Course Schedule:
Week 1: Sept. 1 and 3
Introduction to the course.
Essay: “Basic Human Pleasures: Sex, Food, and Giving.”
How to read thoroughly
Object Lessons: Finding the thesis, identifying and evaluating supporting evidence, strategies for beginning and ending.
Grammar: Use of commas
Week 2: Sept. 8 and 10
Essay: “The New Science of Happiness”
Object Lesson: Comparing two theories, illustration, summary and elimination of incidentals.
Grammar and style: Revising Sentences
Week 3: Sept. 15 and 17
Essay: “When Roommates Were Random.”
Object Lessons: Combining the personal with the impersonal, ancillary and expanded arguments, conclusions and recommendations.
Grammar and organization: How to organize a paragraph.
Week 4: Sept 22 and 24
Essay:” Falser Words Were Never Spoken”
Object Lesson: Good and bad use of quotations, comparison of sentences by means of syntax, placing the thesis
Technique: Organizing the 3-part essay.
Week 5: Sept. 29 and Oct.1
Essay: “Breeding the Nutrition Out of Our Food.”
Object Lesson: combining argument with historical survey.
Week 6: Oct. 6 and 8
Essay. “Hiding in Plain Sight”
Object Lesson: using description as argument
Week 7: Oct. 13 and 15
Essay: “Dumpster Diving”
Object Lesson: combining process and personal narrative, hidden thesis.
Week 8: Oct. 20 and 22
Essay: “Pope on a Rope Tow.”
Object Lessons: high and low diction, profile of a public figure from an unexpected angle,.
Week 9: Oct. 27 and 29
Essay:” Pope of a Rope Tow” (continued)
Object Lessons. Creative nonfiction, metaphorical thinking.
Week 10: Nov. 3 and 5
Essay: “Confronting Inequality”
Object Lesson: dealing with complex and abundant data.
Week 11: Nov. 10 and 12
Essay: “Confronting Inequality” (continued)
Essay: “The Stray Dogs of Moscow”
Object Lesson: a city seen from an unexpected angle, including scientific classification, holding two attitudes in mind without overtly judging.
Week 12: Nov. 17 and 19
Essay: “Stray Dogs of Moscow” (continued)
Week 13: Nov. 24 and 26
Class Research Project: Group research into a contemporary issue such as the ebola outbreak, ISIS, Ukraine crisis, etc.
Object lessons: using library resources to do research
Week 14: Dec. 1 and 3
Class Research Project continued.
Conclusions