ENGL1200N: Freshman Honors Seminar

Abstract

This is an honors-level writing seminar designed to improve your ability to develop, organize, and present your ideas. The texts in this course are organized around the theme of “crime and community,” but the techniques you will learn will apply to every subject that demands clear, logical and cogent exposition. Throughout the course, we will approach writing as an ongoing process of thinking and learning that begins the moment you start to ask questions about a subject, continues through note-taking and other exploratory writing, and develops into a full thesis argument. In the course, you will learn important aspects of academic writing that will teach you to develop your ideas, support your arguments, and make your insights clear and convincing to other people. We will begin by writing about one of four short stories (your choice). Through reading and discussing these stories, you will learn how to talk and think about fiction, and practice a key skill called “close reading,” which you will use throughout the semester. For your second essay, you will practice writing a comparison essay, this time focusing on two stories. The final paper is a research paper, one that will evolve out of the ideas from either the first or second paper and will include secondary sources to help you in strengthening and developing your argument.