This writing seminar satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The course is designed to offer students structured, sustained, and highly articulated practice in the recursive processes entailed in reading, critical analysis, and composing. Students will read five thematically related book-length texts, or the equivalent, drawn from a range of genres, in addition to various non-print sources. In response to these materials, they will craft several short pieces leading up to three longer essays--works of exposition and argumentation.

With the course theme “Sacred: Breath & Voice,” we will start at the most basic and profound level on the right to live and then move toward free speech and civil rights. We’ll learn more about people pushed to the brink by centuries-old systems of racial-ethnic oppression and the response of those communities seeking justice, especially African-Americans -- and allies -- in the Civil Rights Movement & follow-up Black Lives Matter movement. You will interact with classmates every class and engage in experiences beyond the classroom, as well. You’ll deepen your engagement with written and visual texts to see how arguments in words and images work together in the books we read, film we view, and the media reports we scan. All along you’ll be working toward creating and publishing your own multimodal capstone project – a portfolio where you publish your best revised writing from the course in a layout you creatively design. We’ll read short pieces by diverse writers and read 2 current books--on a complex biography and the other graphic non-fiction: Robert Samuels & Toluse Olorunnipa’s His Name is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2022) John Lewis’ autobiographical graphic nonfiction co-authored with Aydin and illustrated by Powell – March: Book Two (2015)

Requisites

• Enrollment is limited to students who have satisfied the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills