English 124: Academic Writing and Literature: Literature and the Arts
The literature-focused first-year writing course at the University of Michigan emphasizes close reading, analytic argument, comparative analysis, and research-based revision genres, as well as process and reflective writing. My approach to teaching the course engages students in investigating literary writing about the arts as well as in examining the art and craft of literature. Below, please find a course description, a syllabus, and assignments.
EDWP Course Description for English 124:
This class is about writing and academic inquiry, with a special emphasis on literature. Good arguments stem from good questions, and academic essays allow writers to write their way toward answers, toward figuring out what they think. In this writing-intensive course, students focus on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments addressing questions that matter in academic contexts. The course also hones students’ critical thinking and reading skills. Working closely with their peers and the instructor, students develop their essays through workshops and extensive revision and editing. Readings cover a variety of genres and often serve as models or prompts for assigned essays; the specific questions students pursue in essays are guided by their own interests.
Introduction to the Course Theme: Literature and the Arts
In this section of English 124, we will examine literature through the lens of the arts (broadly conceived as painting, sculpture, photography, music, film, dance, design, websites, games, and other media). In glimpsing into literature, we will analyze writing about art, or ekphrasis, interpreting the ways in which writers have portrayed visual images or representations of art in poetry and short stories from the past and present. We will also consider literature as an art form, one that can evoke qualities and reactions such as beauty, wonder, rapture, or sympathy – or their opposites; that can invite or inspire appreciation, interpretation, response, creation, and action. Expanding our conception of ‘texts’ to encompass cultural artifacts and media, we will interrogate the boundaries between literature and art. Throughout the course, we will treat writing as an art, a craft carefully developed through revision and reflection. Questions to investigate include: In what ways can we trace patterns or images in a text? In what ways can we glean insights into the deeper meanings of literary works through a close examination of language, motifs, symbols, and other devices? What is the larger significance of the texts we read and write?
Syllabus:
Ruth Li 