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Sample English 381 Courses

(Spring 2018) ENGL 381 A - Podcasting: Storytelling in Audio 

Course Description:

This course will acquaint students with all aspects of podcasting in order to help them become dynamic storytellers and develop a more expansive understanding of writing in the digital age. It will enable students to think critically about the stories they consume and will give them a working knowledge of current trends in audio production and narrative techniques. Alongside learning how to consume podcasts rhetorically and critically, students will practice the art of brainstorming feasible and compelling story ideas, conducting background research, sound gathering, interviewing, script writing, audio editing with Audacity, and developing a narrative voice. Over the course of 10-weeks, each student will create one feature-length podcast on a subject of their choice.  In order to generate ideas and help students make sophisticated rhetorical choices, we will listen rhetorically to a wide variety of podcasts and speak with several different podcast makers and journalists about their process. This class will also function much like the collaborative atmosphere of a newsroom, where students will share their expertise, pitch and workshop their stories together, and work as assistants on each other’s projects. Students will also be asked to work together to devise the rubric with which their podcasts will be assessed.

English 381 is an advanced writing course open to all majors that would be ideal for students considering careers in any number of disciplines, including Business, Engineering, Law, the Sciences, or the Humanities or pursuing advanced academic work in English, Communication, or related fields. The course satisfies the "C" or "W" requirement at UW and has no pre-recs, so you can register now.

(Spring 2018) ENGL 381 B - Composing Borders: Art and Boundary-Making Practices in Everyday Life

Course Description:

This a composition course that is designed to explore one of the most basic aesthetic and conceptual operations in poetry, prose, painting, photography, sculpture, visual texts, and perhaps thinking in general: drawing the line. From the ways poets measure their line, artists produce preliminary sketches, and experimental filmmakers challenge narrative conventions to the way lines, grids, and shapes structure ordinary space-time encounters, we will consider various line-making and boundaries practices in everyday life. We will pay close attention to the way texts and art objects are made in order to evaluate (and even experiment with) the role of border/boundary drawing in writing. The breadth of material in the course is meant to give students the opportunity to work on writing projects—both analytical and creative—that are meaningful and important to them. In the process, we will reckon with a series of central questions together, including: How are identity, memory, and sensual experience affected by lines, borders, and boundaries? How might an artful drawing of a line help us reimagine our place in the world? How do new digital composition technologies affect aesthetic encounters? Are there fundamental conceptual or practical similarities between drawing lines in the arts and in writing?

English 381 is an advanced writing course open to all majors that would be ideal for students considering careers in any number of disciplines, including Business, Engineering, Law, the Sciences, or the Humanities or pursuing advanced academic work in English, Communication, or related fields. The course satisfies the "C" or "W" requirement at UW and has no pre-recs, so you can register now.

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