete an introductory (100 level) writing course before enrolling in English 281.