ENG 1131: Writing Through Media

BRIEF COURSE OVERVIEW:
“Writing Through Media” offers the opportunity to learn how to compose certain forms of new media, according to the adage “Learning By Doing.” The course will be based around a single project, a rhapsody, in which students will explore the registers of narrative, documentary, and image, using their creative abilities to express their senses of humor by depicting an historical event. Demonstrating that getting a joke replicates the feeling of having an idea, we will access our creative potential through the resource of humor, focusing particularly on the absurd. In the process of learning how media operate, students should expect to learn how to analyze media, and then use analysis to manipulate ideas, images, narratives, etc. creatively. While the traditional study of media ends at analysis, this class will allow students to deepen their learning of media forms by motivating criticism for creativity’s sake, focusing not only on what films, for example, mean but how to use their meaning to make your own. This is not a film appreciation class, but appreciating different types of film other than those you are familiar with will be necessary to succeed in it.

The student learning outcomes for this course are as detailed in the Undergraduate Catalog.