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"Advanced study of expository and argumentative techniques."  (AASU Catalog)

This course is designed to make writers aware of the process and techniques of writing effective nonfiction.  By focusing on how the writer observes, explains, evaluates, and persuades, the assignments will draw upon and sharpen the fundamental skills that nonfiction writers rely upon.  Regular practice and evaluation are supplemented by critical readings of contemporary essays.  

In plain talk, this course asks you to write often and to respond critically to writings by your classmates, to study published works, and to discuss how weak writing fails and how strong writing works.  What kinds of writing?  Memoir, biography, travel writing, reportage, and cultural essays.  Major topics will include invention, style, persona, audience analysis, arrangement, revision, and computer-mediated communications.  The goal of this course, put simply, is the creation of original, readable, interesting prose.