Training in writing expository prose. Further instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

This section of Reading and Composition is designed to both exercise your active reading skills and to empower you to write compelling, well-informed, and well-organized expository prose and research-based essays. Over the course of the semester we will focus on the ways effective arguments are constructed (evidence, sound reasoning, rhetorical and stylistic strategies) as well as the “exigency” of those arguments (i.e. why is this argument demanded by this situation?). To this end, our work this semester will be oriented around the issue of mass incarceration and prison struggle. We will study the history of mass incarceration in the United States through texts, films, music, and visual art produced by activists, scholars, and artists working both within and outside the prison system. Course materials have been chosen to provide examples of effective argumentative strategies. My hope is that they will also provide us with a series of important historical and social questions for our discussions. Students are encouraged to pursue research topics related to the theme of prison struggle but not necessarily covered in the course readings.

See also https://english.berkeley.edu/courses/5889

Book List

Alexander, Michelle: The New Jim Crow; Berger, Dan: Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era; Jackson, George: Soledad Brother

Other Readings and Media

13th (Ava DuVernay, 2016)

The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (Brett Story, 2016)

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills