- Winter 2018
Syllabus Description:
Holmes_Syllabus_Engl121E_Winter2018.pdf
English 121: In this writing course students work closely with their peers and instructor
to develop a portfolio that reflects an ability to write papers with complex claims that
matter in academic and non-academic contexts. The course focuses on a particular
social issue, the study of which is enhanced by direct service activities in the Seattle
community. Students combine readings, course work, and direct service to write well-
documented, evidence-based argumentative papers.
Section G: This section of Composition will focus on the relationship between language
and food. Students will read, write and discuss topics centered around direct service
learning experiences performed alongside the course. Students will examine food-based
rhetoric and participate in conversations about food and the contexts (or
“environments”) in which they take place—both at the service locations, in students’
day-to-day lives, and in the global community at large. The primary goal is for students
to be able to engage in and reflect upon the topic of food through their writing and to
do so in a variety of genres for a variety of audiences. In order to achieve this, we will
spend as much time analyzing language and rhetorical decisions surrounding each
issue as the issue itself. The current political and cultural climate combined with course
readings will provide students with ample material to place in dialogue with their
service learning experiences. Students will be expected to make connections between
those service experiences and broader contexts—local, national, global, public, private,
scholarly, rhetorical, etc. Students will learn to consider the issues at hand from an array
of perspectives, to engage in productive dialogue, and ultimately to craft persuasive
arguments on specific food-related issues.
Disclaimer: This class is not an easy A. The readings are challenging, the pace of the class is rigorous, and writing (like service) is hard!