Prerequisites: 603-101 and at least one of 603-102 or 603-103.
This course is designed to help students to develop further their skills in reading, writing, speaking, and researching. Students will study and produce various forms of communication while strengthening their skills in argumentation. They will learn to recognize and use various rhetorical strategies in order to produce a program-specific major assignment.
After successful completion of a BXE course, students will be able to do the following:
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
A Critical Reading of Technology in |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Advanced Communication Skills |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will focus on writing within, primarily, an academic context. Using rhetorical models, the students will produce essays on various subjects, which will culminate in a research essay of 1000 words. The classes will often take the form of a workshop where the students, individually and in groups, will be required to participate in the entire writing process, from brainstorming to first drafts. As a consequence, attendance is essential. As well, there will be discussions on models of good writing, preceded by lectures on the theory behind good writing.The four hours of class time per week may be devoted to discussions, workshops, lectures, correcting and rewriting sessions, oral presentations and compositions. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Animal Liberation Apocalypse |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course exposes the current ambivalent (at best) and brutal (at worst) relationship between most Westerners and nonhuman animals. We explore this relationship through the work and world views of influential Environmental thinkers, including Daniel Quinn and Peter Singer. A parallel exploration of key theories and works of horror, documentary and avant-garde cinema reveals the power of horror as a rhetorical strategy for illuminating our occulted relationship to the animal kingdom, and a sense of our own bodies as “meat.” Horror texts bring to light the beast in the human and the human in the beast. Students will critically analyze and evaluate the soundness of these world views, and construct logically valid arguments in defense of their own position. Students will also learn how to apply theoretical frameworks to cinematic and other texts, and to relate these to their own fields of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Applied Themes |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Applied Themes in English with New School |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Art-Dread: Existentialist Horror |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course introduces students to some of the most influential ethical theories and concepts in relation to cinematic and literary works of existentialist horror and gothic modernism. The course relates these general theories and concepts to specific ethical debates to familiarize students with key controversies in the history of ethics. Theories around the aesthetics of horror—including concepts such as catharsis, the uncanny, the abject, the sublime, dread and the grotesque— will help us to locate what might be termed a “horror ethics.” The course also will help students to develop the skills necessary for research, writing, and rigorous critical analysis, and to relate the ethical questions concerning and arising from horror to their own programs of study. Our explorations will focus on key works of literature, philosophy and cinema. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Children’s Literature |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will pursue the objectives of the BXE requirement through study and debate of issues in English Children’s Literature, and through study of various forms of written, oral, and graphic communication. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Classic Horror Film |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will pursue the idea of “classic” horror as a way to designate films that articulate an important set of historical concerns. Most of our films will be more than thirty years old, though by the end we will approach the current state of the horror genre. Throughout the semester we will consider the genre’s continuing adaptability, as well as the various responses horror films capture and conjure — including fear, disgust, humour, and shame. We will also examine the genre’s socio-political work, including horror’s special importance for feminism and queer theory. Finally, this course we will use the horror film and diverse critical approaches to it (historical, psychological, philosophical, etc.) as a means of developing skill sets indispensable to students’ unique fields of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Communication |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Students will develop oral and written communication skills through reading and discussing a variety of written works including primary essays, articles and journals. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Community Journalism |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This is a hands-on course in print and web journalism. You will not only learn the basics of how to frame stories and write for the print and web media; you will actually be doing it by reporting on the Dawson College Community and contributing stories for publication in The Plant, Dawson College’s student press, which has been publishing since 1969 and is the only CEGEP publication that is a member of the Canadian University Press. Course content includes journalism workshops, storyboard meetings, interview practice, and editing exercises. Students will be encouraged to write about people and events related to their disciplines, but will also be required to cover Dawson sporting events, student union meetings, and conferences and cultural events happening at the college. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Creative Nonfiction |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course examines themes in creative non fiction writing. Creative non fiction is the art of rendering factually precise prose in an interesting and vivid manner. That is, creative nonfiction uses literary craft to shape ideas and information that already exist into a format that is compelling and accessible for a wide audience. We will examine examples of essays, memoirs and reportage, by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Jonathan Swift, Annie Dillard, and Barbara Ehrenreich. Students will work on a final project that is related to their area of study. Significant emphasis will be placed on student revision. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Creativity |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This cross-disciplinary course will provide the opportunity to explore what creativity means to you, as well as in your chosen field of practice. You will begin waking up your imagination via exercises designed by the visionary artist Alex Grey. You will record your explorations in a journal along with drawings, doodles, etc., as your creative process unfolds. At the heart of this hands-on, experiential course lies your own project; it can range from making a piece of art, to writing an academic essay, to drafting a work-place, problem-solving report. You will take your project through these stages—wishing, choosing, starting, working, completing, and showing.You will learn strategies from psychotherapist Eric Maisel for overcoming such blocks as hungry mind, confused mind, chaotic mind, or shy mind anxiety. By semester’s end, you will do an oral presentation and a written report on your “work-in-progress,” describing what you have learned about sustaining your own creative practice. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Critical Reading |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Critical Reading of Digital Culture |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course, students will examine a number of the forces shaping society in the post-millennial cultural landscape, particularly the Internet and how it is affecting our notions of literacy, identity, knowledge, and our common cultural experience. The approach will be to examine how new forms of digital media are changing the way that we deliver, receive, create and experience text. Emphasis will be on social networking, blogging, and other forms of user-generated content, as well as journalism, advertising, privacy and copyright issues. Each student will do a research project that will ultimately be developed into an oral presentation and final paper and which will allow the student to explore how her or his specific discipline intersects with some of the main themes of the course. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Critical Reading of Popular Culture |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is designed to help students improve their academic reading and writing skills in English. Students will read both academic and general-audience articles and texts that critically examine the relation between society and popular culture, with particular attention given to advertising, music, television, technology, and film. Students will learn how to perform a close reading and analysis of the rhetoric strategies used in those texts, and will form their own opinions and interpretations of the topics and issues discussed in class. By the completion of the course, students will research, write, document, edit, and present a research paper that links their program of study to the course material. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Critical Reading: Essay & Short |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Dante and Cinematic Horror |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Digital Culture / Literacy |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Dystopian Fictions |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
A “dystopia” is an imaginary place or state in which things are unpleasant or bad, as from some form of deprivation, oppression, or terror. Keith Booker defines dystopian fiction as “any imaginative view of a society that is oriented toward highlighting in a critical way negative or problematic features of that society’s vision of the ideal.” Our focus will be on the critical element of Booker’s definition—in novels like 1984 and The Hunger Games, short stories like “Harrison Bergeron” and “Caught in the Organ Draft,” films like V for Vendetta and Gattaca—and thus on extracting and analyzing the principal themes and sub-themes of these dystopian fictions: justice, freedom, individuality, morality, ethical behaviour, cognitive estrangement, power, surveillance, time, betrayal, the integrity of mind and body, children, the public and private, sexuality, religion, language, and history." |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Ecological Literacy |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Arguments about nature and the environment – about climate change, endangered species, recycling, toxic contamination, sustainable development, and broadly speaking, our relationship to the biosphere – are both topical and stimulating. Voices located at many points on the social-political spectrum speak to a range of different audiences, and their arguments vary widely in content and argumentative strategies. In this course we enter these arguments by reading and responding to some key texts of environmental thought, as well as articles on current trends and controversies. The objective is to develop an “ecological literacy:” an informed understanding of some key ecological-environmental concepts, paired with the ability to participate in public debate using some effective rhetorical strategies. Students will read and write online, participate in class discussions and simulations, and benefit from visits to the class by guest speakers throughout the semester. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Film and Cultural Studies |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Food for Thought |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
There are many reasons we choose the food we eat: nutritional, cultural, religious, and aesthetic, to name a few. In this course we will be looking at some important texts about food, what writers from different periods and places have had to say about food and the implications of diet for humans and the planet. Readings will vary from short stories to essays to historical analyses; they will include selections from Montaigne, T.C. Boyle, Margaret Visser, M. F. K. Fisher, Frances Moore Lappe, Anna Lappe, Michael Pollan, and Anthony Bourdain, among others. We will be looking at rhetorical strategies used by these writers and at ways to improve reading, writing and presentation skills. Student responses will include a personal essay, a restaurant review, a presentation, an analytical essay, culminating in a research essay of 1000 words related to your program. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Gender and the Media |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Horror Cinema and Theory |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
How Do You Feel? |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Although we hear every day about new medications, therapies, medical devices, we experience ourselves as under threat from new diseases, syndromes, or familiar diseases that seem resistant to cures. We are constantly bombarded by messages about diet, exercise, and other advice on how to maintain health, but the information we receive is not always consistent. In this course, we will reflect upon how we think about health and illness, with particular attention to the social and cultural aspects, rather than just the purely biomedical approach. We will read essays, articles, and first person narratives. Teaching methods include lectures, discussions, group exercises, formal and informal writing assignments. Emphasis in writing assignments is on revision of first drafts through peer editing and conferences. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Human/Nature |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Our attitudes about nature — which we are both a part of and in conflict with — are revealed in every aspect of culture, from our creation myths to news stories, documentary films, poems, and blogs. In this course we will examine the rhetorical strategies that express these attitudes, with a particular focus on the student’s own program of study. This blog-based course with varied individual and group activities and projects will be based in one of Dawson’s new state-of-the-art active-learning classrooms, but we will also sometimes head outside for some urban nature-writing adventures. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Humans, Animals and the Environment |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course students examine different manifestations of the human relationship with the natural world, both animate and inanimate, from the more obvious stories about humans surviving in the face of harsh weather or predatory animals to more subtle interrogations of humanity’s place within or separate from the natural world. The geographical focus will be on works from North America, and the class will study a broad range of works produced since the landing of Europeans in the Americas. The goal of the course is to introduce students to a range of ideas concerning the place of human beings in the context of other animals and the environment. Final projects in this course will be related to students’ programs of study and will explore some environmental issue in that context. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Humans, Animals,and the Environment |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Imagine: Peace and Literature |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Imagine: Literature and Peace |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
"Conflict” is an element of fiction students know well, and so it would seem that literature revels in clashes between persons or ideas. In fact, although their creative works highlight conflict, by and large, the majority of canonic authors stand for peace and human dignity against war, violence, and destruction. This course will encourage students to look at various narratives, most of them centered around conflict, and see, and at times imagine, what peace might look like. Throughout the term, we will examine themes related to peace, opportunities for peace in various stories, and peace-building. We will also ground our literary analysis and discussions in a number of varied, multidisciplinary essays on the subject. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Indigenous Creative Non-Fiction |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Inquiry-Based Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course, we will focus on the concept of inquiry-based writing, which is to say in order to be an informed speaker on a given issue or topic, you will need to inquire deeply into the issue. Only from a position of understanding can we stake a claim to a position and argue for that position. As a consequence, our focus will be on not only understanding a text from its rhetorical position, but also focus on asking questions of the text as well as ourselves. In addition, there are issues of information, credibility, and authority that must be considered and questioned. Ultimately, inquiry-based writing will ask you to ask questions of yourself and to seek information. A healthy dose of skepticism will also be needed — we cannot simply accept what has been said simply because it has been said. In the end, we want to be authoritative, informed individuals. From that position, we can write with confidence, confidence that will be evident to a reader. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Journalism Across the Disciplines |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course introduces students from all programs and profiles to the experience of journalistic writing. Students will write profiles of experts and professionals in their chosen fields of study, cover guest speakers and Dawson events related to their programs and explore trends and problems in their fields. The will learn interview techniques, integration of quotations, and how and when to attribute to a live source. No prior journalism experience is necessary. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Journalistic Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course focuses on the basics of print journalism - in particular, how to present facts in proper news-writing format. You will learn how to evaluate and rate the newsworthiness and reader-appeal of specific events, how to maintain journalistic ethics and avoid libellous statements, how to follow consistent news-style writing rules, how to write story leads, bodies and headlines, how to do research and attend a press conference, and how to edit copy. The emphasis will be on the delivery of accurate news in a clear, concise and lively style. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Know Thyself |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
We represent ourselves in writing every time we post a blog entry or send an e-mail to a friend, a résumé to an employer, a statement of interest to a university, a letter to a newspaper, or a funding application to a government agency while doing a Master’s degree or a Ph.D. This course encourages students to write on behalf of and about themselves as they apply rhetorical skills that allow them to represent their views to an audience in a strategic, dynamic, persuasive, and powerful manner. Students will polish off their résumé, learn to write a “knock-out” statement of interest to a university or for an internship, and then discover how to conceive, organize, research, and write effective arguments in many forms. Editing skills and critical thinking will be emphasized. Students will also learn the essentials of rhetorical writing and examine/critique the essays and speeches of their predecessors: Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela among others. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Language and Power |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course explores the relationship between language and power. Words have the power to persuade and inspire, but they also have the power to oppress and hurt. The course will consider the relationship between language and power in several different areas: Register, Political Language, Political Correctness, and Global Language. We will also work on ways to make your own writing more powerful through explanations of grammar and style, and writing and editing activities. Please note that this course will involve the use of politically charged words and swear words. Our discussion of these words will always be concerned with the issues of power that they raise. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Languages and Cultures |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Life Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Literary Nonfiction and Social Critique |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Literature and Ethics |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will aim to develop students' reading and writing skills through the investigation of works of literature, with a particular focus on ethical issues that are presented in these works. The two central texts of the course are Cormac McCarthy’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road, and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s celebrated graphic novel Watchmen. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Literature of Migration |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Lost and Found |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
The objective of this course is to enable students to communicate clearly, coherently, and effectively mainly through writing, but also orally. In order to enhance their writing skills, students will learn to develop their critical and analytical reading skills by approaching texts from the genres of fiction and non-fiction. The class will address the general topic of “Lost and Found” by looking at a selection of novels, short stories, memoirs, and short scholarly articles from a variety of disciplines - Literature, History, New Media, Education, Cultural Studies, and Political Studies. Some of the related themes explored during the course include issues of lost language or heritage, nostalgia, homelessness, body modification, memory, iconography, collecting, identity. Students will interpret and approach this theme of lost and found through writing assignments and orals using literary and other rhetorical techniques appropriate to their programs. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Lost&Found:Literat&Material Culture |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Mastering Rhetorical Strategies |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
The major objective of this composition course is for students to improve their writing style through intense reading and focused writing and grammar practice. Students will read and discuss a wide variety of literary essays (prose models). These readings and discussions will lead to writing practice. Students will also study elements of English style and usage and are expected to use them in their writing. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify, discuss and evaluate the message, intended audience and purpose of a specific text, to write essays and make oral presentations on topics from their particular discipline. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Memoir and Autobiography |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Memory and Narrative |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course explores the cross-section of memory and narrative in a wide range of literary genres. Through close analysis of fiction, non-fiction, film and personal memoir, the course will attempt to answer the question of how we construct stories in order to make sense of remembered experience. Texts include non-fiction science writing from Oliver Sacks and Joshua Foer; cultural philosophy from Walter Benjamin; short fiction by Alice Munro; films by Errol Morris and Charlie Kaufman; and a novel by Ian McEwan. Students will be asked, with their final project, to apply the course’s primary theme to their own field of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Methods of Cultural Analysis |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is an introduction to critical thinking, reading and writing about culture in contemporary forms such as essays, movies, short fiction, digital mass media, social networking websites, brands and advertising. The main focus will be on English-speaking North American popular culture and a few of the critical methods we can use to understand it. Most examples will be from so-called popular culture, while exploring what distinctions can be made between “pop culture” and “high culture”. Students will examine the rhetorical, artistic, ideological and market forces shaping our society and its cultural expressions. By the end of the course, students will have acquired a toolbox of critical concepts to draw on in analyzing literature, film and other media. These critical concepts will be taken from the fields of psychoanalytic film criticism, Marxism, cultural studies, gender studies, media studies, institutional analysis, twentieth century history and literary criticism. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Non-Fiction Workshop |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Using Zinsser’s text as our guide, we will explore several areas of non-fiction: letters, writing about the arts, and travel writing. We will read some preeminent examples from each category, after which you will create your own. We will also use Zinsser’s book to improve your writing and reading skills to the point where you develop a fluency with the specialized vocabulary and conventions of non-fiction writing. Towards the end of the course, you will complete an oral presentation, and on the last day of classes, you will submit a major research paper that relates to your program of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Non-Fiction Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will explore the genre of nonfiction writing, which encompasses all writing that is based on real events rather than a story invented by the author. The course focuses on two particular types of nonfiction—memoir (which examines an experience or period in a writer’s life) and feature writing (which examines a current issue or topic). By looking at examples of excellent nonfiction writing published in the last decade, we will see what kinds of techniques make this some of the most appealing and unforgettable writing being done today. In addition to close reading and analysis of a range of nonfiction authors, students will work on their own piece of nonfiction writing in this course, on a topic related to their program of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Nonfiction Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course aims to improve your written expression by making it more sophisticated, persuasive, effective, engaging, and convincing. We will read examples of compelling pieces of nonfiction and pick apart what makes them work. Emphasis will be placed on the mechanics of good writing, and on specific techniques that writers use to bring their writing to life. Some of these include different methods of argumentation, description, narration, imagery, and dialogue. Throughout the course, you will work on one major project: a feature article (like a magazine article) on the topic of your choice. Through different in-class writing exercises, you will sharpen different tools that you can use to help bring your own writing to life. We will focus mostly on the procedural nature of writing, and all the different steps that go into creating a product that is polished, professional, and interesting. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Peer Teaching |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Popular Culture: Jamaica |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Jamaica is one of the first countries to have an established English-speaking culture in the western hemisphere. In the 20th and 21st centuries, musical production and sporting accomplishments have led to a disproportionately large media presence. Yet it is not limited to its stereotypes. The interdisciplinary readings in this course demonstrate how popular culture can be analysed both as art and as culture. In addition to studying musical texts, films, plays and novels from a literary or point of view, it uses a theoretically informed approach to looking at culture. The first part of the course will be concerned with establishing socio-historical and socio-cultural context. It will lay the foundations firstly for discussions of the two plays and novel discussed later on and secondly for the final research assignment, which requires awareness of a broad cultural context. Students will write research papers informed by their disciplinary specializations. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Reading through Horror Film |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is designed to develop students' proficiency in producing well-structured texts and oral reports that will prepare them for the writing challenges they will encounter in their chosen careers. An important aim of the course is to show that academic writing, literary criticism, business writing, scientific reporting and journalism are not wholly distinct disciplines, but depend on the same criteria of clearly formulated purpose, awareness of audience, exactness and economy of expression, and internal cohesion that characterize all good writing. Consequently, the course will be divided between understanding argument through analysis and practising argument through composition. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric and Communication |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Words hold special power. They inform us about the world around us, and they can persuade us to change our thoughts and actions. In this course we will examine the use of rhetoric in essays, speeches, marketing and documentary film. We will analyze the way words and images are used to influence and change the way people think and act. By learning to recognize elements of rhetoric in written and spoken texts, students will develop their skills in critical textual and cultural analysis. They will also learn how to use rhetoric to make their own writing more effective and persuasive. We will also examine the ethics of persuasion, by learning about fallacies of argument and by analyzing propaganda. Students will be required to produce a variety of texts in this class, from rhetorical analyses to practical proposals to political speeches and marketing pitches. The final assignment for the course will be on a program-related topic of the student’s choice. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric and Journalism |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is really two courses in one: In the first half of the term we will examine the use of rhetoric in essays, speeches, journalism and marketing. We will analyze the way words and images are used to influence the way people think and act. By learning to recognize elements of rhetoric in written and spoken texts students will, in turn, learn how to use these elements to make their own writing and speech more effective and persuasive. In the second half of the term we will study and practice journalism, focusing primarily on the feature article. This part of the course consists of in-depth study of feature articles as well as writing exercises and short assignments. Students will learn to pitch a story idea, conduct interviews and in-depth research, organize their material, write leads, structure and write the different parts of a feature article. By end of term, students will produce a 1000-word article on a topic of their choice that is related to their field of study. |
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| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric and Professional Communication |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is designed to teach students rhetorical strategies for both professional and academic situations and to create a basic portfolio that represents their interests/ambitions in their chosen field of study. We will be reading mainly non-fiction essays and famous examples of rhetoric that represent various academic disciplines in order to study and analyze the style and arguments represented by these works. The course is based on field-specific writing projects that closely connect presentation, audience, and purpose. Feedback on work in progress is an essential component of this process. The class will be conducted as a workshop in which students will practice oral and written communication strategies, try out their ideas, and receive feedback from the instructor and their peers. Students will practice strategies good writers use: free writing, brainstorming, audience analysis, and transforming writer-based to reader-based prose. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric and Social Change |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Words can change the course of human history. They shape our understanding of the world around us, and they can influence and persuade us to thought and action. In this course we will examine the use of rhetoric in essays, speeches, marketing and documentary film. Students will analyze the way words and images are used to influence and change the way people think and act, with the goal of making their own writing more effective and persuasive. We will also examine the ethics of persuasion, focusing on fallacies of argument and propaganda. Throughout the semester students will produce a variety of analytical and persuasive texts. In-class writing sessions will provide students with access to individual editing help from the instructor. The final assignment will be on a program-related topic of the student’s choice. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric of Political and Social Change |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetoric&Professional Communication |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetorical Modes |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course, students will be reading, analyzing and producing a variety of non-fiction texts. Emphasis will be placed on the rhetorical strategies and techniques used in these texts and how they relate to each text’s subject-matter, context, audience and purpose. Rather than only reading and analyzing the work of other writers, students will also work on developing their own language skills and styles in a variety of situations: formal and informal essays, business-related writing, program-related writing, informative presentations, and so on. With this in mind, class-time will be devoted to discussing and analyzing texts students have read as well as to outlining, developing, work-shopping and editing the students’ own work. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Rhetorical Strategies |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is designed to teach students how to employ various rhetorical strategies used in written communication. Through the analysis of various essays, students will learn how to write a variety of professional and academically oriented texts with presentation, audience and purpose in mind. This course will also focus on strategies for generating ideas, conducting research, planning, organizing, revising and editing texts. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Sport, Society and Culture |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course seeks to examine writing about the nexus of sport, society and culture. Starting from a socio-historical overview of the development of sport since the Industrial Revolution, it examines the role different sports play in our lives by drawing upon studies in the social sciences, autobiographical writing, documentaries and feature (fictional) films. Among the areas covered in this course are: the tradition of fitness, the role of the spectator, marketing of professional sport, sports journalism and public relations. The objective is to have students thinking about sport, including little known or discussed kinds of sport, in new ways. From a rhetorical point of view, students will ask themselves the following questions: What different ways exist for presenting my argument? Which is the most effective? |
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| 603-BXE-DW |
Sports Writing |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
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| Description for Course: |
The goal of this course is to encourage students to think about honesty, integrity, and morality through the lens of sports writing. We will be looking at a combination of texts but central to them is the choices athletes make in relation to their sport both on a professional and personal level. All of these decisions, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, create a narrative that ultimately influence how these figures are thought of and remembered. Students will be expected to relate the issues addressed in class to their own disciplines of study. Class time will be devoted to discussions, workshops, lectures, correcting and rewriting sessions, oral presentations and compositions. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Stranger than Fiction? Explorations in Memoir and Autobiography |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
David Sedaris, Mary Karr, Haven Kimmel, Truman Capote, Marianne Faithfull and Roald Dahl, to name a few. Students will explore the difference between memoir and autobiography, and they will examine what non-fiction reveals about the author as opposed to what it intends to reveal. Students will identify what these authors’ stories reveal about love, loss, relationships, childhood, identity and why these stories need to be told. Students will engage in close readings and will be expected to respond in class discussion and in their written work. Students will analyze and respond to the form and recurring themes found within memoir and autobiography. Class will consist of lecture, class discussion, evaluating and presenting oral presentations and the revision and editing of students’ work. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Surviving Overload |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Text and the City: Art, Literature Urban Living in Montreal |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
The Classic Horror Film |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
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| Description for Course: |
This course will pursue the idea of “classic” horror as a way to designate films that articulate an important set of historical concerns. Most of our films will be more than thirty years old, though by the end we will approach the current state of the horror genre. Throughout the semester we will consider the genre’s continuing adaptability, as well as the various responses horror films capture and conjure—including fear, disgust, humour, and shame. We will also examine the genre’s socio-political work, including horror’s special importance for feminism and queer theory. Finally, this course we will use the horror film and diverse critical approaches to it (historical, psychological, philosophical, etc.) as a means of developing skill sets indispensable to students’ unique fields of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
The Ethics of Nonfiction |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
The Horror Genre |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
The MaddAddam Trilogy |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
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| Description for Course: |
Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy offers a glimpse into a possible human future, a climate-changed world where corporations have replaced governments, technological advances such as DNA manipulation are commonplace, endangered animals end up on dinner plates in secret high-end restaurants, and criminals fight to the death in broadcast entertainment. While exploring the questions these conditions give rise to, the novels also develop themes that transcend their dystopian setting: gender, love, death, knowledge, the role of media and entertainment, parent-child relationships, sacrifice, personal and social responsibility, and the place and purpose of art, storytelling, and religion. Varied assignments will allow you to pursue the aspects of the books that interest you most and to connect the novels' concerns to present-day realities. You'll also explore the trilogy's relevance to your own program of study. Come study the novels in good company before the series comes out on HBO! |
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| 603-BXE-DW |
The Storytelling Animal |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
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| Description for Course: |
We use stories to make sense of our world and share that understanding with others. We use stories to entertain and educate, to argue and debate, to confess and understand. We will study some of the major genres of storytelling: epic, myth, tragedy, allegory, and romance in the realms of fiction, and non fiction and consider questions like: What are the formal elements that make for a great story? How do character, theme, plot, perspective, and style contribute to our understanding of a story? How does a story’s medium, as an oral, visual, virtual, or print-based text, change or alter our sense of its place and importance in our society? What hopes and desires, needs and anxieties, does it answer to? How do the representations of gender, sexuality, race, and class inform the art and practice of story-telling? As well, we will practice our own creative storytelling skills in order to gain a deeper understanding of how writers tell stories, and to help us define our own narrative voice. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
The Truth is Out Where? |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Watching the Detectives |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course, we will examine detective fiction, focusing primarily on the evolution of the detective—from the coldly analytical, to the hard-nosed-gum-shoe, the disenfranchised dick (detective) suffering from world-weariness, and finally to the detective who merits being detected. We will also explore how we know. How can we be sure that what we think we know is, in fact, knowable? Moreover, does looking backward at clues and reading details and clues suggest a well-ordered universe just gone a bit off with this particular incident? Or are there graver implications? |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Watching the Detectives: From Dupin to Dexter |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
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| Description for Course: |
The objective of this course is to enable students to communicate in forms appropriate to programs. To that end, we will examine the evolution of the detective in film and fiction from many different angles. We begin with the coldly analytical Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes, then the hard-nosed-gum-shoe---the disenfranchised dick (detective) of film noir, and finally, Dexter, a blood splatter analyst who is also a murderer. We will examine how the detective copes when the rules of the game change during the play. How far will the detective go (like Oedipus and Oedipa and Angel) to figure things out? And how can the detective be sure that what s/he thinks is the truth is actually true. Moreover, does looking backward at clues and reading details suggest a well-ordered universe just gone a bit wrong? Or are there graver implications? |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
What's Your Story or Once Upon a Time:The Road to Redemption |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
White Noise |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise is one of the most celebrated works of postmodern fiction. It also has the virtue of being an encyclopedic survey of the contemporary world, touching, as it does, on a seemingly limitless number of topics. The novel will serve as the touchstone spurring discussion and critique of a number of topical issues in numerous fields, including some of the most popular fields of study here at Dawson. The culmination of the course will be a research project of your own devising that links some topic or issue from the novel with a topic or issue in your own field of study. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Why Violence Has Declined |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course will centre around a close reading of a recent work of scholarship (and popular bestseller), Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Pinker makes a surprising argument: throughout history, violence has tended to decline, and “today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence” (xxi). In addition to short assignments, students will complete two essays specifically discussing parts of Pinker’s book, and a program-specific essay connecting Pinker’s work in some way with their program of study. Students will also participate in two short group presentations, one on a chapter (or part of a chapter) from Pinker’s book, and one discussing a film relating to violence. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing About Children |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
What makes good writing? What is it about some books, magazine articles or blogs that keeps us reading, holding our attention like a great conversation or a powerful movie? This course will explore the genre of nonfiction writing, which encompasses all writing that closely reflects actual information and events (rather than to info and events that are invented). While nonfiction can include anything from grocery lists to instruction manuals to research and business reports, we will focus on two particular types of nonfiction – memoir (which examines an experience or period in a writer’s or other subject’s life) and book - or article-length feature writing (which examines an issue or topic). |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing about Film |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
For this course, film will be considered as a broad category that includes the movies of classic and contemporary Hollywood cinema, scripted television comedies, documentary films, independent/art cinema, and world cinema. By screening various examples from these different areas, we will consider the general concerns of storytelling and argument in audiovisual media. Studying writing about film will also allow us to address the basics of argument in print and other verbal media. We will read and analyze various examples of nonfiction writing including film reviews, cultural journalism, scholarly film criticism, and scholarly writing in other academic fields. Readings will prepare each student for the major writing assignments for the course which will include critical essays on short and feature-length films as well as a rhetorical analysis of a scholarly article relevant to the student’s program of study. |
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| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing about the Novel |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
This course is a survey of the novel. After discussing the rise of the genre in the eighteenth century and considering representative excerpts from authors such as Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding, we will study two nineteenth-century novels, two modernist works, and a novel by a contemporary author. Particular attention will be paid to the historical contexts of the books and the connections between the development of the novel form and social, historical, philosophical, and technological developments in Western society. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing and Rhetoric |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing in a Visual World |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Description for Course: |
In this course, students learn to produce professional documents for audiences outside the academic framework. We will assess the effectiveness of these documents and explore the relationship between image and text. Students will work on their individual projects in class, using Microsoft Publisher templates, and receive feedback from their peers and the instructor. The four major projects are: a personal essay and resumé for university or an internship; a pamphlet that describes a process for a specific audience; a children's project geared to a specific age group that solves a problem; and an 8-16 page booklet that defines and solves a problem for Dawson students. All projects should relate to the student's program. Emphasis is placed on appropriate language, effective sentences and paragraphs, and creating visual text that draws the reader’s attention. Students are evaluated based on criteria developed in class and are to participate in their own evaluations. |
|
| 603-BXE-DW |
Writing Nonfiction |
2 - 2 - 2 |
60 |
|
| Descriptions for Course: |
The description for this course is not available at this time.
Please check with the Program Coordinator. |
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