Loyola University Chicago

Writing Program

Advanced Writing

Many students find writing skills so useful that they choose to devote some of their elective credits to taking courses in advanced writing after they have completed the required sequence. The English department currently offers three such courses and is in the process of developing others. 

 


ENGL 210: Business Writing

(3.00 credits)

ENGL 210 offers students who want to improve their professional writing, or are considering careers in business, training and practice in various forms of business writing, such as memos, instructions, letters, resumes, proposals, and reports. 


ENGL 211: Writing for Pre-Law Students

(3.00 credits)

ENGL 211 offers students who plan to attend law school an opportunity to practice various types of legal writing, including case briefs, office memoranda, and trial and appellate opinions.


ENGL 293: Advanced Writing

(3.00 credits)

ENGL 293 appears in the Course Schedule with a subtitle that defines the topic or writing genre to be studied. The course helps students improve their prose through instruction in close analysis and in-depth revision in a small workshop setting. Below are a few examples of course offerings: 

What Makes Great Academic Writing Happen?

Taught by Ellssa Weeks Stogner

Description: Great academic writing doesn’t just happen. It must be practiced, studied, learned, and taught. This advanced writing course will focus on the writing process (how a writer progresses from the blank page to a “finished” product) – how it works and what scholars have discovered and theorized about it. Course work will center around, first, students’ reconsiderations of their own writing processes and additions to their repertoire of strategies and, second, active reading and discussion of composition theory about the writing process. In other words, students will do a lot of practicing and reading about writing! Course requirements are still under consideration but are likely to include (1) reading all assigned materials; (2) actively participating in class; and (3) completing two reflective essays, two extensive essay writing processes, and multiple written responses to theoretical texts.

 

Writing with/in New Media

Taught by Laura Goldstein and Elizabeth Hopwood

Description: We will practice writing in and across modalities and technologies that are both “old” and “new,” familiar and unfamiliar. We will consider how communication is mediated and remediated in the digital age, and we will draw connections between historical moments of print culture with that of contemporary technological advancement, considering, for instance, the many ways that technology has shaped the way we read and interpret (and, indeed, are ourselves read and interpreted). Some topics we will explore include emerging digital genres (websites, blogs, memes), digital storytelling, multimodal composition, and social media. This is a Writing-Intensive course and an Engaged Learning course. Students will have two options for Service Learning hours: either by volunteering with Loyola’s chapter of Girls Who Code, or mentoring through Illinois Science and Industry Institute.

  • ENGL 293-1WE #3476 is an Engaged Learning and Writing Intensive course.  It satisfies the Loyola University Chicago Engaged Learning requirement.

 

Personal and Professional Impact through Publication

Taught by Michael Meinhardt

DescriptionThis Advanced Writing course explores the dynamic forms and structures of composition beyond the classroom toward the purposes of professional publication and presentation. Composition offers a wide array of exciting forms, styles and structures beyond the academic essay, and this course develops an appreciation and capability for students¿ choices of essay types in creating several for personal, professional and hybrid writing, and the accompanying professional documents necessary for the publication or presentation process. As a community of writers we research, draft, comment and prepare for submission together. We will explore relevant readings from composition theory and pedagogy to inform our writing projects, as well as how we conceive of the writing process. Engaging, supportive and challenging, this course is ideal for writers in any discipline who wish to become better writers and to enjoy the process as they do so.