Writing Courses

English Writing Intensive Courses

The English Department offers more courses that satisfy the Intensive Writing 1 and Intensive Writing 2 Proficiencies than any other department on campus. Most students at PC take their Writing 1 course in the English Department, and a substantial number also take their Writing 2 courses here. Our writing courses — taught by both our Ordinary and Adjunct Faculty — are not primarily about grammar and mechanics; they are small-group seminars that use writing as a means of learning about a particular topic. Along the way, students develop skills in rhetoric and argumentation that they will apply to any discipline they choose to study. The courses for Fall 2025 are listed below.*

Writing 1 Courses

ENG 101-002 | TWF 830-920 | 1147 | Jenny Platz
ENG 101-003 | TWF 930-1020 | 1148 | Jenny Platz
Digital Identity
Every day we encounter digital texts such as social media, YouTube, video games, Netflix shows, and films. Often, interaction with digital texts is unavoidable, as we spend ever-increasing amounts of time on our phones, tablets, or computers. With constant contact with the narratives of digital texts, how are our identities shaped and conflated with the digital media that surrounds us? How do we represent ourselves through digital media? How do others narrate their selves through digital texts? What are the social, cultural, and political implications of creating an online, and therefore public, story of the self? This class seeks to answer these questions through rhetorical examination, and writing about identity and digital media.

ENG 101-004 | MWF 1130-1220 | 1149 | PC English Faculty
ENG 101-007 | MWF 130-220 | 1152 | PC English Faculty
Writing Seminar

ENG 101-005 | MWF 1130-1220 | 1150 | Christopher Yates
ENG 101-006 | MWF 1230-120 | 1151 | Christopher Yates
Living in Metaphor
Writing is an essential skill for success in college – but the specific conventions and expectations of academic writing are not always instinctive or obvious. And while we often think of academic writing as a solitary pursuit, writing is also a critically public act, which involves responding to the ideas of others, and sharing our own ideas with the public. In this course, we will examine writing samples across different genres and forms, paying attention both to the features that define strong writing across the disciplines, as well as the specific characteristics that define them. This course will help students to develop the skills, strategies, and practices necessary to ensure successful writing both in college, and professionally. We will examine a wide range of writing which engages with ongoing public conversations, from journalistic op-eds, satires, reviews, endorsements, essays, and short stories, sharpening our analytical tools, breaking down writing to its essential components and gaining the confidence to share our ideas with others. As a class, we will consider questions of organization, grammar, proof-reading, and research to better understand the composition of academic writing.
   In addition, this course has a secondary theme which will be highlighted in our reading and writing assignments: the impact of metaphorical language on political thought and social reality. Melting pots, witch hunts, grassroots, strawmen, lame ducks, mudslingers, landslide victories, figureheads: the deeply figurative vocabulary which we use to discuss politics is well- stocked with both “live” and “dead” metaphors which we too often simply assume rather than pay attention to. Our language for discussing social issues is particularly rife with martial metaphors, from the “war on drugs,” to “fighting poverty,” to the “battle against obesity.” This course will look at a range of texts, from scholarly research to short stories, that consider the ways in which these metaphors shape, enrich, and limit public conversation and thought, including major works by George Orwell and Susan Sontag.

ENG 101-008 | MWF 130-220 | 1153 | Noah Brooksher
ENG 101-009 | MWF 230-320 | 1154 | Noah Brooksher
Selfhood between Interiority and Action
What does it mean to have a self? The establishment of inner life as an autonomous and agential domain, distinct from, but nonetheless sovereign over, our outer actions and expressions, is one of the central accomplishments of modernity. Yet, despite its ubiquity and familiarity, this notion of interiority introduces a thicket of complex issues that continue to perplex philosophers and writers. What sort of actions and expressions can adequately articulate our individual interiors? How can one ever know the inner life of another? From where does this interiority originate? In this course, we will explore how thinkers and writers from across genres and time periods have engaged with these profound and fundamental issues of modern life. In the process, you will be introduced to a number of critical writing and reading strategies that will enable you to cultivate a distinctive voice and personal style, learn how to organize their claims clearly and effectively, and develop strong and original theses supported by research and analysis. Works to be considered include the philosophy of John Locke and Iris Murdoch, literature by Jane Austen and William Shakespeare, and the film I Saw the TV Glow.

ENG 101-010 | TWF 930-1020 | 1155 | Shawn Flanagan
ENG 101-011 | TWF 1030-1120 | 1156 | Shawn Flanagan
Kaleidoscope: Reading and Writing about Current Events Across Media Genres
The media content of this course (print and video) will address issues related to social justice and social impacts of technology on our lives. As we discuss the class content and issues it presents which complicate our own understanding, experience, and worldview, we will also explore the rhetorical situation of these materials and how form informs content. Additionally, we will also explore some critical/theoretical lenses that to offer grounds for a richer interpretation of student selected cultural productions. This work will feed into various interactive writing and media projects, which include short essays, presentations, and on-line forums. These initial observational, reflective, and theoretical writings in the first half of the semester will give way to assignments that focus on academic research as a process and culminate in a final research project that includes both a presentation and research paper.

ENG 101-012 | TR 100-215 | 1157 | Mark Pedretti
College
Before you ever came to PC, you had an idea about what college would be like; whether you mean to or not, you have received multiple representations of college that mediate your actual experience. Through movies, television, public conversations, and political debates, “college” is an object of discourse as a much as a site which produces it. We will look at a number of representations of col-lege from several of these domains, considering how they construct their purported object, and how that affects your experience. A guiding thread in our inquiry will be how the relation of college to economic structures, class, and modes of production regulates particular kinds of identity for-mation. Our primary object of analysis is the ultimately the language used to discuss college; as a result, we will be investigating the effects of these representations as much as the college experience itself.

ENG 101-013 | TR 230-345 | 1158 | Robert Stretter
Heroes
The theme of this writing seminar is “Heroes.” Everyone has heroes – but what do we mean by “hero”? To whom do we apply this term, and why? Heroism is a complex and sometimes controversial ideal that we will attempt to define in the coming months by examining how heroism is represented in art, literature, history, and popular culture. We will encounter war heroes, tragic heroes, unlikely heroes, reluctant heroes, and superheroes, asking ourselves what, if anything, they have in common that could unite them all under the title of “hero.” As we negotiate this complex and fascinating terrain, we will debate and write about such questions as “How do we – or should we – define heroism?”, “What constitutes courage?”, “What is worth defending?”, “What is the relationship of heroism to propaganda?”, and “What are the political functions of heroism?” A key goal of the course is to create an atmosphere where students can experiment with ideas, test them in open debate with their classmates and teacher, and express them clearly in writing.

ENG 101-014 | TWF 830-920 | 1159 | PC English Faculty
ENG 101-015 | TWF 1030-1120 | 1160 | PC English Faculty
Writing Seminar

ENG 101-016 | MWF 1130-1220 | 1161 | PC English Faculty
ENG 101-017 | MWF 1230-120 | 1162 | PC English Faculty
Writing Seminar

ENG101-018 | TR 230-345 | 1163 | Diane Beltran
Mis/Dis/Mal: Examining Information
We think we know the difference between misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories – but how do we know? And if we know, what can we do about it? This semester, we’ll look at what makes for these detrimental types of information disorder across print and digital environments; we’ll find that what we think is propaganda isn’t always negative, and perhaps some conspiracy theories might have a gram of truth. We’ll research and respond to claims of information, and work toward creating a digital library of writing that counters the Mis/Dis/Mal (MDM) that circulates in our current digitally mediated environments. We’ll end the semester by craeting videos that can be circulated in a public realm to counter information disorder.

ENG175-001 | MR 1000-1115 | 1166 | Stephen Lynch
Introduction to Literature
I am hoping to achieve a balance of breadth and depth by covering 6 authors, each for about 2-3 weeks. We will read short stories by Ray-mond Carver and Flanner O’Connor, poetry by Emily Dickenson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and plays by Shakespeare and August Wilson. Students will write at least one short informal paper each week, plus three longer more formal essays.

ENG175-002 | MR 1000-1115 | 1167 | Raphael Shargel
ENG175-004 | MR 230-345 | 1169 | Raphael Shargel
Reading, Writing, and the Self
What’s the relationship between what you read and who you are? Does what you write reflect what makes you you? In this section, we’ll read, discuss, and write about texts that inspire us to think about identity: who we are, what we are, and why that matters.

ENG175-003 | MR 1000-1115 | 1168 | Russell Hillier
ENG175-005 | MR 230-345 | 1170 | Russell Hillier
Introduction to Literature
Catalog Description: An investigation of the three main literary genres-poetry, fiction, and drama-with an emphasis on writing. Students completing this course should be able to read with engagement and discernment, discuss literature critically, and write analytically and with an awareness of scholarly conversations. Required for English majors.

ENG175-006 | TWF 1030-1120 | 1171 | William Hogan
Introduction to Literature
In this section of ENG 175, a recurring theme in the fiction, poetry, and drama we read and write about will be myth, fairy tale, and the human impulse to make sense of the world through storytelling. The works we will read include Euripides’ Medea, Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun. Throughout the semester, we will emphasize writing as a process and a practice, from low-stakes free writing, to drafting and revising, to engaging with the scholarly conversation — all with the goal of producing polished academic prose.

ENG175-007 | TR 1130-1245 | 1172 | E.C. Osondu
Insiders, Outsiders, and Otherness
This course will explore questions related to the notions of being “outside” — racially, politically, sexually, etc. Readings will include a novel about modern India, a novel set in pre-colonial Nigeria, two short plays by Lynn Nottage and Terence McNally, and tons of short stories ranging from Hawthorne and Hemingway to Carver, Chekhov, Osondu, and O’Connor.

ENG175-008 | MWF 130-220 | 1173 | Emily Pittinos
ENG175-012 | MWF 230-320 | 1178 | Emily Pittinos
Queer as Folk: LGBTQ+ Literature
In this introduction to literature class, we will hone the skills necessary to enjoy and engage with contemporary poetry, nonfiction, plays, and fiction by reading the works of queer writers. In so doing, we will explore the breadth of human experience—its beauties, tensions, losses, loves—and the stuff of life that unites us all. Our LGBTQ+ readings will include works by Carmen Maria Machado, Tony Kushner, Maggie Millner, Ocean Vuong, Paul Tran, Carl Phillips, Eduardo C. Corral, and many others. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to read with engagement and discernment, discuss literature critically, and write analytically and with an awareness of scholarly conversations.

ENG175-009 | TR 100-215 | 1174 | Tuire Valkeakari
ENG175-010 | TR 230-345 | 1176 | Tuire Valkeakari
Introduction to Literature
Philosopher Plato had little patience with what some ancients and not-so-ancients have called “the lies of the poets.” Why study such “lies,” literary texts, in an academic environment? Let’s find out. We will explore fiction, drama, and poetry, with a particular interest in what these genres are made of and how they work. We will mostly read American authors (e.g. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Julie Otsuka, and Toni Morrison), but two contemporary transnational novelists—Michael Ondaatje and Kazuo Ishiguro—are also included. Students completing this course should be able to read with engagement and discernment, discuss literature critically, and write analytically and with an awareness of scholarly conversations.

ENG175-011 | TR 100-215 | 1177 | Chun Ye
Introduction to Literature
This class introduces the major genres of literary expression: poetry, fiction, drama, and creative nonfiction. The literary texts we read for the class center upon issues of race, gender, sexuality, war, and migration and are written by a diversity of contemporary writers, including Joy Harjo, Ocean Vuong, Julie Otsuka, Ilya Kaminsky, David Henry Hwang, and Mira Jacob. Students completing this course should be able to read with engagement and discernment, discuss literature critically, and write analytically and with an awareness of scholarly conversations.

Writing 2 Courses

ENG220-001 | T 230-500 | 1182 | Russell Hillier
Survey of Russian Literature

ENG231-001 | MWF 130-220 | 1183 | Jordan Zajac
Survey of British Literature I
When you want to get to know someone, you ask about their origins—where they came from and how they became who they are. British literature is definitely worth getting to know. This course, therefore, explores its beginnings and development through the eighteenth century. We’ll enjoy a survey (think: five-star deluxe buffet) of poems, plays, and prose texts from the early eras of British literature. This course will supply English majors with the background and familiarity needed to thrive in upper-level British literature courses and give non-majors a unique opportunity to fall more deeply in love with literature and literary studies.

ENG301-001 | MWF 1130-1220 | 1185 | Michael Burdon
ENG301-004 | MWF 230-320 | 1188 | Michael Burdon
Journals
Published journals, diaries, and notebooks provide us with unique portraits of private individuals within the public sphere. This class will focus on the intersections of our private and public selves as we explore the observations, reflections, and anxieties within the journals of writers such as Aldo Leopold and Joan Didion. Do these texts hold “meaning only for [their] maker,” as Didion purports, or do works of ostensibly private signification reveal something otherwise missing from public discourse? Along the way, we will be keeping our own journals as a means of practicing the rhetorical and creative strategies employed in the works that we analyze, writing with an eye on both ourselves and the world around us.

ENG301-002 | MWF 1230-120 | 1186 | Shawn Flanagan
ENG301-003 | MWF 130-220 | 1187 | Shawn Flanagan
Writing the Event: From Reportage to Report
What do a college student, a scientist, and anthropologist have in common? How about a journalist, a social worker, a manager, a marketer? Chances are they have all created reports. To that point, this class will focus on the genre of the report, some of its variations and remixes. Along the way, we will complete a number of short assignments geared to develop our rhetorical reading skills and composition practices informed by an awareness of rhetorical situation and other textual elements. Additionally, these activities (readings, writings, and discussions) will culminate in a well-researched event report on a topic of the student’s choosing and presentation of it in another medium.

ENG301-005 | TR 100-215 | 1189 | PC English Faculty
Writing Genres

ENG370-001 | TR 400-515 | 1192 | Tuire Valkeakari
Global and Postcolonial Literature
In this course, we examine literary authors’ depictions of how empires and nations shape history and global and local identity formation. We will mainly read late-twentieth-century Anglophone novels that focus on empire, colonialism, decolonization, postcoloniality, and national or transnational identities. We will discuss literary renderings of such topics as conflict and peace, movement and migration, individuality and community, and the pursuit of existential meaning and human connection in the midst of global change and turmoil. This is a reading-intensive and writing-intensive course, and classroom discussions will be an essential aspect of the learning process. The reward: after you have successfully completed this course, the world may no longer look quite the same as before.

ENG440-001 | T 400-630 | 1197 | John Scanlan
Studies in Literature: The 18th Century Novel
This course will concentrate on two subjects. The first will be the high-spirited, erotic, comic-satiric world of the eighteenth- century British novel, with a particular emphasis on the subject of London. We’ll read a range of novels written during the century. We’ll read Defoe’s tale of a woman’s struggles with the law, Moll Flanders; Tobias Smollett’s raucous travel narrative, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker; John Cleland’s bawdy fiction on London prostitution and social class, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure; Henry Fielding’s fact-based narrative about a legendary criminal, Jonathan Wild; and Frances Burney’s novel about relationships and social conventions, Evelina.
   The second focus of our attention will be the writing of substantial scholarly essays. The immediate hope is that the work you do in this course will help you improve your work in other classes. More broadly, this class aspires to prepare you for significant writing of any kind, both during your undergraduate years and afterwards.

ENG441-001 | TWF 930-1020 | 1199 | Alex Moffett
Modern Utopian and Dystopian Literature
In this class, we will be closely reading utopian and dystopian fiction of the last one hundred fifty years. In doing so, we will be keeping a sharp eye on the historical context of each of these texts and thinking about the various social and political movements that inform them, including feminism, Christianity, communism, capitalism, and fascism. More generally, we will be considering the conflict between the autonomy of individuals and the control that the modern state exercises over them. The class will study not only works of literature, but also movies, television, and works in other media. Some of the works we will encounter include 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale, Parable of the Sower, The Time Machine, and Black Mirror.

* Schedule and instructors subject to change.