This course introduces students to the foundational concepts and skills needed to communicate effectively in writing for academic study and professional development. Students will learn how to use the four stages of the writing process - prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing - to create written communication that meets its intended purpose for its intended audience. Students will also be introduced to rhetorical styles and the role of outside sources in academic writing. Constructing and implementing effectively-designed search strategies for information to answer a critical inquiry or research question are also addressed in this course.

This writing and reading intensive course is foremost intended to increase students' exposure to and appreciation of literature in its many forms. Students will therefore read and discuss the primary genres of poetry, the short story, drama, and the novel. The second goal of the course is to hone students' abilities to read, write, and think critically about the ways in which human experience itself is shaped by language in literary texts. Through the development of literary analysis skills and the practice of writing about literature, students will learn to communicate meaningfully about literature as an art form with aesthetic, social, cultural, and political significance.

Grounded within the context of media studies, this course engages students in a critical and analytical exploration of the media and its influences on American culture and society. The course examines the various ways that the media functions as both a lens for interpreting culture and a tool through which culture is shaped. Through critical engagement with various forms of media, students explore the roles of film, visual art, television, music, mass media, and web- based media in shaping their understanding of literature, writing, and culture.

The goal of this course is for students to develop their own capacity for creative expression by writing in fiction, poetry, and other genres using the major craft forms and elements of the genre. They will also generate strategies for reading and interpreting contemporary published writing in the same genres. A workshop format will be used for students to learn how discussing works in progress with other writers can advance their own creative expression and support the creative expression of others. The workshop format will also introduce students to the unique challenges posed by the revision process in reworking an original creative work for an external audience.