This course aims to improve your writing skills–your
ability to write nuanced, engaging sentences; to build effective paragraphs; to
construct arguments; to engage various audiences; to integrate other people’s
thoughts into your own. It encourages you to be more reflective, critical, and
careful writers, through a series of exercises and formal assignments in
expressive, expository, argumentative, and researched writing. While
“skills”-oriented, the course will discuss several contemporary social/cultural/political
issues (many related to Hawaii, to be found in the one required text for the
course, The Value of Hawaii 2: Ancestral
Roots, Oceanic Visions, ed. Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear Ka‘ōpua), a
collection of short essays, many of which pivot around the concept of good
citizenship or good stewardship of land and resources. Additional essays, short
stories, poems will be available on the course website on Laulima.
ASSIGNED WORK:
You will write six graded essays, five of them around three
pages, and one a longer research paper of about ten pages. In addition to the
graded papers, there will be short in-class writings or postings on Laulima or
exercises for most class periods on pre-assigned topics (relating to short
readings, topics, or assignments for the day).