CWP - Spring 2008 Section Descriptions

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Spring 2008 Section Descriptions

Section Descriptions

If you can't find what you want here, visit UCB's online schedule of classes.

Office Hours

Please see the list of office hours on the Faculty page.

Faculty

The following instructors are teaching the listed courses. Section numbers follow the names of instructors teaching more than one section of CW R1A. Course numbers follow the names of instructors teaching courses other than CW R1A.

Baptiste CW R4B sec. 3 & sec. 14
Bobo CW R4B sec. 1 & sec. 4
Chiang sec. 15 & sec. 18
Cole sec. 1 & CW 151
Crisp CW 1 sec. 1 & sec. 2
Erickson sec. 19 & sec. 23
Flash CW R4B sec. 15
Gates sec. 24
Hammons sec. 22 & CW R4B sec. 5 & CW 199
Hill sec. 21 & CW 10A sec. 1
Kirn sec. 5 & sec. 11
Lang sec. 10 & CW R4B sec. 7
Larkin CW R4B sec. 9 & sec. 12
Lee sec. 8 & sec. 14
Levine sec. 20 & CW 10A sec. 2
Oakes CW R4B sec. 2
Offen-Brown CW R4B sec. 6 & sec. 11
Rossi sec. 6
Skolnick sec. 9
Sloan sec. 7 & sec. 13
Steenland CW R4B sec. 8 & sec. 10
Tollefson CW 199
Wald sec. 17

Lower-Division Courses

College Writing 1

CW 1
Section: 1
CCN: 16403
Meeting time: M 2-4 p.m.
Meeting place: 54 Barrows Hall
Instructor: Teri Crisp
Email address: tcrisp@berkeley.edu
Course description: In this workshop course on grammar and vocabulary, you will not only develop the ability to edit your own writing for grammatical correctness but also develop a perspective on the wide range and diverse purposes of grammatical options available when composing and revising. In addition, you will develop the ability to identify high-frequency non-idiomatic uses of English in your writing, as well as expand the active vocabulary readily available to you in the composing and revision process. During the course students from various language backgrounds will get intensive, individualized practice editing writing assignments from other courses and thus cultivate effective editing strategies. The course must be taken on a pass/no pass basis and is reserved for students who self-identify as native speakers of a language besides English.

Booklist: Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects 4th edition (Martha Kolln), and potential additional text TBA

CW 1
Section: 2
CCN: 16406
Meeting time: W 2-4 p.m.
Meeting place: 78 Barrows Hall
Instructor: Teri Crisp
Email address: tcrisp@berkeley.edu
Course description: In this workshop course on grammar and vocabulary, you will not only develop the ability to edit your own writing for grammatical correctness but also develop a perspective on the wide range and diverse purposes of grammatical options available when composing and revising. In addition, you will develop the ability to identify high-frequency non-idiomatic uses of English in your writing, as well as expand the active vocabulary readily available to you in the composing and revision process. During the course students from various language backgrounds will get intensive, individualized practice editing writing assignments from other courses and thus cultivate effective editing strategies. The course must be taken on a pass/no pass basis and is reserved for students who self-identify as native speakers of a language besides English.

Book list: Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects 4th edition (Martha Kolln), and potential additional text TBA

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College Writing R1A

CW R1A
Section: 1
CCN: 16409
Meeting time: MWF 8-10 a.m.
Meeting place: 224 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Caroline Cole
Email address: cmcole@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Gender and Society
Course description: This section will examine the way gender reflects, informs, and shapes our perspectives, values, and interpretations in various contexts. Contexts students have examined include language, politics, education, sports, fairy tales, music, film, advertising, and literature. While the readings will inform discussions on the course's theme, students will use these readings primarily as a means for engaging in authentic critical literacy practices.

Book list: Herland: A Lost Feminist Utopian Novel (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think & Feel (Jean Kilbourne), Doing Honest Work in College: How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism and Achieve Real Academic Success (Charles Lipson), Course Reader

CW R1A
Section: 5
CCN: 16421
Meeting time: MWF 10-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 125 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Heather Kirn
Email address: hkirn@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Book list:

CW R1A
Section: 6
CCN: 16424
Meeting time: MWF 10-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 233 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Brad Rossi
Email address: brossi@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Exile
Course description: The theme for this section of College Writing is Exile, an exploration of internally- or externally-imposed separation or banishment from one’s home, community, or culture. Over the course of the term, we will think about what it means to belong, why that may not be possible for some, and how new connections and feelings of belonging can be recreated. Reading materials, discussions, and written works will generally examine the causes of and responses to a writer’s (or character’s) separation and isolation and how that response shapes their identity, life experience, and worldview.

Book list: They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein), Keys For Writers (Ann Raimes), Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (Richard Rodriquez), Jesus Land (Julies Scheeres), The Dying Ground (Nichelle Tramble), Course Reader

CW R1A
Section: 7
CCN: 16427
Meeting time: MWF 10-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 89 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Ryan Sloan
Email address: rsloan@berkeley.edu
Course theme: The Working Life
Course description: What do we mean when we talk about a life spent working? What do we value, as Americans, in the types of work we choose for a profession? Do the institutions and corporations that we support pay any notice to what we want to be—or do they shape those wants directly? In this writing course, we'll research contemporary controversies and read the rhetoric of advertisers, journalists, bloggers and television talking heads. How do emotionally charged issues like "green-washing," economic nationalism, universal healthcare, illegal immigration, gender and racial disparities and the outsourcing of jobs affect our consideration of the facts at hand? What are the tensions between work and life in our society? We'll read oral histories, novels of white-collar absurdity and investigations into the fast food industry. We'll write our own personal narratives and interview those at work around us. Most important: what is the role of the reflective writer in the midst of this debate?

Book list: Fast Food Nation (Schlosser), Working (Terkel), Then We Came to the End (Ferris), The Norton Field Guide to Writing (Bullock), Course Reader. Films: The Corporation, Supersize Me, Fight Club

CW R1A
Section: 8
CCN: 16430
Meeting time: MWF 10-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 262 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Katherine Lee
Email address: khlee@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Book list:

CW R1A
Section: 9, for nonnative speakers
CCN: 16433
Meeting time: MWF 10-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 289 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: David Skolnick
Email address: dskolnick@berkeley.edu
Course theme: The Multifarious Facets of Food
Course description: "You are what you eat" goes the old saying. But how many of us consider the broader and deeper meanings of this proverb? The food we eat influences and is influenced by our personal preferences, our family, our culture, our media, and our politics, all of which enter into our daily lives either overtly or covertly, consciously or unconsciously. In this course, we will examine the various ways food intersects with our personal and public lives by reading, thinking critically, writing, and rewriting about, discussing and eating the topic. We will define concepts, analyze our own and others' writing, learn how we are influenced by language, and, concurrently, how we can influence others with language. In the process, we will also examine what choices we can make and actions we can take when confronted with truths and perspectives that may surprise us. Since this class is designated as a non-native speaker section, we will also focus on grammar error patterns and vocabulary, on both an individual basis and as a class.

Book list: Fast Food Nation (Eric Schlosser), My Year of Meats (Ruth Ozeki), Read, Write, Edit: Grammar for College Writing (Pat Porter and Deborah vanDommelen), Course Reader. Films: Eat Drink Man Woman, Like Water for Chocolate, The Corporation, Supersize Me

CW R1A
Section: 10
CCN: 16436
Meeting time: MWF 12-2 p.m.
Meeting place: 224 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Jon Lang
Email address: see the CalNet directory
Course theme: Family Functions and Dysfunctions
Course description: The family as an institution has been perceived to be in a state of decline for a very long historical period. We will consider the external (social and economic) forces that have brought about this state of decline, as well as the internal dynamics that jeopardize the family's formation. In spite of the fact that the family exists only very rarely in its "ideal" nuclear form, why do we continue to hold on to this ideal? How do contemporary political debates function to shore up the family?

Book list: Safe, Superstar, Far From Heaven: Three Screenplays (Todd Haynes), Sula (Toni Morrison), This Boy's Life (Wolff), Writer's Reference (Diana Hacker), Course Reader. Film: Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, dir.)

CW R1A
Section: 11
CCN: 16439
Meeting time: MWF 12-2 p.m.
Meeting place: 289 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Heather Kirn
Email address: hkirn@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Book list:

CW R1A
Section: 13
CCN: 16445
Meeting time: MWF 2-4 p.m.
Meeting place: 233 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Ryan Sloan
Email address: rsloan@berkeley.edu
Course theme: The Working Life
Course description: What do we mean when we talk about a life spent working? What do we value, as Americans, in the types of work we choose for a profession? Do the institutions and corporations that we support pay any notice to what we want to be—or do they shape those wants directly? In this writing course, we'll research contemporary controversies and read the rhetoric of advertisers, journalists, bloggers and television talking heads. How do emotionally charged issues like "green-washing," economic nationalism, universal healthcare, illegal immigration, gender and racial disparities and the outsourcing of jobs affect our consideration of the facts at hand? What are the tensions between work and life in our society? We'll read oral histories, novels of white-collar absurdity and investigations into the fast food industry. We'll write our own personal narratives and interview those at work around us. Most important: what is the role of the reflective writer in the midst of this debate?

CW R1A
Section: 14
CCN: 16448
Meeting time: MWF 2-4 p.m.
Meeting place: 289 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Katherine Lee
Email address: khlee@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Book list:

CW R1A
Section: 15
CCN: 16451
Meeting time: MW 9-12 p.m.
Meeting place: L3 Towle Hall, Unit 2
Instructor: Yuet-Sim Chiang
Email address: chiang@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Double Consciousness
Course description: What does it mean to perceive oneself through the eyes of others? What are the ways in which one’s personal and cultural identities are defined and measured by the outside world? In turn, how does this "outside measurement" impact and implicate the way one thinks of oneself? In this writing workshop, we will read and explore the workings of this "double consciousness" among writers and how they confront this "outside" gaze in their works.

Book list: The Souls of Black Folks (Du Bois), No Parole Today (Laura Tohe), The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification (Caille Millner), The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (Anne Fadiman), Ways of Seeing (John Berger), On BullShit (Harry Frankfurt). Video documentaries: The Harlem Renaissance (PBS), No More Mountains (Veccchione & Libik), Between Two Worlds (Conquergood)

CW R1A
Section: 17, for nonnative speakers
CCN: 16457
Meeting time: MW 2-5 p.m.
Meeting place: 225 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Margi Wald
Email address: mwald@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Class, Culture and Conflict
Course description: In this course, we will explore how ethnicity and socioeconomic status affect social institutions and individual/group identity—and vice versa. We will also examine how perspective and persuasive techniques play a role in rendering, representing and interpreting events and experiences related to immigration and education. To further this exploration, students will engage with a variety of texts and craft a variety of critical, analytical essays through reflection, revision, peer response, and editing for grammar and word choice.

Book list: Asking the Right Questions (M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley), The Shame of the Nation (Jonathan Kozol), The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (Anne Fadiman), Keys for Writers, 5e (Ann Raimes), Course Reader

CW R1A
Section: 18
CCN: 16460
Meeting time: MW 3-6 p.m.
Meeting place: 125 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Yuet-Sim Chiang
Email address: chiang@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Double Consciousness
Course description: What does it mean to perceive oneself through the eyes of others? What are the ways in which one’s personal and cultural identities are defined and measured by the outside world? In turn, how does this "outside measurement" impact and implicate the way one thinks of oneself? In this writing workshop, we will read and explore the workings of this "double consciousness" among writers and how they confront this "outside" gaze in their works.

CW R1A
Section: 19
CCN: 16463
Meeting time: MW 3-6 p.m.
Meeting place: 262 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Melinda Erickson
Email address: erickson@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Music in Our Lives
Course description: What place does music have in your life? Which musical performers, instruments, periods, and genres appeal to you? How much do you know about musical traditions in other parts of the world? In order to explore these questions we will develop a shared understanding of music and how to listen to it critically. Most importantly, we will develop effective approaches to reading and writing through inquiry, practice, and reflection. This 6-unit course draws on a variety of texts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music, film) as well as a variety of activities (discussions, guest speakers, a concert, fieldwork, and many writing assignments). We will listen to music and write about it throughout the semester, beginning in the very first class.

Book list: Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond (Lester Faigley), They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein), Thinking Musically: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture (Bonnie Wade), Music and Culture (Anna Tomasino), Course Reader

CW R1A
Section: 20
CCN: 16466
Meeting time: TuTh 9-12 p.m.
Meeting place: L6 Towle Hall, Unit 2
Instructor: John Levine
Email address: jblevine@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Making Connections
Course description: How we view and understand the world is often a matter of how we connect two or more people, objects, or ideas. Some connections are obvious, but others require some thought. In this course we will read disparate texts on a variety of subjects and look for the connections between them. We’ll talk about those connections and then make our own connections through writing. We’ll also consider the many ways in which we connect with the world around us.

Book list: The St. Martin's Handbook (Andrea Lunsford), The New Humanities Reader (Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer), BFE (Julia Cho), Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (Barack Obama), and one more text to be determined. Films: Coffee and Cigarettes, Awakenings

CW R1A
Section: 21
CCN: 16469
Meeting time: TuTh 9-12 p.m.
Meeting place: L13 Christian Hall, Unit 1
Instructor: Carolyn Hill
Email address: chill4@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Persuasion: Words vs. Swords
Course description: Tons of reading and tons of writing, all to answer one question: how in the heck do we persuade people without hitting them in the head with rocks?

Book list: Lincoln at Gettysburg (Garry Wills), The Eye of the Heron (Ursula K. Le Guin), I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (Martin Luther King Jr.), Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide (Andrea Lunsford), Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (Joseph Williams), Course Reader (online)

CW R1A
Section: 22
CCN: 16472
Meeting time: TuTh 9-12 p.m.
Meeting place: L7 Christian Hall, Unit 1
Instructor: Jane Hammons
Email address: jhammons@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Are You Game?
Course description: If so, get ready to read and write about games, sports, and play. You will read a variety of texts—fiction, nonfiction, academic research articles, and works of art—and think critically about the issues raised by them as you participate in class discussion, write and revise your essays.

Book list: The Queen’s Gambit (Walter Tevis), A Book of Surrealist Games (ed. Mel Gooding), Writing Superheroes (Anne Haas Dyson), Keys for Writers, 5th edition (Ann Raimes), Course Reader

CW R1A
Section: 23
CCN: 16475
Meeting time: TuTh 2-5 p.m.
Meeting place: 186 Barrows Hall
Instructor: Melinda Erickson
Email address: erickson@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Music in Our Lives
Course description: What place does music have in your life? Which musical performers, instruments, periods, and genres appeal to you? How much do you know about musical traditions in other parts of the world? In order to explore these questions we will develop a shared understanding of music and how to listen to it critically. Most importantly, we will develop effective approaches to reading and writing through inquiry, practice, and reflection. This 6-unit course draws on a variety of texts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, music, film) as well as a variety of activities (discussions, guest speakers, a concert, fieldwork, and many writing assignments). We will listen to music and write about it throughout the semester, beginning in the very first class.

CW R1A
Section: 24
CCN: 16478
Meeting time: TuTh 3-6 p.m.
Meeting place: 125 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Cody Gates
Email address: cgates@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Book list:

CW R1A
Section: 25
CCN: 16481
Meeting time: TuTh 3-6 p.m.
Meeting place: 225 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor:
Email address:
Course theme:
Course description: CLOSED

Book list:

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College Writing R4A

CW R4A
Section: 1
CCN:
Meeting time:
Meeting place:
Instructor: Staff
Email address:
Course theme:
Course description: CANCELLED

Booklist:

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College Writing R4B

CW R4B
Section: 1
CCN: 16514
Meeting time: TuTh 11-12:30 p.m.
Meeting place: 224 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Stephanie Bobo
Email address: sbobo@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Booklist:

CW R4B
Section: 2
CCN: 16517
Meeting time: TuTh 12:30-2 p.m.
Meeting place: 104 GPB
Instructor: Kaya Oakes
Email address: kaya_o@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Booklist:

CW R4B
Section: 3
CCN: 16520
Meeting time: MW 9-10:30 a.m.
Meeting place: L11 Towle Hall, Unit 2
Instructor: Michelle Baptiste
Email address: michellebaptiste@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Beyond the Shaman or Savage: Modern Native Americans and Their Cultures
Course description: This course examines and then moves beyond stereotypes to take a multi-disciplinary perspective and multi-media approach towards researching and understanding modern day Native politics, histories, medical practices, religions, economies, businesses, and languages in the Americas. In homework responses, class discussions, and essays, you will explore these inter-disciplinary intersections. You will write three essays that closely examine texts and issues relevant to modern American Indians: a thematic text analysis of short stories by Sherman Alexie, a comparative text analysis of voice in two texts by non-Native authors—one set on the Pine Ridge Reservation and the other in Belize, as well as a final research portfolio that investigates and assesses a business or non-profit run by Native American individuals, an Indian tribe, or a non-Native specifically tailoring products or services to Native Americans.

Booklist: Ten Little Indians (S. Alexie), Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer (R. Arvigo), Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (B. Bigelow & B. Petersen), The Subject Is Research: Processes and Practices (W. Bishop & P. Zemliansky), On the Rez (I. Frazier).

CW R4B
Section: 4
CCN: 16523
Meeting time: TuTh 2-3:30 p.m.
Meeting place: 247 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Stephanie Bobo
Email address: sbobo@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Booklist:

CW R4B
Section: 5
CCN: 16526
Meeting time: TuTh 2-3:30 p.m.
Meeting place: 108 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Jane Hammons
Email address: jhammons@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Writing the Range: The American West in Fact and Fiction
Course description: In this writing seminar we will read and write about ways in which the myths and realities of the American West have contributed to a complex and contested national identity. We will look at representations of the
American West—its environment and inhabitants—from a variety of perspectives and in a number of genres.

Booklist: Something in the Soil (Patricia Nelson Limerick), The Woman Who Fell From the Sky: Poems (Joy Harjo),
Riders of the Purple Sage (Modern Library Classics edition, Zane Grey), The Book of Yaak (Rick Bass), The Craft of Research 2nd edition (Wayne Booth, et al), Course Reader

CW R4B
Section: 6
CCN: 16529
Meeting time: MWF 10-11 a.m.
Meeting place: 106 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Gail Offen-Brown
Email address: gob@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Public History, Personal Story
Course description: This course will examine how artists and writers, working in a range of genres, explore and represent intersections between the personal and the public, between story and history. We will work with excerpts of photographic essays from the Depression era (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans and James Agee and An American Exodus by Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor); a graphic novel representing the Holocaust and its legacy (Maus by Art Spiegelman); a nonfiction study of multicultural America (A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki); and another text TBA. In writing a series of essays in response to these texts, students will develop their ability to critically read and analyze visual images as well as words. A central focus of the course will be investigating the research process, and coursework will culminate in a research portfolio.

Booklist: Ways of Reading Words and Images (David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky), Maus, Books I and II (Art Spiegelman), A Different Mirror (Ronald Takaki), The Craft of Research, 2nd edition (Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams), additional text TBA, Course Reader

CW R4B
Section: 7
CCN: 16532
Meeting time: MWF 10-11 a.m.
Meeting place: 204 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Jon Lang
Email address: see the CalNet directory
Course theme: Monsters and Modernity
Course description: Monsters used to represent fear of the unknown: unmapped regions in the medieval period were marked by dragons; imperialists in the 19th century bringing the “light” of civilization into the dark continent of Africa feared cannibals. In the modern period, monstrosity is associated not so much with the unknown as it is with knowledge/science/technology/rationality whose function is to achieve human mastery, in the name of progress, over our selves, over nature, and even over time and history; and simultaneously monstrosity characterizes those—who embodying the conflicts produced in the modern period—are ambiguously situated between humanity and nature or humanity and machine. Modern monsters include mad scientists, bestial men and women, re-animated corpses, and cyborgs. In addition to two short analytical papers (5-8 pp) based on course readings or viewings, students will propose one research project culminating in a long essay (8-10 pp) in order to confront monsters of their own choice.

Booklist: "The Rat Man" (Sigmund Freud), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (Joseph Williams), Course Reader. Films (tentative): The Fly (David Cronenberg), Alien or Bladerunner (Ridley Scott)

CW R4B
Section: 8
CCN: 16535
Meeting time: MWF 11-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 87 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Pat Steenland
Email address: steenpat@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Images of History
Course description: How do we come to understand the past? Once an event recedes, we are left with an unfiltered mix of sources and perspectives, each reflecting a partial truth. In this class we will explore different representations of two major historical events of the twentieth century, beginning with the following texts as our starting points: Art Spiegelman’s graphic novels about the Holocaust, Maus I and II; and Mine Okubo's pictorial memoir of the Japanese American internment, Citizen 13660. We will also look at novels about these events, including Julie Otsuka’s When The Emperor was Divine (part of which is set in Berkeley—you may recognize some landmarks.) When reading the novel Sophie's Choice, we will explore the question voiced by the writer Cynthia Ozick: how far may fiction be allowed to go when dealing with historical fact? With these concerns in mind, we will also look at other representations of these events in different genres, such as films, essays, oral histories, diaries, and standard history textbooks, to explore differences in genre and perspective. For the final research project, students will choose their own topic to explore from the Japanese American internment and work with primary materials found both online and at the Bancroft Library, including the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive, an immensely rich collection of materials on this subject.

Booklist: From Our Side of the Fence: Growing Up in America’s Concentration Camps (Brian Komei Dempster), Survival in Auschwitz (Primo Levi), Citizen 13660 (Mine Okubo), When The Emperor Was Divine (Julie Otsuka), Sophie's Choice (William Styron), Maus I and II (Art Spiegelman), Writing With Sources (Gordon Harvey)

CW R4B
Section: 9
CCN: 16538
Meeting time: MWF 11-12 p.m.
Meeting place: 204 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Michael Larkin
Email address: larkinm@berkeley.edu
Course theme: War in Perspective
Course description: Our readings, and subject matter of your writing, will focus on questions of perspective and getting at the truth in the telling and retelling of the story of war (specifically the wars in Vietnam and Iraq). We'll take a look at the ways in which people tell stories, both fictional and (primarily) nonfictional, and how one's position—as observer, as participant, as storyteller, as reporter, as documentarian, as researcher—inform one's portrayal of events or people. How do we evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the information we're given as readers? How do we, as writers and researchers, figure out how to document an event fairly, how to tell a story accurately, and how to be aware of our own subjectivity as we do so?

Booklist: In Pharoah's Army (Tobias Wolff), The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien), The Craft of Research, 2nd Edition, (Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Columb, Joseph M. Williams ), My War (Colby Buzzell), Baghdad Burning (Riverhead). Film: Gunner Palace

CW R4B
Section: 10
CCN: 16541
Meeting time: MWF 12-1 p.m.
Meeting place: 287 Dwinelle Hall
Instructor: Pat Steenland
Email address: steenpat@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Images of History
Course description: How do we come to understand the past? Once an event recedes, we are left with an unfiltered mix of sources and perspectives, each reflecting a partial truth. In this class we will explore different representations of two major historical events of the twentieth century, beginning with the following texts as our starting points: Art Spiegelman’s graphic novels about the Holocaust, Maus I and II; and Mine Okubo's pictorial memoir of the Japanese American internment, Citizen 13660. We will also look at novels about these events, including Julie Otsuka’s When The Emperor was Divine (part of which is set in Berkeley—you may recognize some landmarks.) When reading the novel Sophie's Choice, we will explore the question voiced by the writer Cynthia Ozick: how far may fiction be allowed to go when dealing with historical fact? With these concerns in mind, we will also look at other representations of these events in different genres, such as films, essays, oral histories, diaries, and standard history textbooks, to explore differences in genre and perspective. For the final research project, students will choose their own topic to explore from the Japanese American internment and work with primary materials found both online and at the Bancroft Library, including the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive, an immensely rich collection of materials on this subject.

CW R4B
Section: 11
CCN: 16544
Meeting time: MWF 2-3 p.m.
Meeting place: 109 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Gail Offen-Brown
Email address: gob@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Public History, Personal Story
Course description: This course will examine how artists and writers, working in a range of genres, explore and represent intersections between the personal and the public, between story and history. We will work with excerpts of photographic essays from the Depression era (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans and James Agee and An American Exodus by Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor); a graphic novel representing the Holocaust and its legacy (Maus by Art Spiegelman); a nonfiction study of multicultural America (A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki); and another text TBA. In writing a series of essays in response to these texts, students will develop their ability to critically read and analyze visual images as well as words. A central focus of the course will be investigating the research process, and coursework will culminate in a research portfolio.

Booklist: Ways of Reading Words and Images (David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky), Maus, Books I and II (Art Spiegelman), A Different Mirror (Ronald Takaki), Beloved, The Craft of Research, 2nd edition (Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams), additional text TBA, Course Reader

CW R4B
Section: 12
CCN: 16547
Meeting time: MWF 2-3 p.m.
Meeting place: 72 Evans Hall
Instructor: Michael Larkin
Email address: larkinm@berkeley.edu
Course theme: War in Perspective
Course description: Our readings, and subject matter of your writing, will focus on questions of perspective and getting at the truth in the telling and retelling of the story of war (specifically the wars in Vietnam and Iraq). We'll take a look at the ways in which people tell stories, both fictional and (primarily) nonfictional, and how one's position—as observer, as participant, as storyteller, as reporter, as documentarian, as researcher—inform one's portrayal of events or people. How do we evaluate the accuracy and reliability of the information we're given as readers? How do we, as writers and researchers, figure out how to document an event fairly, how to tell a story accurately, and how to be aware of our own subjectivity as we do so?

CW R4B
Section: 14
CCN: 16549
Meeting time: MW 11-12:30 p.m.
Meeting place: L11 Towle Hall, Unit 2
Instructor: Michelle Baptiste
Email address: michellebaptiste@berkeley.edu
Course theme: Beyond the Shaman or Savage: Modern Native Americans and Their Cultures
Course description: This course examines and then moves beyond stereotypes to take a multi-disciplinary perspective and multi-media approach towards researching and understanding modern day Native politics, histories, medical practices, religions, economies, businesses, and languages in the Americas. In homework responses, class discussions, and essays, you will explore these inter-disciplinary intersections. You will write three essays that closely examine texts and issues relevant to modern American Indians: a thematic text analysis of short stories by Sherman Alexie, a comparative text analysis of voice in two texts by non-Native authors—one set on the Pine Ridge Reservation and the other in Belize, as well as a final research portfolio that investigates and assesses a business or non-profit run by Native American individuals, an Indian tribe, or a non-Native specifically tailoring products or services to Native Americans.

CW R4B
Section: 15
CCN: 16568
Meeting time: TuTh 2-3:30 p.m.
Meeting place: 111 Kroeber Hall
Instructor: Donnett Flash
Email address: dflash@berkeley.edu
Course theme:
Course description:

Booklist:

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College Writing 10A: Introduction to Public Speaking

CW 10A
Section: 1
CCN: 16550
Meeting time: TuTh 12:30-2 p.m
Meeting place: 203 Wheeler Hall
Instructor: Carolyn Hill
Email address: chill4@berkeley.edu
Course description: How do you feel about speaking in public? Are you petrified by fear? Do you love the attention? Do you wish people would listen to what you have to say? Maybe you want your audience to cry, to laugh, or to spring into action. Maybe you want to sell a product, convey an idea, or get a job. Maybe you just want to toast your best friend's wedding. Sometime, somewhere, you're going to be standing in front of a bunch of strangers who are all waiting for you to open your mouth and dazzle them. This class will help you shine.

Booklist: The Art of Public Speaking (Stephen Lucas)

CW 10A
Section: 2
CCN: 16553
Meeting time: TuTh 2-3:30 p.m.
Meeting place: 2030 Valley LSB
Instructor: John Levine
Email address: jblevine@berkeley.edu
Course description: If you think delivering a speech is a mystifying process, something only politicians, performers, and prophets can do, this course will take the mystery out of public speaking for you. We will study speeches and learn about strategies for addressing small and large groups. Whether it’s reporting on the events leading up to World War II or persuading an audience to support stem cell research or making a toast at your cousin’s wedding, public speaking is an important skill that you’ll find useful inside and outside the college classroom. Like anything else, speaking takes practice; you will gain plenty of experience reading, writing and performing speeches in a safe, supportive environment.

Booklist: The Art of Public Speaking (Stephen Lucas), Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (Anna Deavere Smith)

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Upper-Division and Graduate Courses

College Writing 151: Introduction to Principles of Professional Communication

CW 151
CCN: 16559
Meeting time: MWF 12-1 p.m.
Meeting place: 140 Barrows Hall
Instructor: Caroline Cole
Email address: cmcole@berkeley.edu
Course description: This course introduces students to key principles and rhetorical strategies of writing texts in nonacademic settings. Although the course may address issues of oral communication, the primary focus will be on learning and practicing strategies to generate written documents in a business context.

Booklist: Course Reader

College Writing 199: Supervised Independent Study

CW 199
Section: 1
CCN: 16562
Instructor: Jane Hammons
Email address: jhammons@berkeley.edu
Course description:

CW 199
Section: 2
CCN: 16565
Instructor: Steve Tollefson
Email address: tollef@berkeley.edu
Course description:

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