Writing Studies Spring 2023 Course Offerings

Here is the lineup!

 

 

 

 

ENG 620: Bestsellers and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace

Dr. Kersti Powell

Mondays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online

CRN: 10696

Area I

Bestsellers and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace will give you an opportunity to explore the most recent trends in contemporary British and Irish fiction. By focusing on marketing and the literary canon, this course will give you an opportunity to reconsider contemporary literature from a new and exciting perspective. Each novel on our reading list will facilitate a case study of a different marketing issue. Thus, we will read John Banville’s Booker-Prize-winning The Sea in order to study literary prizes and their effect on marketing and to highlight the crucial part that literary reviews can play in the “making of an author.” Arundhati Roy’s first novel will help us to investigate literary celebrity culture, race and gender; Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones (2016) to explore the rise of small publishing houses; and David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004) to illustrate how daily talk shows can promote a difficult text to the status of a bestseller. We will end the course with the most recent sensation from Ireland, Sally Rooney’s Normal People, which topped the bestseller list during the lockdown in spring 2020.


 

 

 

ENG 560: Rhetoric Then and Now

Dr. Melissa Goldthwaite

Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online

CRN: 10695

Core Class

How do writers use rhetoric? How do we balance attention to genre, purpose,
audience, context, and our own sense of style? In Rhetoric Then and Now, we will
consider these and other questions, exploring rhetoric’s classical origins and studying
the work of 20th and 21st century rhetorical theorists and writers in order to understand how rhetorical concerns shape our own writing practices, approaches to education, and ways of communicating. This course will be discussion-based and include a workshop component. In addition to short weekly assignments, students will conduct a semester-long project exploring the relevance of rhetorical theory to their own writing or area of interest.


 

 

 

 

 

ENG 670: Fiction Writing Workshop

Professor Tenaya Darlington

Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online

CRN: 10697

Area III

This class is designed to make you a better fiction writer – to teach you about the craft, to give you a space in which to explore your voice, and to push you beyond the familiar. There is also a workshop component, which will give you the chance to receive feedback from the group about your work. You’ll write hard, read widely, and learn stylistic devices that can be used in many areas of your writing. This is a portfolio-based class; you’ll write two major short stories and revise them for final submission at the end of the term.

All classes will take place online. If you have any questions, please contact Professor Tenaya Darlington at tdarling@sju.edu. Thanks.

Welcome Back Celebration & Avenue Release Party

Hello Writers!

Please join Writing Studies for our first in-person event in two years! We’d love to see you and share copies of The Avenue – the literary journal compiled by last year’s editors.


Sunday, September 11, 2022

4-6 p.m.

Merion Hall, 2nd floor Lobby


Come mingle, enjoy some light snacks, and an informal open mic (5 p.m.) featuring writers from our latest publication.

Best wishes,

Tenaya Darlington & Editor Nikki Palladino

Writing Studies Fall 2022 Course Offerings

Photo: Howard Dinin

 

 

 

 

 

ENG 642: Style
Dr. Melissa Goldthwaite
Mondays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online
CRN: 40542 (Area II)

In this course, we will consider the history of style from a rhetorical perspective and then move to the work of 20th and 21st century writers to explore the use of style in contemporary writing, including your own. A discussion-based seminar with a workshop component, this course depends on a high level of participation. In addition to reading, you will write a series of short papers and conduct a semester-long project exploring style.


 

 

 

 

ENG 550: The Practice of Writing
Professor Tenaya Darlington
Tuesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online
CRN: 40541 (Core)

This course is designed as an introduction to the Writing Studies Program, and it allows students to examine 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 680: Writing for Nonprofits
Staff
Wednesdays, 6:30-9:15 pm Online
CRN: 40543 (Area III)

Precise, exciting, accessible, and emotive writing is central to the success of any nonprofit organization. Writing is how these organizations explain their missions, make people care, and raise the money they need to keep the doors open and advance their causes. This course will teach you the basics of how to write for a nonprofit organization, and how to tailor your message and style to various audiences. Focusing primarily on grant writing, you will learn the basics of how to ask for money from organizations in writing and how to navigate the grant making process from the initial research to the submission of the final proposal. You will also practice writing other important pieces for any nonprofit, like appeal letters, blog posts, social media outreach, performance reports, and more. Through hands-on practice with real Philadelphia-area nonprofits, you’ll learn how to write for the different audiences a nonprofit organization needs to reach. By the end of the course, you will have learned about writing’s relationship to the nonprofit fundraising and donor outreach processes. You’ll also have completed a portfolio of professional pieces designed to positively impact local communities in need. While this course is geared towards the writing skills suited to nonprofit organizations, many of these skills are also transferrable to writing at other kinds of professional organizations.

All classes will take place online. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Owen Gilman at ogilman@sju.edu. Thanks.