Pamela Ralston
The Power of Composition
Course description:
This course is designed as an introductory level expository writing class, where the emphasis is on student writing. Because the only way to improve as a writer is to write extensively, students will do a great deal of writing in this course. There are several goals for this course: enjoying writing, improving academic writing by learning a variety of composition methods, learning to analyze others’ writing in order to better understand the rhetoric of that writing and to appropriate some of its techniques. We will be exploring the various ways writers have used rhetoric to work to create social change. This course emphasizes the power of writing as a tool for social transformation. Course readings: We will be studying a variety of expository prose pieces working to analyze how writers find effective means to persuade readers. In addition, we will also be reading some creative pieces including short dramatic dialogues and some poetry.