This summer, the English Department will be offering students a number of courses to help expand their educational horizons, whether meeting a general education requirement, studying the nuances of language in society, or engaging their creative writing interests. Consider signing up to take a class. Registration begins on March 5, 2018. 

ENGL 100: Composition: a course in critical thinking, reading, and composing, with an emphasis on integrating academic research and documentation. Students read and produce work for a variety of purposes and audiences, focusing on strategies for researching, organizing, drafting, sharing, and revising. To satisfy the composition general education requirement, this course must be taken within a student’s first thirty credit hours of enrollment at UMBC.

ENGL 190: The World of Language—Structural and Biological Aspects: language as a distinctive characteristic of the human species. In this course, we examine the structure of both written and spoken forms of language across cultures, comparing them with animal communication and human gestural systems. We explore language's neurological basis, theories of origin, and first- and second-language learning.

ENGL 191: The World of Language—Cultural and Social Aspects: language as both a reflection and a determiner of social relationships. In this course, we examine the varying idioms of the scientist, the politician, the media, the poet, the child and the magician, and we investigate how language changes and how it marks social groups. Communication strategies and social taboos reflected in language are discussed for various cultures. This is a hybrid course, meeting face-to-face on a regular schedule for the first three weeks of the session; the final three weeks will be online.

ENGL 271: Introduction to Creative Writing—Fiction: an introduction to the writing of prose fiction. This is a hybrid course.

ENGL 272: Introduction to Creative Writing—Scriptwriting: an introduction to scriptwriting, with variable emphasis on drama, film, television, radio, and interactive multimedia

ENGL 393: Technical Communication: This course teaches students from various disciplines to communicate technical information effectively. The course's emphases on critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, and the writing process help students to inform and persuade their audiences through the composition of technical documents. Reflecting a professional writing style and document design principles, these documents demonstrate how text and visuals work together to reach different audiences with specific needs. Students also develop oral communication and collaborative skills along with technological and visual literacy.

The English Department here at UMBC is pleased to announce that three of our stellar tutors in the Writing Center—located on the first floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library—as well as Director of the Writing Center, Elaine MacDougall, will be travelling to Rowan University from March 23-24, 2018 to present at the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association (MAWCA) Conference.

“Notes from a Stanger in a Strange Land” Story Session

In a story session style presentation, I plan to explain how I find myself actively trying to dismantle some of the connotations that surround the Writing Center and how I place an importance on establishing acceptance and creating a safe space where individuals from every background feel that they have a safe space on campus. This is in part achieved by 1) being individual and 2) being accepting.

"Narrating Past Privilege Through Social Identity" Roundtable

In order to evaluate the perpetuation of dominant cultural values in writing, participants will have the opportunity to complete self-assessments to discover the degree of privilege that has affected them personally as well as explore their social identity in concrete terms. The group will collectively debrief after each assessment by engaging in a reflective dialogue and answering questions of how this activity has enlightened their position within the workplace and respectfully discuss dynamics that these differences may present. In other words, this roundtable offers interpersonal relations reflections of identity and privilege to better tutor-client relations via social conflict theory, evaluating and co-creating best practices to strengthen the author’s voice within narrative compositions.

  

"The Power of Silence and Stillness in Writing Center Conversations"

Many of our conversations today are fragmented and distracted due to our fast-paced, technological world. How can writing tutors then utilize silence and stillness to create mindful, non-judgmental sessions with their peers? This presentation will examine the ways in which creating a space where silence, stillness, and listening are encouraged can deepen our conversations and connections in the Writing Center, which could help reduce anxiety surrounding the writing process. 

This course critically examines how ideologies of gender and race are produced and disseminated through a range of media genres and forms such as film, television, music, advertising, news, the Internet and social media, and popular culture. In this course, you will delve into the links between media representations, institutional and political practices, and our “real-life” experiences of race and gender. As daily consumers and producers of media, students will analyze how media articulates, creates, and enforces identities and power. In honing our media literacy skills we will practice tools of critical reading and thinking, such as textual and visual analysis, utilizing a cultural studies and intersectional feminist lens.

We are now accepting applications for our summer 2018 field school, the San Gemini Preservation Studies Program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eraline Sabino, '09

Roxana Bardan, '09

Amber Taylor, '17

Brandon Wright, '12

Robbin Lee, '13

Moderator: Emma Hagen, '14

Light Fare & Drinks Provided

If you are interested in attending this workshop, RSVP to dreshercenter@umbc.edu