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.