The English Department and Writing Program offer a number of courses that support writers' development in a variety of genres and contexts. For First-Year students, we offer Academic English & Academic Inquiry seminars. For all undergraduates, we offer a variety of Communication Intensive and other courses in areas such as:
- rhetoric & writing studies
- language & linguistics
- professional/technical communication
- literature, film & media studies
- creative writing & journalism
Each semester, the English department publishes detailed course descriptions, which include additional information about the courses being offered. For a complete set of department courses, please consult the General Bulletin or the Student Information System (SIS), using course codes ENGL (English), WRIT (Writing & Rhetoric), AIAE (Academic English), and/or AIQS (Academic Inquiry).
For personalized writing support, ENGL 180: Writing Tutorial (1 credit) is a weekly tutorial with a consultant from the Writing Resource Center that is designed to meet the specific writing goals of each student.
Sample courses from our literature, professional/technical communication, non-native speaker, language and linguistics, and creative writing offerings are described below. Many of these courses also count as Communication Intensive (CI) courses in the CWRU Unified General Education Requirements (UGER). In addition to the courses described below, we offer topical seminars that highlight the diverse scholarly interests of our students and faculty.
Sample Professional & Technical Writing Courses
- WRIT 210 (ENGL 217A): Business & Professional Writing (CI) - An introduction to professional communication in theory and practice. Special attention paid to audience analysis, persuasive techniques in written and oral communication, document design strategies, and ethical communication practices.
- WRIT 211 (ENGL 217B): Writing for the Health Professions (CI) - This course offers practice and training in the professional and technical writing skills common to health professions (e.g., medicine, nursing, dentistry). Attention will be paid to the writing processes of drafting, revising, and editing. Typical assignments include: letters, resumes, personal essays, professional communication genres (e.g., email, reports, patient charts, and histories), and scholarly genres (e.g., abstracts, articles, and reviews).
- WRIT 212: Legal Writing (CI) - This course explores the language and of the law by studying legal documents, cases, and statutes, as well as by composing memos, briefs, and letters. It examines the ways lawyers make arguments, the inner workings of the legal system in the United States, and what the legal profession looks like. No prior experience or knowledge is required, and students do not need to be planning on law school to benefit from this course.
- WRIT 345/445: Grant Writing (1 credit) - This course focuses on understanding and composing the elements of a funding proposal. Different types of grants will be considered: non-profit organizations, governmental, STEM, Arts, and Humanities. Focus may shift depending on the interests and experience of enrolled students. Students will prepare a polished, submittable funding application to an organization of their choice.
Sample Courses Designed for Non-Native Speakers of English
- ENGL 146: Tools, Not Rules: English Grammar for Writers - This course provides an introduction to English grammar in context for academic writers. It focuses on the study of language in use, including parts of speech, sentence grammar, paragraph structure, and text cohesion.
- ENGL 147: Writing Across Disciplines (CI) - In this course, students will develop their genre knowledge and metacognitive skills to prepare for the advanced writing, reading, and research tasks required in upper-level writing and disciplinary courses across the university. Through individual and group inquiry, students will analyze and discuss the conventions of academic genres to understand the textual and linguistic features and disciplinary expectations of each form of writing. Then, students will apply these generic conventions through the production and revision of writing within each genre. Throughout the semester, students will engage in workshops and discussions that foster skills in the areas of seminar participation, collaboration, rhetorical awareness, and critical thinking.
Sample Rhetoric, Language & Linguistics Courses
- ENGL 255: Rhetoric and the Art of Public Speaking (CI) - This course uses the lens of classical rhetoric to explore contemporary political debate. While the word "rhetoric" is often used today to deride precisely what's wrong with political discourse, it more properly denotes the techniques of effective persuasion. By learning how rhetorical devices are used, we can empower ourselves to analyze policy debates and to make our own contributions.
- ENGL 301: Linguistic Analysis - Analysis of modern English from various theoretical perspectives: structural, generative, discourse analytical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, and cognitive linguistic. Some attention to the major dialects of American English.
- ENGL 310: History of the English Language - An introductory course covering the major periods of English language development: Old, Middle, and Modern. Students will examine both the linguistic forms and the cultures in which the forms were used.