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  • Course title
  • Professor
  • Description
  • Reviews
FP 0003 FP 0006 ENGCMP 0200 ENGCMP 0203 ENGCMP 0205

ENGCMP 0207 ENGCMP 0208 ENGCMP 0212 ENGCMP 0420

ENGCMP 0560 ENGCMP 1551 ENGCMP 1900 ENGCMP 1901

Prerequisites

ENGCMP 0200 Seminar in Composition

This introductory course offers students opportunities to improve as writers by developing their understanding of how they and others use writing to interpret and share experience, affect behavior, and position themselves in the world. Specific reading and writing assignments may vary from section to section, but student writing will be the primary focus in all sections. The course is designed to help students become more engaged, imaginative, and disciplined composers.

ENGCMP 0203 Seminar in Comp: Gender Studies

This introductory course offers students opportunities to improve as writers by developing their understanding of how they and others use writing to interpret and share experience, affect behavior, and position themselves in the world. Specific reading and writing assignments may vary from section to section, but student writing will be the primary focus in all sections. The course is designed to help students become more engaged, imaginative, and disciplined composers.

ENGCMP 0205 Seminar in Composition: Film

Like other seminars in composition, this introductory course offers students opportunities to improve as writers by developing their understanding of how they and others use writing to interpret and share experience, affect behavior, and position themselves in the world. This particular seminar will include a series of films, along with discussions that focus on how films and other media shape the ways we view and understand the world.

ENGCMP 0207 Seminar in Composition: Education

Like other seminars in composition, this introductory course offers students opportunities to improve as writers by developing their understanding of how they and others use writing to interpret and share experience, affect behavior, and position themselves in the world. This particular seminar will include readings that consider issues of teaching and learning in American education and may be of interest to those who plan to become teachers.

ENGCMP 0208 Seminar in Comp: Service-Learning

Several sections of Seminar in Composition: Service-Learning (ENGCMP 0208) are offered in the fall and spring terms. Students in this section of SC will engage in service-learning, pairing meaningful service in the community with the academic work for the course. Throughout the term, the students provide service with community nonprofits of their choice; students can expect to devote about 2-3 hours a week, for a total of thirty hours of service over the course of the term. Class discussions focus on their experiences during this service work as well as their reflections on this experience as guided by a sequence of critical readings and short essay assignments. By considering the subjects in this community context, the course improves students’ essay writing by helping them to become more critical readers and writers.

ENGCMP 0212 Seminar in Comp: Topics in Diversity

Seminar in Composition is a course taken by almost all undergraduates at the University of Pittsburgh. Its goals are to help you engage in writing as a creative, disciplined form of critical inquiry; compose thoughtfully crafted essays that position your ideas among other views; write with precision, nuance, and awareness of textual conventions; and revise your writing by rethinking the assumptions, aims, and effects of prior drafts. This seminar will include readings and writing activities that explore concepts and practices relating to diversity and its established and emerging definitions.

FP 0003 First-Year Seminar

First-Year Seminar fulfills the Seminar in Composition requirement and includes Academic Foundations (FP 0001). Due to this, additional meetings and activities will occur outside of scheduled class times. Academic Foundations is designed especially for first-term students as an introduction to the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Through class work and out-of-class activities, students will gain knowledge of the educational opportunities at the University, the cultural events on and off campus, and an understanding of what it means to be a liberal arts student. All students who enroll in this course will receive a free academic planner on the first day of class.

FP 0006 First-Year Seminar

Explore a focused topic you are interested in by reading selected texts, writing papers, and participating in classroom discussions. First-Year Seminar (FP 0006) is a dynamic, three-credit course for first-year students that fulfills the Seminar in Composition requirement.

Core Courses

ENGCMP 0420 Writing for the Public

This course explores the theory and practice of writing that serves the public interest. Public writing is crucial in the nonprofit sector, serving every kind of cause: safety and health, political activism, the environment, animal rights, the arts. It also takes the form of writing that facilitates communication between government and its policies and those people who are impacted by those policies. Many of those who write for the public are working to make a difference in the world. The course will explore the ethics of writing for the public, the impact of rhetorical contexts on writing, and how writing and revision can allow you to understand a problem or issue in a new way. We'll use examples of public writing, theoretical articles, and the work of students in the class to inform our discussion. Students can expect to write proposals; press kits; editorials; informational Web sites; articles; and complex documents that incorporate photos and other visual elements, sidebars, and feature articles. Since we will see writing as part of a conversation with a larger world, students will report on an event they attend, interview a professional in a field that interests them, and identify and regularly read on or more sources of information: professional journals, media outlets, research studies, or other materials.

ENGCMP 0560 Writing Arguments

This course has two goals: to help students become more adept at understanding and critically analyzing arguments, and to help students become better arguers themselves. Students in "Writing Arguments" will practice composing arguments across a variety of forms, genres, and technologies (written, visual, oral, digital) in order to develop and hone their persuasive language skills. As part of this practice, students will have the opportunity to design and participate in written and oral debates on topics of present interest and to compose their own examples of public persuasive communication. Writing Arguments would be especially appropriate for students headed to law or graduate school.

ENGCMP 1551 History and Politics of English Language

This course introduces students to both historical and present use and descriptions of the English language. Students also learn techniques for analyzing and understanding the language.

ENGCMP 1900 PPW Internship

This internship is intended for juniors and seniors who are pursuing the public and professional writing certificate. The internship is designed to give students a productive, substantive writing experience where they will learn from and contribute to the sponsoring agency or project. Students will consult with an advisor to arrange for intern ships and to construct the plan of work, writing, and over sight.

ENGCMP 1901 UTA: Teaching or Tutoring Writing

This experience is intended for students who wish to engage with the theory and practice of teaching writing under the mentorship of an English department faculty member. The undergraduate teaching assistantship is designed to give students a productive, substantive experience in which they will learn from and contribute to students' learning in a classroom or in the writing center. Students will consult with a faculty mentor to arrange the undergraduate teaching assistantship and to construct the plan of work, writing, and supervision.

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