College Writing Programs

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
This course is intended to serve as a course for students who are non-native speakers of English and who wish to work on their written English. The purpose of the course is to develop students' ability to edit their own writing and to identify high frequency non-idiomatic uses of English. Intensive, individualized practice will be provided for students from different language backgrounds.
Grammar and Vocabulary of Written English: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 10 Week Session
An intensive, accelerated course satisfying concurrently the requirements of the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement and the first half of Reading and Composition. Readings will include imaginative, expository and argumentative texts representative of the range of those encountered in the undergraduate curriculum and will feature authors from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and perspectives. Instruction in writing a range of discourse forms and in the revision of papers.
Accelerated Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2009 10 Week Session, Summer 2008 10 Week Session
This 3-unit course is intended to serve students enrolled in the Summer Bridge Program. In this course, students will explore their educational experience as they read essays, poetry, and fiction on issues of language, culture, and identity. In their journals and in their essays, students will examine ways in which these forces interact to create a student identity.
Writing the Bridge: From High School to the University: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
This academic writing course teaches skills of critical reading, thinking, and writing to help students meaningfully engage ideas, problems, and issues in our world. This course develops students’ abilities to read written and cultural texts critically; to analyze those texts in ways that engage their own experiences and the perspectives of others; and to write about those texts for a range of readers and purposes as a means of participating in broader conversations. Assignments emphasize the analysis and synthesis of sources in the process of making and developing well-constructed arguments.
Academic Writing - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
The two goals of this course are to improve students’ ability to communicate effectively in a professional environment using business English and to become comfortable using the digital media currently being used to do business in the global economy. Course topics include cross-cultural communication, digital etiquette, web conferencing, business vocabulary, presentation skills, personal branding, and job interviewing.
Business English: Oral Communication - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
This course aims to help students practice the English language specific to American law, gain an understanding of the legal context in which English is being used, and ground students in the discourse of law to the extent their professional goals or interests warrant. These goals are achieved through a focus on the U.S. legal system and specific types of law as illustrated through sample cases. The course will be useful to students currently working as legal professionals in their own countries; those who are planning to study or practice law in the United States; and anyone curious about how the law works in the U.S. and wanting to learn language related to it.
Legal English: Introduction to the U.S. Legal System - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2023
This online course focuses on helping lawyers or law students improve their speaking and listening skills for the study or practice of U.S. law or for communication with U.S. lawyers. The course will focus on three different contexts for the listening and speaking challenges: academic speaking and listening in the law school classroom, informal speaking with other lawyers, and persuasive/formal speaking in the courtroom. The course will be useful to students currently working as legal professionals in their own countries and those who are planning to study or practice law in the United States.

Legal English: Oral Communication-Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This online course introduces basic theories and concepts of conflict and develops practical frameworks for conflict management through a range of modes, like negotiation, mediation, and conflict coaching. Students will (a) expand their understanding of conflict drawing from diverse fields, such as business, law, media, politics, psychology, and sociology; (b) refine their academic English skills to become more effective communicators; and (c) discuss ways to prevent conflict and promote peace.
Communication Skills for Conflict Resolution: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
Students will practice and acquire the grammar and vocabulary necessary for university courses — lectures, textbooks, discussions, papers — and in the reading, writing, and discussions that academics and professionals engage in outside classes. Weekly themes will incorporate a variety of fields for a broader perspective on rich academic vocabulary.
Grammar and Vocabulary - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
In this online course, non-native speaking students will improve listening comprehension and oral skills by focusing on refining English pronunciation to minimize miscommunication. By analyzing audio/video clips, students identify features of spoken American English for better understanding. Students also learn and practice strategies to help correctly produce American English stress, rhythm, intonation, plus individual vowel and consonant sounds. Students submit audio/video recordings that are analyzed and evaluated by the instructor to help each student speak with greater clarity.
ESL Listening and Speaking - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023
This online course focuses on the fundamentals of technical writing and helps students learn related technologies. Assignments will improve students' general writing skills through lessons on how to apply theories of written communication in work situations; select, organize, and present technical information for specific audiences and purposes; as well as write and revise various types of written correspondence.
Introduction to Technical Writing - Online: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
Science and technology companies want to be innovative and inclusive, but these goals often elude them. In this fully online, asynchronous course, students explore and report what research has to say about the conditions that foster inclusivity and innovation, and the complex relationship that exists between them.

Science, Technology, Innovation, and Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022
Music is both reflective of and a stimulus for social change -- a window into prevailing and emerging values. In this fully online, asynchronous course, students explore these roles and goals of music throughout American history by reading and viewing course texts, participating in online discussions and presentations, and researching specific themes of interest.
American Culture and Language: Music: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2023, Summer 2022
This course challenges students to use their critical listening, public speaking, academic research, and analytical writing skills while focusing on sociological, economic, and cultural issues related to shopping and consumerism. Students will participate in online discussions, debates, and presentations and research.
American Culture and Consumerism: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
In this 2-unit, fully online, asynchronous course, students explore cutting-edge controversies in social media -- and how best to resolve them. As they do so, they have the opportunity to refine their academic English skills and hopefully become better digital citizens.
Social Media, Culture, and Controversies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
Given its accelerating expansion into culture and society, are we prepared for the changes AI will bring? In this course we consider the breadth, impact, benefits, and dangers of AI. Interactive online discussion – along with reading, video, and writing assignment will help students examine topics and improve academic English skills. This course is partially intended non-native English speakers, but all students are welcome.
AI, Culture, and Controversies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
In this course comprised of students from around the world, students will view, review, and respond to diverse films, each of which examines a theme related to American culture. Students will discuss that theme in relation to what it says about and how it questions idyllic notions of “America.”

American Culture through Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022 3 Week Session
This course examines the multiple perspectives literature can highlight for the reader, and how those perspectives shed light on the diversity, unity, and tension within American culture. Students will examine how perspective play a role in rendering, representing and interpreting events and experiences related to our course theme via the short stories and non-fiction essays/memoirs.
American Culture through Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
Through a cross-cultural, linguistic study of gender and sexuality, students examine how gender and sexuality inform and are informed by areas of inequality, such as social class, ethnicity, race, geography, and age in the U.S. Students will also read about and share perspectives from other cultures to provide a more international perspective for the cohort.
American Culture, Sexuality, and Gender: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022
Based on course texts that include contemporary data, literature, and journalism from a range of digital and print resources, students discuss current topics in mass media and their impact on American culture and society.
American Culture through the Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 8 Week Session
This writing seminar satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The course is designed to offer students structured, sustained, and highly articulated practice in the recursive processes entailed in reading, critical analysis, and composing. Students will read five thematically related book-length texts, or the equivalent, drawn from a range of genres, in addition to various non-print sources. In response to these materials, they will craft several short pieces leading up to three longer essays--works of exposition and argumentation.
Reading and Composition: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
A lecture/seminar satisfying the second half of the Reading & Composition requirement, R4B offers structured and sustained practice in the processes used in reading, critical analysis, and writing. Students engage with thematically-related materials from a range of genres and media. In response, they craft short pieces leading to longer expository and/or argumentative essays. Students develop a research question, draft a research essay, gather, evaluate, and synthesize information from various sources. Elements of the research process--a proposal, an annotated bibliography, an abstract, a works cited list, etc.--are submitted with the final report in a research portfolio. Students write a minimum of 32 pages of prose.

Reading, Composition, and Research: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Through the medium of Broadway musicals, this course will help students improve their vocabulary, reading, writing, listening comprehension, note-taking, and oral communication. Students will view musicals (video and live); learn about their plots, songs, and lyrics; examine the historical context represented in each piece; write reviews/critiques; and work on oral presentation skills. Course includes a fieldwork component.
English Language Studies: Broadway Musicals: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course explores the language, structure, and performance of plays. Students use film, television, journals, current events, controversial issues, and personal experience as source material to write and perform plays. Course activities include character, storyline, and dialogue exercises; and close reading and analysis of academic readings. Course goals: learn academic conventions for writing, improve critical /analytical reading skills, and hone oral skills for university success.
Language, Culture, and Drama: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Students will have the opportunity to practice critical thinking, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and vocabulary skills by studying contemporary issues and learning about how the elements of film--script, cinematography, sound, lighting, and more--work together to help build a film's story and themes. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Language, Culture, and Film: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Literature offers wonderful opportunities to understand societal and interpersonal conflicts, develop vocabulary, and refine analytical skills. Designed for non-native English speakers, this course engages students in close reading and discussions of conflicts in the literature. Students are expected to read, write, and speak about the texts and themes covered in class. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Language, Culture, and Literature: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course provides an introductory study of popular music in the U.S. and how it has shaped American culture. Through this course, students will (a) increase their understanding of American cultural history by studying the significant trends and messages of its popular music and (b) develop and apply analytical and linguistic skills for close listening, analysis, synthesis, and oral presentation. A fieldwork component encourages student engagement with the local community and topic.
Language, Culture, and Popular Music: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course, designed to introduce current international human rights issues to non-native English speakers, helps students improve their critical listening, vocabulary, oral communication, and note-taking skills--the skills needed for participation in university courses and in the fields of international human rights, business, and law. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Language, Culture, and International Human Rights: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Throughout its history, California has been a destination for entrepreneurs, immigrants and displaced people, and those interested in alternative lifestyles. This course introduces ESL students to the many groups that came to California and how their presence has shaped its history. Preparing ESL students for the academic language needed in college classrooms, this course requires that students research, write, and present on course texts and themes. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Language, Culture, and California History: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
In this course, students analyze critical issues and conflicts that arise related to sustainability. Course goals include improving academic English reading and research skills through completing a research review and proposal; and oral skills through engagement with video, interviews, panel discussions, and presentations. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Language, Culture, and Sustainability: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
Students will practice critical listening vocabulary, oral communication, and note-taking skills by studying American culture and social institutions as portrayed in television programs and advertisements. Assignments attempt to prepare students for seminar-style university classes. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Language, Culture, and Television: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Focusing on conversation skills in and outside of academic settings, this course challenges students to use their English language critical listening, speaking, and note-taking skills while focusing on sociological and economic issues related to shopping and consumerism. Students will listen to lectures; learn new vocabulary; watch and critique video and film clips; examine articles in the media and journals; and participate in debates and presentations. Fieldwork component.
English Language Studies: Consumer Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
This course examines how the various forms of media intersect with culture to reinforce or change how we see ourselves and the world. Students examine this intersection of culture and the media through print, radio, TV, movies, music, and the Internet. Through course assignments, students will develop the following language skills: critical listening and reading; small group, whole-class, and public speaking; response writing; and academic and colloquial vocabulary. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Language, Culture, and the Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Students will improve their English language listening, speaking, reading, writing, and note-taking skills while focusing on current issues and debates related to environmental issues. Students will discuss, analyze, and critique lectures, videos, and readings; write or tape responses and syntheses; and further research and present on an environmental topic or movement of specific interest. This course has a fieldwork component.
Language, Culture, and the Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The aim of this course is to develop students' communicative competence in English as a Second Language through course content about the integration of traditional approaches to health care in modern medicine in California (Chinese medicine, herbalism, yoga, and more). Skills are practiced and assessed through reading popular and scholarly articles; writing about research findings related to course content; and listening and speaking through lectures, discussion, and presentations.
English Language Studies: Traditional and Modern Medicine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course focuses on improving critical listening, vocabulary, oral communication and writing skills in English through exploring "placemaking"--an approach to the planning, design and management of public space that focuses on people. Course topics and texts draw from landscape architecture and urban planning to illustrate how people experience and use the public spaces in their community. Students will design and conduct research about public spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area as field work and will share their findings and critique the design of public spaces in class presentations and written assignments.
Language, Culture, and Public Spaces: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Designed for multilingual English students, this course explores the various forms of craft and technology in current use in individual and small entrepreneurial pursuits. We explore interdisciplinary forms of creative practices and processes through expert lectures, videos, small group projects, class discussions, and field trips to a variety of Makerspaces to meet artists, designers, cultural entrepreneurs, and other creative professionals. Through these activities, students will improve their English listening, reading, writing, vocabulary and speaking skills needed for campus/workplace communication and collaboration, project planning/execution, and problem-solving. Course involves a fieldwork component.
Language, Culture, and Makerspace Creativity: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Not yet offered
This intensive course is designed for English language learners who want to improve their language skills by comparing and contrasting a novel and its film adaptation. Throughout the course, students will engage in vocabulary development exercises, explore cultural elements, and research themes. By analyzing and discussing both the novel and the film, students will enhance their reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills in English.
English Language Studies: Comparing Novels to Their Film Adaptations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Designed for non-native speakers of English, this course aims to help students improve their skills in the four chief communicative areas of English language – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – through a cross-cultural, linguistic study of gender and sexuality. Students will engage in the study of activism and how gender and sexuality inform and are informed by areas of inequality, such as social class, ethnicity, race, geography, and age, in the U.S. and internationally. Course includes a fieldwork component.
English Language Studies: Gender and Sexuality Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2022 3 Week Session
This course is designed to give students intensive practice in spoken English for academic purposes, preparing international students for the college experience. The course focuses on main areas of content: speaking in academic situations, giving oral presentations, and particpating in small-group and whole-class discussions.
Intensive English Practice: Academic Speaking: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2022 3 Week Session
This course aims to increase students' active command of the most common words used in academic contexts. Using material from a variety of disciplines, the course practices vocabulary through all four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with an emphasis on speaking and small-group discussion. In addition, students learn strategies for recording, remembering, and reviewing important vocabulary.
Intensive English Practice: Academic Vocabulary: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2022, Summer 2022 3 Week Session, Summer 2021 3 Week Session
This course aims to help English language learners improve their command of vocabulary used in a variety of general business contexts. Students will read short articles, watch videos, and discuss topics of general interest from the world of business. Strategies for identifying, recording, and remembering vocabulary will be discussed.
Intensive English Practice: Business Vocabulary: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 3 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 3 Week Session
This course aims to help students immprove their grammatical accuracy in speaking and writing English. Through practice and feedback, this course introduces students to resources for grammar development, presents grammar rules, and focuses on developing editing strategies and on immproving sentence structure and variety.
Intensive English Practice: Grammar and Editing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022
The aim of this course is to provide students with practice in intensive and extensive listening, as well as practice in speaking. Speaking activities will include pronunciation practice, short presentations, and impromptu speaking activities. In this course, students will learn how to use listening texts more effectively for self study in both listening and speaking by identifying, analyzing, and then producing features of the text.
Intensive English Practice: Listening and Speaking: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2023, Summer 2022, Summer 2019 3 Week Session
In this interactive course, students will develop their reading, writing, and speaking skills by analyzing, discussing and crafting blog posts, digital stories, and other new media selections. Course assignments will focus on vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure, pronunciation, and overall writing structure and organization.
Intensive English Practice: Writing for Digital Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2020 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2016 3 Week Session
This course provides students practice in drafting creative non-fiction--memoir, travel/place essays, and the personal essay. Students will focus on creating vivid details and description, using imagery and figurative language, and ordering information for impact. Through these exercises and essays, studnts will have the opportunity to improve their critical reading, vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills.
Intensive English Practice: Writing Creative Non-Fiction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session
This intensive course helps students improve speaking, listening, grammar, and vocabulary/idioms skills while learning practical skills to resolve conflicts with people from different cultures. Students will act as mediators and disputants in mediation role-plays involving American culture topics based on business, law, culture, politics, and the environment. Course goal: achieve more natural fluency and listening comprehension in English for academic and professional purposes.
Intensive English Practice: Conflict Resolution Skills: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2020 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2018 3 Week Session
The goal of this course is to help students feel confident and well-prepared when taking the iBT TOEFL and IELTS exams. This course will focus specfically on the speaking and writing sections, given that the integrated writing and speaking tasks on these tests require responding to readings and short lectures/discussions—skills needed not only for standardized test-taking but also for exams and group work at the university level.
Intensive English Practice: Academic Test Preparation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2018 3 Week Session
The goal of this class is to prepare students for the types of reading and writing in first-year composition courses at U.S. universities. The course addresses the reading process, including annotation, analysis and evaluation, and the writing process, including organization and planning as well as summarizing and paraphrasing. 

Intensive English Practice: Academic Reading and Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
In this English as a Second language course, students will develop (a) communicative competence in in job research and networking and (b) the skills and vocabulary relevant to individual students’ desired work situations. Students will practice interviewing, self-promotion, and networking and will create their own resumes and cover letters.

Intensive English Practice: Successful Job Search and Interviewing Skills: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2018 3 Week Session
Through this course, students will become familiar with (a) the different teaching and learning styles at U.S. universities, (b) professor expectations regarding class participation, assignments, and source use,
(c) skills and strategies for becoming active, empowered learners; and (d) the ins and outs of the college application. In the process, students will practice and hone reading, writing, and speaking skills.
Intensive English Practice: U.S. University Admissions and Expectations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session
The aim of this course is to develop students’ communicative competence in English as a Second Language through an exploration of art and local museums. Through this course, students will become familiar with the language used to discuss the elements of art and the principles of design and will use this vocabulary to talk about art with evidence, to do close analyses of art as text, and to discuss art in its cultural and historical contexts.

Intensive English Practice: Art and Design: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
This course for English language learners emphasizes the sound system, word and sentence stress, linking, and rhythm in American English pronunciation. Activities include textbook assignments, analysis of spoken texts, oral presentations, and in-depth practice with individual sound production.
Intensive English Practice: Pronunciation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 3 Week Session
This course focuses on interactive Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) simulations (role plays in class and via videoconferencing) in which students must work together to analyze, prevent and resolve a variety of conflicts using a complex set of English skills (grammatical accuracy; speaking and listening; pronunciation; and new vocabulary and idioms) and cross-cultural and sociolinguistic skills (body language, formality and tone). The course is designed for high-intermediate through advanced-level ESL students with a professional or academic interest in ADR. Students who are interested in conflict resolution for general communication purposes are encouraged to consider Colwrit 6I.

English for Alternative Dispute Resolution for Business, Law, and Other Professional Purposes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
In this highly collaborative course, students will practice speaking skills and learn performance techniques through dramatic scripts and oral interpretation. Course goals include building speaking confidence, clarity, and fluency.
Intensive English Practice: Speaking Through Performance: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2020 3 Week Session
This English as a Second Language course focuses on building English skills while exploring American culture through the media. Students will listen to lectures, watch and discuss film clips, and read current news magazines. In addition, students will actively participate in large and small group discussions and debates. The course requires students to focus on and create interesting, well-organized informative speeches, and convincing persuasive written and oral responses.
American Language and Culture: The Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2016 3 Week Session
This course is designed to improve listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English. The starting point of the course is to examine the Beat Generation writers, specifically Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, looking at their relevance to the 50's and 60's and how their ideas led to and shaped the counterculture movements of the 60's and 70's. Through readings and video and audio clips, students will have the opportunity to explore the Beat Generation's impact in Berkeley and San Francisco.
American Language and Culture: The Beat Poets of 1950s San Francisco: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
This course explores debates concerning the role of business in addressing social issues, while providing support for English reading, listening, note-taking, and speaking skills. Social entrepreneuship has gained popularity and sparked debate in the United States and throughout the world as individual entrepreneurs have found more efficient ways to provide medicine, social services, education, and environmentally sustainable consumer products.
American Language and Culture: Business and Social Entrepreneurship: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
Many sociocultural and economic factors affect the ways individuals and groups manage food. This English as a Second Language course focuses on current food movements and trends in the US--and the many ethical, cultural, and financial aspects that both underlie and result from them. Students will examine this topic through a wide variety of sources: readings, films, music, guest speakers, lectures, video clips, panel discussions, individual research, and personal experience.
American Language and Culture: Food for Thought: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2017 3 Week Session, Summer 2016 3 Week Session
This English as a Second Language course challenges students to use their reading, listening/speaking, note-taking, and research skills while focusing on environmental issues. Students will listen to lectures, watch and critique video and film clips, conduct research, and examine conflicting beliefs based on articles in the media and journals. The course requires students to participate in discussions and debates while reflecting on personal views.
American Language and Culture: The Environment: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 3 Week Session, Summer 2012 3 Week Session
The class helps develop students’ communicative competence in English by exploring the place of women in the contemporary literary canon, cultural stereotypes of women and men as artists, and challenges to conventional notions of womanhood. In order to improve skills in speaking, reading, listening comprehension, and vocabulary, students will participate in classroom activities which include oral interpretation of poetry, group work, and response journal assignments.
American Language and Culture: Women Poets: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 3 Week Session, Summer 2018 3 Week Session, Summer 2017 3 Week Session
People around the globe are confronting limitations to freedom, health, and safety. In this class, we will study real examples of how people in different places across the U.S. and the globe are discovering and leveraging creativity and community as powerful tools to confront problems. Content goals: defining community and critically assessing local initiatives. Language goals: improving listening and speaking skills through videos, lectures, discussion, role plays, debates, and presentations.
American Language and Culture: Community Building and Transformation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 3 Week Session
Using a variety of sources, students are introduced to trends from California history that have had national and international influence. Students will listen to lectures and podcasts, watch videos and movie extracts, and read articles and listen to songs about the California experience to develop their vocabulary, listening, speaking, and reading skills.
American Language and Culture: California Dreams and Realities: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session, Summer 2019 3 Week Session
California remains a leader in cultural change. This class will focus on English listening and speaking skills while exploring the progressive style of California culture. Students will listen to short lectures and influential music, view and discuss featured video clips, read about California icons, and actively participate in discussions, group presentations, and fieldwork to increase fluency and learn about local culture.
American Language and Culture: California Culture: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
Through this course, an introductory study of humor in the U.S. and its influence on American culture, students will increase their understanding of American cultural history and current popular culture by studying the significant trends and messages of its social and political humor while developing and applying analytical and linguistic skills for close listening, critical reading, and presentations.
American Language and Culture: Humor: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023 3 Week Session
This three-week ESL course gives students the chance to experience the culture of Berkeley and the Bay Area in and out of the classroom. Students will tour important campus venues, visit landmarks in Berkeley, and then cross the bay to visit other cities. Along the way, students will practice their language skills through readings, videos, and interactions with native speakers. In addition, students will participate in reflections, surveys/interviews, and a final project.
American Language and Culture: The Berkeley Experience: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
In this course, students will increase their understanding of American cultural history and current popular culture by studying the significant trends and messages of its myths, legends, and folktales; learn about how America’s minorities have used storytelling for political and social advancement; develop/apply analytical and linguistic skills for close listening, conversation and presentations; improve their communication skills with native speakers of English.
American Language and Culture: Storytelling: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 3 Week Session
The aim of this course is to develop students’ communicative competence in English as a Second Language through an exploration of the history, diversity, and values related to the American Dream, and the realities that hinder access to that dream. Students will listen to short lectures, watch and discuss video clips, read popular and academic articles, conduct fieldwork, and participate in small group discussions and presentations. This is your opportunity to increase speaking and reading fluency and improve listening skills.

American Language and Culture: Questioning the American Dream: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
The aim of this course is to develop students' awareness of American culture and their communicative competence in English as a Second Language through course content about the integration of traditional approaches to health care in modern medicine in California (Chinese medicine, herbalism, yoga, and more). Skills are practiced and assessed through reading, writing, listening, and speaking assignments.
American Language and Culture: Traditional and Modern Medicine: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
A 60-hour course focusing on speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary and providing a level of instruction that meets students' specific needs. Classes are content-based, with a focus on contemporary high-interest topics. Students participate in oral presentations, group projects, discussions, and field trips. This course is appropriate for international and immigrant students interested in improving language skills. Online placement exam required.
English for Academic and Professional Purposes: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course introduces the basic terminology, techniques, and strategies necessary for academic research in American universities. Students will refine topics; evaluate/use outside sources to support claims; practice citation, summary, and paraphrasing skills; and write multiple drafts. Each section will craft literature reviews and research on a specific theme; each student can approach the theme within the framework of his or her discipline or interest. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Academic Research for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session
Academic writing and speaking require a wide understanding of vocabulary. In this course, students are introduced to numerous online and paper resources and learn strategies for improving vocabulary development, including effective ways to build vocabulary and recall new vocabulary through a series of readings, writings and other class activities. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Academic Vocabulary for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
In this class, students learn about the content, structure, and organization of academic essays. Through in- and out-of-class writing, students work on focusing topics, organizing arguments, and supporting claims with evidence and reasoning. Sentence structures, summarizing, paraphrasing, correct use of citations, and editing skills will also be addressed.
Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
In this course, students will have the opportunity to improve communication skills in order to do business in English. The following topics will be covered: negotiating; writing business letters, memos, and resumes; developing business vocabulary; improving business social skills; reading and discussing case studies; and exploring Internet business. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Business English for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course focuses on oral language in business contexts, including meetings, negotiations, presentations, debates, interviews, and informal social settings. Students learn appropriate phrases and topics for business conversation and improve their abilities through practice both in and out of class. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Business Speaking for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2013 Second 6 Week Session
This course, designed for current or future medical professionals, focuses on mastery of medical idioms and vocabulary essential to work in health care fields. Students learn standard phrasal and vocabulary, critically read and respond to case studies and medical journals, and gain perspectives on medicine through the eyes of practitioners, patients, and families. Students also interact with working professionals and observe practices on site via fieldwork assignments.
Medical and Health Care English for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
This course is an introduction to conflict resolution for intermediate-advanced level ESL students. It includes interactive mediation role–plays requiring students to develop a complex set of English skills (grammatical accuracy; speaking and listening; pronunciation; and new vocabulary and idioms) and sociolinguistic skills (body language, formality, and tone). Course includes a fieldwork component to help students improve problem-solving and communication skills.
Conflict Resolution Communication Skills for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
Aimed at intermediate-advanced multilingual students, the goal of this course is to help students improve and expand their knowledge of sentence structure and variety to achieve an academic style. Using their own and professional writers' work, students will expand their repertoire of grammatical structures and improve the clarity and sophistication of their writing. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Academic Language and Writing Style for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
Open to native and non-native speakers, this class introduces students to the U.S. Constitution’s language and legal substance, to its historical background, and to its political and cultural significance. Students examine debates over the document’s interpretation and the ongoing struggle to realize the ideals reflected in its Articles and Amendments. Special attention will be paid to key provisions of the Bill of Rights. Reading, class discussion, and journaling offer the opportunity to practice and strengthen English skills. Especially appropriate for international students entering an LL.M. program, the class welcomes anyone interested in learning about U.S. law, history, and society.
The U.S. Constitution: An Introduction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
Designed for non-native speakers of English, this course introduces the basics of U.S. federal and state court systems, judge and jury trials, case law method, and selected areas of law based on student interest. The course requires students to use new vocabulary and idioms; read and analyze judges' decisions; organize, write, and edit arguments about legal issues; give oral presentations; and participate in formal and informal discussions and role-plays. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Introduction of the U.S. Legal System for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
This course helps international lawyers and law students understand how to communicate effectively in writing in an American legal context. In this course, students will learn a brief overview of the American legal system; strategies for reading legal cases; and strategies for legal writing, research, and analysis. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Legal Writing for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2014 10 Week Session, Summer 2014 Second 6 Week Session
Introducing negotiation and mediation to intermediate-advanced academic or professional ESL students. The course focuses on strategies to prevent and resolve conflicts, including cross-cultural ones, in business, law, and international relations. Tasks include interactive negotiation and mediation simulations requiring students to develop a complex set of language (grammar, speaking/listening, pronunciation, vocabulary/idioms) and sociolinguistic skills (body language, formality, and tone).
English for Specific Purposes: Conflict Resolution for Business, Law, and International Relations: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
In this course, ESL students learn and practice the rhetorical and oral skills needed to speak in various situations in the U.S. The course focuses on designing formal and informal presentations for varied purposes and audiences, constructing/defending arguments, and fielding critical questions. Also emphasized are communication skills needed for interacting in group and in one-on-one formats. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Academic and Public Speaking for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
This course is designed to help students improve their ability to communicate effectively in social and academic settings by means of a detailed, systematic study of the sounds and patterns of spoken American English. Audio journals and in-class assignments provide in-depth practice with individual sound production as well as stress, rhythm, and intonation. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Pronunciation for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session
This course is designed to help students improve English speaking and writing skills essential for functioning well in academic and professional science and engineering activities. A significant portion of the course is devoted to developing the style, vocabulary, and grammar used most frequently in technical communication. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment of interests and needs.
Science and Engineering English for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2015 Second 6 Week Session
Aimed at intermediate-advanced multilingual students, this course presents the basics of speech and debate. Students will learn to construct basic arguments, work on speaking style, watch sample speeches and debates, write speeches, and participate in Parliamentary-style debates. In completing course assignments, students will have the opportunity to practice and improve all aspects of their oral skills in English. Course includes a fieldwork component. Multiple sections: placement based on Day 1 assessment.
Speech and Debate for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2017 Second 6 Week Session
In this course, we will focus on those elements that make for effective creative writing (poetry, fiction, and the personal essay): descriptive detail; imagery and figurative language; rhythm and structure/build; and authentic tone, dialogue and characterization. By completing analytical and practical exercises and by crafting multiple drafts, students will have the opportunity to improve their critical reading, vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills. Course includes a fieldwork component.
Creative Writing for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This is a strictly introductory course. It presumes no formal training of any kind on the part of the students. Emphasis will be on organization and delivery with goals of improving control over speaking habits and enunciation. Part of the intent of the course is to introduce students to the rudiments of the rhetorical theory which lies behind the practice of public speaking.
Introduction to Public Speaking: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This is an advanced course that presumes introductory training in public speaking. Emphasis will be on real-world speaking situations. The course combines both theory and practice: it incorporates extensive speaking performance and individualized critiques from instructor and students, as well as analysis of advanced speaking models, and it explores theories, speech genres, and rhetorical processes beyond those in the introductory course. The intent of the course is to advance students' ability to deliver polished and informed public speeches adapted to a wide range of audiences and speaking situations.
Advanced Public Speaking: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
Emphasizing the Berkeley Changemaker pillars of critical thinking and communication, this variable unit (1 or 2) practicum is designed to help students refine their academic speaking skills. Students will learn the techniques of effective public speaking, practice their skills, and develop confidence in oral communication. Online, asynchronous class sessions will be complemented by “live” opportunities that enable students to practice course content in front of an instructor and audience and receive feedback.
Berkeley Changemaker: Public Speaking: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2013
This advanced oral communication course for multilingual international students offers opportunities to practice listening to lectures and taking notes, participating in discussions and taking on various roles, and devising strategies for success when presenting orally in different formats. The course focuses on authentic language use in the U.S. university classroom--in terms of the lecture students will view, projects students will complete, and in-class interactions students will participate in.
Communicating in Class: Advanced Listening and Speaking for International Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
This advanced oral communications course is reserved for first-year international students who
speak a first language other than English. Students learn and practice university level cross-cultural communication strategies to help them fully participate in academic life. Applying Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) theories and methods used in business and law, students develop strategies for resolving communication problems, misunderstandings, and conflicts that can arise in academic settings and beyond.
CW 21 is designed to improve class participation skills, including understanding lectures and instructions; contributing to and leading group discussions; speaking up in class; and asking for and using feedback from professors.
Advanced Listening and Speaking for International Students: Conflict Management for Academic Success at the University: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
In this course, we will read, discuss, and write about the expectations of the American educational system, especially within a multicultural context. The goal is to deepen the understanding of the history and diversity of American educational institutions, while strengthening reading and seminar participation skills through critique and analysis of communication patterns. This course is intended for international students.
Reading in and about U.S. Education Institutions: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Examines the subject of water in California, drawing upon scholarly articles, essays, memoir, film, photographs, legislation. In collaboration with the Teaching Library, 50 explores techniques for conducting online archival research and using primary sources. Cosiders a variety of players in the story of water rights in California, including federal and state representatives, conservationists, Native Americans, and Japanese Americans.
Researching Water in the West: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019
This class will explore the central themes of the American Cultures curriculum through the concept of place, specifically the "West". The Western landscape gives the Western genre its name, but the concepts that inform the portrayal of that landscape are not interrogated by the genre. The class will unpack the theoretical framework behind that depiction. Each section of the class will be framed by texts that offer a theory of place that, when closely examined, will reveal previously invisible concepts of race and class.
Sacred Places and the American Western: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
Supervised seminar for group study of selected topics.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Independent study in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Student must initiate topic and present a written proposal.
Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Engaging with issues of authorial voice, the writing process, and technology, students hone the ability to read and write academic prose. A hybrid composition course, this course meets in the classroom and online. Students use Web 2.0 writing tools and think critically about how such tools affect writing processes. Further, this course offers students opportunities to collaborate on projects, as is often required for academic and workplace writing, and which Web 2.0 writing tools are designed to support.
Intermediate Writing: Finding Your Voice with Others: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This course prepares students to write and analyze arguments in a range of academic disciplines, from the humanities and liberal arts, to the sciences and social sciences. The course emphasizes the rhetorical strategies, reasoning, and conventions that characterize persuasive arguments in each field. This course does not include instruction in the research process.
Intermediate Composition: Argument in the Disciplines: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024
This course provides an English language setting for an immersive dive into translation studies, as well as evaluating and
producing original translated texts. Students will reflect on processes and decisions in that work, which will culminate in a
significant translation project designed around principles of discovery: challenging conventional notions of a translator’s
visibility and creating opportunities for paratextual study, engagement, and impact. Our approach to the topic of translation
will be interdisciplinary and worlded, and students are encouraged to bring their own interests, experiences, and creative
agency to the classroom. Fluency reading and writing in at least one language other than English is required to take this
class.
Translation in Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Fall 2011
This advanced nonfiction writing course offers an opportunity to explore the definition of text in a digital era. It offers students an opportunity to read and write about how contemporary uses of social media influence how we think, act, interact, and learn.
Advanced Composition: New Media: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
In this class, students learn about the content, structure, and organization of academic essays. Through in- and out-of-class writing, students work on focusing topics, organizing arguments, and supporting claims with evidence and reasoning. Sentence structures, summarizing, paraphrasing, correct use of citations, and editing skills will also be addressed.

Academic Writing for Multilingual Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
This writing workshop will offer students an opportunity to write essays and other nonfiction prose that speak both personally and politically to the issues and audiences they wish to address. The readings will focus on the rhetorical strategies of writers who have used the essay as a cultural form to challenge the norms of the time and place in which they live(d).
Advanced Composition: Challenging Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2022 First 6 Week Session
This course offers students an opportunity to consider relevant academic and professional issues related to the teaching of English internationally. Through readings, discussions, and assigned projects, students learn about principles of language policy and planning, linguistics, methodology, and assessment. These topics contribute to students' understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of effective English language teaching abroad, leading to responsible engagement in the international community of English language teachers and learners.
Issues in Teaching English Internationally: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
This course in creative writing focuses on three genres: the personal essay, the short story, and the one-act play. The course emphasizes an introduction to craft--how these types of writing are generated, what their elements are, and how the finished pieces work--which students will explore through careful study of models by published writers and through writing and revising their own short pieces.
Introduction to the Craft of Creative Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course in creative writing focuses on the craft of reading and writing creative nonfiction. The course provides an introduction to craft: how creative nonfiction is generated, what its elements are, and how finished pieces work. Students will explore these aspects of craft through careful study of models by published writers, and through writing and revising their own short pieces.
Introduction to the Craft of Creative Nonfiction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
This course in creative writing focuses on the craft of reading and writing creative nonfiction. The course emphasizes an introduction to craft—how creative nonfiction is generated, what its elements are, and how finished pieces work—which students will explore through careful study of models by published writers, and through writing and revising their own short pieces.
Creative Nonfiction: Cultural Critique: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2019, Fall 2016
This course in creative writing focuses on the craft of reading and writing short fiction. The course provides an introduction to craft: how short fiction is generated, what its elements are, and how finished pieces work. Students will explore these aspects of craft through careful study of models by published writers, and through writing and revising their own short pieces.
Introduction to the Craft of Short Fiction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
This two-unit course on the short story emphasizes an introduction to craft—how short stories are created, what their elements are, and how the finished pieces work—which you will explore through careful study of models by published writers and through writing and revising your own original pieces generated for this class.
The Craft of Short Fiction: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
This course in creative writing focuses on the fundamentals of reading and writing dramatic scripts. Students learn dramatic writing as an art and as a set of skills. They learn the elements involved in the creation of scripts by analyzing published scripts, as well as by drafting their own scripts and critiquing their peers' work. Particular emphasis is given to the work of generating and revising drafts, in addition to the critique and appreciation of works written for the stage, and to a lesser degree, for the screen. This introduction to craft is applicable to stage scripts as well as screenplays.
Introduction to the Craft of Dramatic Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
College Writing N133 is an introduction to the craft of dramatic writing through the study of works by professional playwrights and through composition and revision of your own playscripts. You will come to understand dramatic writing as an art and as a set of skills; you will receive an introduction to some of the elements involved in the creation of written scripts. Particular emphasis will be given to the work of generating and revising writing for the stage and, to a lesser degree, for the screen.
The Craft of Dramatic Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
This two-unit course on poetry & poetics emphasizes an introduction to craft—how poems are created, what their elements are, and how the finished pieces work—which you will explore through careful study of models by published writers, and through writing and revising your own original pieces generated for this class.
The Craft of Poetry: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024, Summer 2024 3 Week Session, Summer 2023
In this one-unit workshop, we will focus on strengthening skills in workshopping, selecting and publicly performing your creative writing. Composing, editing, and revising your works will also be an important emphasis. As a class focused on craft across genres, we will read a variety of strategies by published story writers, essayists, poets and playwrights. We will study performances by established and emerging artists, and develop a sustainable in-person and online writing community that you can rely on long after the three-week summer intensive has ended.
The Craft of Creative Writing -- Workshopping & Performance: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2012 First 6 Week Session
Before we write, we must read. This course will offer the opportunity for careful examination and discussion of masterworks--many of them recent--in creative writing, with special focus on the craft of the writing. Students will enroll in a section of the course corresponding to the genre they would like to study: creative nonfiction, short fiction, poetry, or one-act playwriting. 140A must be taken concurrently with a section of 140B in the same genre.
Readings on Creative Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2012 First 6 Week Session
This seminar will offer students the opportunity to craft several pieces of creative writing, and to consider the formal aspects of creative writing. Students' writing will be critiqued by the class and the instructor with special focus on the formal elements of each piece. Students will enroll in one of four sections of the course: creative nonfiction, short fiction, poetry, or one-act playwriting. 140B must be taken concurrently with a section of 140A in the same genre.
Seminar-Workshop in Creative Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2013 10 Week Session, Summer 2013 First 6 Week Session
This course offers opportunities to craft several works of creative writing in service of the production of a novel, and to consider formal aspects of the novel with reference to assigned readings. Students consider the general principles governing the form, and the wide latitude the writer has in addressing these principles. Students will develop skill at analyzing a work, presenting descriptive feedback, and identifying the possibilities for revision suggested by the draft itself.
Seminar-Workshop on Creative Writing: The Novel: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
This course covers the knowledge you need as a future instructor to explain English grammar to learners in your own classroom. You will gain an understanding of the structure of the English language, how other languages have influenced its development, and how to explain grammatical principles clearly so that learners from a variety of language backgrounds can understand.
Grammar for English Language Instructors: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
An introduction to the fundamental principles and practices of English language education in both local and global contexts. This course covers theory and methods behind teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking to diverse populations of English language learners in a variety of academic contexts.

Foundations of English Language Education: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This course will provide students with an understanding of theories and practices in teaching English to students from multilingual backgrounds. Course topics will include reflective practices, teacher decision making, learner-centered classrooms, and general knowledge about language learning and cognition. Field experience will include working with learners in the practicum-students' geographical areas, in collaboration with the practicum instructor and local instructors. Students will produce a portfolio of teaching plans, observation notes, and reflections.
Teaching English as a Second Language: Practicum: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
An introduction to developing instructional materials and assessment methods in English language teaching in both local and global contexts. This course covers theory and methods behind choosing, adapting, and writing materials that are suitable for diverse populations of English language learners in a variety of academic contexts.

Creating Materials for English Language Education: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course addresses the skills and knowledge needed as future instructors teaching English online in multiple contexts. Both the possibilities and limitations of online instruction will be addressed. The advantages, of course, include being able to reach a wider audience of learners than previously possible. However, we are still faced with limitations of technology, having to find new ways to engage students, and socio-economic differences in access to technology. Students will develop an online learning module.
Teaching Online in a Global Context: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Examines the subject of water in California, drawing upon scholarly articles, essays, memoir, film, photographs, legislation. In collaboration with the Teaching Library, 50 explores techniques for conducting online archival research and using primary sources. Cosiders a variety of players in the story of water rights in California, including federal and state representatives, conservationists, Native Americans, and Japanese Americans.
Researching Water in the West: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2017
This course introduces students to key principles and rhetorical strategies of writing texts in non-academic settings. Although the course may address issues of oral communication, the primary focus will be on learning and practicing strategies to generate written documents in a business context.
Introduction to Principles of Professional Communication: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
In this course, students build upon introductory coursework in professional communication to develop and refine their proficiency in non-academic writing. Students, in teams of three to four, propose and generate authentic workplace documents for a local organization or business; the course culminates in formal presentations. Discussions and activities regarding workplace genres, rhetorical techniques and strategies, and context-specific discourse conventions throughout term.
Advanced Professional Communication: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
Intended for both Biology majors and non-majors, College Writing 161 provides students with a rhetorical framework for understanding the conventions of writing within the Biological Science to help them write more effectively for readers in Biology, as well as for readers outside the field. Exploring ideas of audience, genre, style, and authorship, students will read a wide variety of texts, including critical texts from Rhetoric and Composition that analyze writing in Biology, as well as genres specific to Biology and genres intended for wider audiences (e.g., editorials, grant application letters, explanatory articles). Students will also write a variety of these genres.
Writing in the Biological Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Intended for both social sciences majors and non-majors, College Writing 171 provides students with a rhetorical framework for understanding the conventions of writing within the social sciences. The goal is to write more effectively to reach readers both inside and outside the field. Exploring ideas of audience, genre, style, and authorship, students will read a wide variety of texts, including critical texts from rhetoric and composition that analyze writing in the social sciences, as well as genres specific to it, and genres intended for wider audiences (e.g., editorials, grant application letters, explanatory articles). Students will also write a variety of these genres.
Writing in the Social Sciences: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2020
This class will examine some of the very best sports journalism with a critical lens, looking at intersections of business, race, culture, disability, gender, performance, technology, politics, social justice, and above all else attention to inquiry through thoughtful writing. At the same time, students will write in a variety of creative nonfiction genres on multimedia platforms, including the writing of a sustained final project on a topic of their own choosing.
Players, Spectators & Fanatics: Writing on the Cultures of Sports: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2013, Spring 2012
This course focuses on European travel writing in the modern period, bracketed on one end by imperial exploration and expansion and on the other by the experience of comtemporary tourism. Students will write academic essays reflecting on the political, historical, and cultural meanings of travel writing.
Travel Writing: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This course focuses on the development of London: as a global city, as an amalgam of histories in the modern world as represented in its neighborhoods, museums, and monuments. It presents an understanding of how modern landscape both preserves the past and is remade.
Global London: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013
Communities are challenged by issues of security, poverty, and environmental sustainability. These issues intersect with those of race, class, and culture in U.S. society. This course focuses on ethical decisions as they apply to issues of diversity, sustainable practices, economic impacts on neighborhoods and nations, and issues of security and identity. This course focuses on writing and research skills.
Advanced Composition: Community-Based Ethics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2018
This course covers various writing-related topics. Topics will change from semester to semester. See department website for current information.
Special Topics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Supervised seminar for group study of selected topics.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Independent study in topics not covered by regularly scheduled courses. Student must initiate topic and present a written proposal.
Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session
This online course aims to help students develop an awareness of the Research Article (RA) genre, different approaches to RA development, and how to navigate the academic publishing process in general. The course is designed for international graduate students (MA and PhD), but may be useful to anyone seeking to develop their RA writing skills. Participants may begin the course at any stage of the research process, but the course will be especially useful to those who already have some data collected. Involvement of the student’s advisor is encouraged, but not mandatory.
Writing for Academic Publication: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2006 10 Week Session, Summer 2005 10 Week Session, Summer 2002 10 Week Session
This course will allow qualified graduate students an opportunity to teach ESL in both an intensive ESL program and a community-based adult ESL course.
Practicum in Teaching English as a Second Language: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
The course will focus on teaching philosophies, course designs, instructional methods, and assessment issues in relation to teaching composition in a pluralistic setting.
Introduction to Theories and Practices of Teaching College Composition: Read More [+]