FRS 003 — Sec. 022— (1 unit) — CRN 53967 — F 10:00-11:50am — 27 Olson
Responding to the Times: Modern Journalism and the Short Essay

Instructor: Andy Jones, University Writing Program, College of Letters and Science

Description: “Responding to the Times” will review three important themes relevant to the modern undergraduate: Newspaper journalism in the 21st Century, The New York Times as the nation’s newspaper of record, and the short essay as a medium for expression. Essentially a writing class for students curious about journalism and excellent writing, “Responding to the Times” will require that students read the (website of) The New York Times daily; carefully review the Times’ most e-mailed stories (http://www.nytimes.com/gst/mostemailed.html); and write essays that respond to, dispute, emulate or build upon those considered most important by the newspaper’s readers.

Format: The seminar will meet at 27 Olson on Fridays from 10-11:50 for eight weeks. Participating students must attend all class meetings, read all assigned articles and editorials from The New York Times, co-create one collaborative project and presentation, and complete a number of shorter weekly writing assignments. Each submitted essay will be read aloud to the class so its author’s instructor and peers can offer immediate critiques and suggestions. The computer classroom will allow students to review articles, look up terms, and review web-based writing resources in class. Grading: This one unit seminar will be graded pass / no pass and will be graded based on the weekly essays / Position papers (60%), the responses to Position Papers / Peer Reviews (20%) and collaborative report and presentation (20%).

About the Instructor: Andy Jones has taught for the UC Davis Department of English and The University Writing Program since 1990. In addition to teaching classes on poetry, film theory, literary criticism, Style in the Essay, and writing in the professions, Andy also coordinates the Faculty Mentoring Faculty Program for IET-Mediaworks. Always interested in cross-disciplinary thinking and studies, Andy interviews many authors, journalists and pundits as host of “Dr. Andy’s Poetry and Technology Hour” on radio station KDVS.