Writing Studies alum Joanne Christopher will join three other speakers to talk about careers in Health Communications. November 10 at 5:30 p.m. Join us!
Author: Heather Foster
Writing Studies Spring 2022 Course Offerings
ENG 678: Magazine Writing/Publishing: Case History
Professor Gina Tomaine
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm
CRN: 10525
(Area III)
This course is designed for students interested in writing and journalism, and, in particular, in learning more about both regional and national magazine writing. There will be a heavy emphasis on writing, reporting, and interviewing—and on how to get stories published. We will explore the present-day and past world of magazines, including editorial policy, openness to freelance submissions, and how the magazine business works from a writer’s perspective. The goal is to give you a strong foundation in magazine writing and publishing for both digital and print publications.
ENG 619: Young Adult Literature and Coming of Age Narratives
Dr. April Lindner
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm
CRN: 10524
(Area I)
What is Young Adult fiction and why is everybody reading it? In this class, you will explore the professional concerns of the YA writer as you work on your own young adult novel. We will spend much of our in-class time workshopping each other’s writing, with the goal of revising chapters for our final portfolios. To further explore the possibilities of the YA novel, we will be reading books that take a range of approaches. You will also choose a YA book that takes a similar approach to your own project and present on it to the class. Finally, you’ll keep a journal in which you respond to your reading.
ENG 560: Rhetoric Then and Now
Dr. Owen Gilman
Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 pm
CRN: 10523
(Core Class)
This course will consider various histories and theories of rhetoric as a means of developing our own capacities to think and write with heightened rhetorical awareness. We will examine rhetorical theories from ancient Greece and Rome; analyze the rhetorical practices of a range of 19th century rhetors, speakers, and journalists; and explore 20th century postmodern criticism and contemporary feminist rhetorics. Ultimately, we will discover how various rhetorical theories, concepts, and frames of mind can enrich both our writing and our critical awareness.
All classes will take place online. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Owen Gilman at ogilman@sju.edu. Thanks.
Career Development Center Fall 2021 Events
Writing Studies Course Offerings – Fall 2021
We have a great lineup coming this fall!
ENG 646: Multimedia Writing
Professor Paula Levine
Mondays, 6:30-9:15 pm – online synchronous Zoom sessions
CRN: 41897
(Area II or III)
This course is an intensive writing workshop that focuses on writing for multiple media platforms, long-form writing, and building a writing portfolio. Students will be guided in exploring, discovering, and strengthening their voices and writing styles with the goal of enhancing and expanding their analytical and creative communication skills, and preparing them for real world jobs.
A writer’s work can be incredibly varied and provide a multitude of challenges and opportunities for creativity. Writers may draft a script for a storyboard developed by a graphic artist. They may also create the text for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram posts. They might write copy for a news broadcast, or their own blog.
The goal of this course is to introduce the many facets of multimedia writing while encouraging each student to find their own method, approach, and voice within the structures of each multimedia platform.
ENG 620: Special Topics in Literature: American Voices
Dr. Owen Gilman
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm – online synchronous Zoom sessions
CRN: 41896
(Area I)
From early American voices of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to strong voices of today in Rita Dove and Joy Harjo, this course involves looking for and listening to writers who represent the American spirit of innovation and independence. Hemingway is not Faulkner; Richard Wright is not Toni Morrison. Yet they all reflect America deeply and provocatively. Besides reflecting on a diverse set of writers (poets, novelists, essayists), students will also workshop a piece of writing that presents their own distinctive voice.
ENG 550: Practice of Writing
Dr. Kay Cosgrove
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm – online synchronous Zoom sessions
CRN: 41895
(Core Class)
This course is designed as an Introduction to the Writing Studies Program, and it allows students to explore a variety of genres while they explore career options within the writing/publishing world. Students will literally “walk in the shoes” of different writers, playing the role of columnist, reporter, editor, poet, and fiction writer. At the end of the course, students will reflect on these different roles and begin brainstorming a possible thesis project in one area.
ENG 676: Writing for Publication
Professor Gina Tomaine
Thursdays, 6:30-9:15 pm – online synchronous Zoom sessions
CRN: 41898
(Area III)
Successful freelance publishing begins with an awareness of what editors and their readers want. It demands knowledge of the manuscript market and familiarity with the requirements of specific publications: subject, length, organization, style. Unpublished writers can perfect their skills by analysis and imitation of authors who already write for the publications in which learners wish to appear. The course requires that assignments be composed—from the beginning—for specific publications and that completed work will be submitted for publication. Content can be fiction, nonfiction, or journalism and varies with the instructor.
Writing Studies Summer 2021 Course Offerings
Summer I: ENG 621: Horror in Literature and Film (Area I)
Dr. Paul Patterson
Online and Asynchronous
CRN: 20024
From the horrors of Hell in Dante’s Inferno to the meta-narrative of Joss Whedon’s and Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods, this course explores the production, reception, aesthetics, politics, and evolution of the horror genre in both fiction and literature. In this course we will explore the shifts in the genre’s paradigm as landmark films and books are considered and contextualized. We will read the literary works and films against the historical, political, and industrial settings in which they were produced. The course will move in chronological order through the films, beginning with the classic films of the 1930s and 40s. We will next examine Cold War politics and how it influenced the genre, then the apathy of the Clinton ’90s as reflected in such films as I Know What you Did Last Summer and Scream. We will conclude by considering the trauma of lost bodies in both Dante’s Inferno and such post-9/11 films as Speilberg’s War of the Worlds, George Romero’s The Land of the Dead, and the 2006 remake of The Omen. The literary works of Dante, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Colson Whitehead, and the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Brian DePalma, David Cronenberg, Joss Whedon, and Mary Harron, among others, will be studied.
Summer II: ENG 640: Experiments in Narrative (Area II)
Dr. Kay Cosgrove
Tuesdays & Thursdays 6:00 – 8:00 pm (online meetings via Zoom)
CRN: 20233
In this course, students will carefully study specific approaches to craft and technique in creative writing, from long form narrative to minimalist poetry. Through detailed critical reading, analysis, and diagramming, students will explore the scaffolding that underpins creative writing, with special attention to form and genre. By analyzing the craft techniques used by other creative writers, students will learn to apply such approaches to form and technique effectively in their own work.