Undergraduate Subjects
First-Year Writing Subjects
Students write frequently, give and receive feedback on work in progress, improve their work by revising, read the work of accomplished writers, and participate actively in class discussions and workshops. Short oral presentations are also required. Emphasizes writing with an awareness of audience and purpose. Writing and Rhetoric focuses on forms of exposition, including narration, critique, argument, and persuasion, to develop students' ability to write clear and effective prose. Writing and Experience focuses on the ways writers transform experience into finished and polished writing in the forms of essay, memoir, and autobiography. Science Writing and New Media focuses on writing about science and new media to develop students' ability to write clear and effective prose for a range of media. Readings and assignments vary by subject and focus on themes relevant to each genre. Enrollment in each subject is limited to 18.
For details on courses offered, please refer to First Year Writing Curriculum.
21W.754J (21M.604J) Playwriting I - Staff
Introduces the craft of writing for the theater. Through weekly assignments, in class writing exercises, and work on a sustained piece, students explore scene structure, action, events, voice, and dialogue. Examine produced play-scripts and discuss student work. Emphasis on process, risk-taking, and finding one's own voice and vision.
21W.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories - Junot Díaz, Helen Elaine Lee
Introduction to the short story. Students write stories and short descriptive sketches. Readings from European and American stories from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Class discussion of students' writing and of the assigned stories in their historical and social contexts.
21W.756 Writing and Reading Poems - Bill Corbett
Examination of the formal structure and textual variety in poetry. Extensive practice in the making of poems and the analysis of both students' manuscripts and texts from 16th-through 20th- century literature. Attempts to make relevant the traditional elements of poetry and their contemporary alternatives. Weekly writing assignments, including some exercises in prosody.
Advanced
21W.735 Writing and Reading the Essay - Rebecca Faery
Prereq: First Year Writing Subjects, or excellent writing sample and permission of instructor
Exploration of formal and informal modes of writing nonfiction prose. Extensive practice in composition, revision, and editing. Reading in the literature of the essay from the Renaissance to the present, with an emphasis on modern writers. Classes alternate between discussion of published readings and workshops on student work. Individual conferences.
21W.736 News Writing - B.D. Colen
An introduction to the basics of print journalism, including an overview of journalistic ethics and life in the newsroom. Students learn basis reporting techniques, interviewing, and news writing, with an emphasis on accuracy, clarity, and brevity. Most writing done in class whereby students learn to write under time pressure, as well as in a distracting environment. Techniques of investigative reporting including interviewing and research into public and private sources are assigned on a weekly basis for outside classroom work.
Writing an autobiography is a vehicle for improving one's style while studying the nuances of the language. Literary works are read with an emphasis on different forms of autobiography. Students examine various stages of life, significant transitions, personal struggles, and memories translated into narrative prose, and discuss: what it means for autobiographer and biographer to develop a personal voice; and the problems of reality and fiction in autobiography and biography.
21W.741J Black Matters: Intro to Black Studies - T. DeFrantz, A. Braithwaite, M. DeGraff
Interdisciplinary survey that explores the experiences of people of African descent through the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. Connects the experiences of African-Americans and of other American minorities, focusing on social, political, and cultural histories, and on linguistic patterns. Includes lectures, discussions, workshops, and required field trips that involve minimal cost to students.
21W.742J Writing about Race - Kym Ragusa
In this course, we will investigate the concept of “place” as a way of understanding race, both as a lived experience and as a socially constructed form of identity. How do the places we inhabit shape our sense of self, community and history? How do they shape our experience of belonging or exclusion? What makes a place home, or not home? How is place itself socially and culturally constructed? How do writers use place as a way of mapping social, political, and emotional terrain? We will read essays, short stories, memoirs and novels that examine various kinds of places - cities, suburbs, rural areas and natural landscapes such as deserts and forests, as well as in-between, imagined, and nonphysical places such as borderlands, cyberspace, and the nation.
Writers will include Percival Everett, Dinaw Mengestu, Janisse Ray, Michael Patrick MacDonald, Gloria Anzaldua, Toi Dericotte, Linda Hogan, Gary Paul Nabhan, Rebecca Solnit, Danzy Senna, Lan Samantha Chang, Octavia Butler, and Pico Iyer. Although our focus will be on the contemporary United States, we will consider the experience and representation of place from the perspective both of writers who were born within its borders and those who have encountered the U.S. as migrants and immigrants.
Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to the ways in which these authors explore the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, and nationality, and use the craft of writing to express their ideas in ways that challenge and surprise us. Writing assignments will include a series of short in-class descriptive pieces, an analytical essay, a personal essay that incorporates research, and an essay that expands upon an in-class exercise. Peer-centered workshops and revision will be essential elements of our work throughout the course.
21W.745 Advanced Essay Workshop - Rebecca Faery
Prereq: Must Take 21W.735, Writing and Reading the Essay, and have Permission of instructor
For students with experience in writing essays and nonfiction prose. Focuses on negotiating and representing identities grounded in gender, race, class, nationality, and sexuality in prose that is expository, exploratory, investigative, persuasive, lyrical, or incantatory. Authors include James Baldwin, Minne Bruce Pratt, Audre Lorde, Richard Rodriguez, Alice Walker, John Edgar Wideman, Diana Hume George, bell hooks, Margaret Atwood, Patricia J. Williams, and others. Designed to help students build upon their strengths as writers and to expand their repertoire of styles and approaches in essay writing.
21W.746 Humanistic Perspectives on Medicine:From Ancient Greece to Modern America - Ken Manning
For students with experience in nonfiction prose and interest in the non-science side of medicine. Advanced study of the art of essay (form, style, techniques of persuasion) and practice of that form. Students required to write substantial essays and revise their work. Students read and discuss the writings of distinguished physicians from antiquity to the late 20th century.
21W.747 Rhetoric - Susan Lane, Steve Strang
For students with a special interest in learning how to make forceful arguments in written form. Studies the forms and structures of argumentation, including organization of ideas, awareness of audience, methods of persuasion, evidence, factual vs. emotional argument, figures of speech, and historical forms and uses of arguments.
21W.749 Documentary Photography and Photojournalism: Still Images of a World in Motion - B. D. Colen
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Designed to increase students' understanding of, appreciation for, and ability to do documentary photography and photojournalism. Each three-hour class is divided between a discussion of issues and readings, and a group critique of students' projects. Students must have their own photographic equipment and be responsible for processing and printing: either by student or commercial lab. Students must show basic proficiency with their equipment. Readings include Susan Sontag, Robert Coles, Ken Light, Eugene Richards, and others. Previous photographic experience required. Enrollment limited to 15.
21W.750 Experimental Writing - Nick Montfort
Students use innovative compositional techniques to write extraordinary texts, focusing on new writing methods rather than on traditional lyrical or narrative concerns. Writing experiments, conducted individually, collaboratively and during class meetings, culminate in chapbook-sized projects. Students read, listen to, and create different types of work, including sound poetry, cut-ups, constrained and Oulipian writing, uncreative writing, sticker literature, false translations, artists' books, and digital projects.
21W.751J (CMS.613J) Writing for Social Media - M. Flourish Klink
Explores how social media is changing our understanding of writing, multimedia, and authorship. Through individual assignments and collaborative work, students contribute to an overarching writing project developed in a networked software environment. Original and re-mixed journalism, memoir, opinion, fiction, poetry, graphics, photos and video are all possible contributions. Assigned readings include exemplary selections from existing public social media projects, as well as scholarly work and analysis by noted media critics.
21W.752(U)/824(G) Making Documentary: Video, Audio and More - Tom Levenson
Prereq: 21W.786, 21A.339, or permission of instructor
This course focuses on the technical demands of long-form storytelling in sound and picture. Students build practical writing and production skills through a series of assignments: still photo-text works, audio-only documentaries (radio/podcast), short video projects (>4 minutes), and a semester-long team produced video documentary (12-15 minutes). Readings, screenings and written work hone students’ analytical capacity. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments. Students from the Graduate Program in Science Writing will center their work on topics in science, technology, engineering and/or medicine.
21W.753J (CMS.314J) Phantasmal Media: Theory and Practice - D. Fox Harrell
Engages students in theory and practice of using computational techniques for developing expressive digital media works. Surveys approaches to understanding human imaginative processes, such as constructing concepts, metaphors, and narratives, and applies them to producing and understanding socially, culturally, and critically meaningful works in digital media. Readings engage a variety of theoretical perspectives from cognitive linguistics, literary and cultural theory, semiotics, digital media arts, and computer science. Students produce interactive narratives, games, and related forms of software art. Some programming and/or interactive web scripting experience (e.g., Flash, Javascript) is desirable. Students taking the graduate version complete a project requiring more in-depth theoretical engagement.
21W.754J (21M.604J) Playwriting I - Staff
Introduces the craft of writing for the theater, with special attention to the "play" in playwriting. Through weekly assignments and in-class exercises, students explore scene structure, action, events, voice, and dialogue. In workshop format, students present individual work for feedback and are encouraged to bring a sense of fun, joy and playfulness to their writing. Readings include published plays, which provide exposure to a variety of styles, voices, and structures. Emphasizes process, risk taking, and finding one?s own voice and vision.
21W.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories - Junot Díaz, Helen Elaine Lee
Introduction to the short story. Students write stories and short descriptive sketches. Readings from European and American stories from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Class discussion of students' writing and of the assigned stories in their historical and social contexts.
21W.757 Fiction Workshop - Helen Elaine Lee
Prereq: 21W.755
For students interested in developing their understanding of the craft of fiction. Weekly workshop discussions of students' work focus on analysis of structure, style, and characterization. Emphasis on editing and revision. Reading and discussion of 19th- and 20th- century authors, such as Babel, Carver, Chekhov, Faulkner, Kafka, Orwell, Marquez, and Woolf.
21W.758 Genre Fiction Workshop - Joe Haldeman
Prereq: A subject in writing short fiction or comparable writing experience
Students will read stories and novels from various genres. Warriors is a collection of short stories in genres like fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and horror. Novels considered are True Grit (western), Hit and Run (crime), Coraline (fantasy/horror), and Starship Troopers and The Dispossessed (both science fiction).
Students consider genre protocols and how to write within the restrictions and freedoms associated with each genre. Students write a short reaction to each novel, and one short story within a genre (or "between" genres) for round-table workshopping. Limited to 15.
21W.759 Writing Science Fiction - Joe Haldeman
Students write and read science fiction and analyze and discuss stories written for the class. For the first eight weeks, readings in contemporary science fiction accompany lectures and formal writing assignments intended to illuminate various aspects of writing craft as well as the particular problems of writing science fiction. The rest of the term is given to roundtable workshops on students' stories.
21W.762 Poetry Workshop - Edward Barrett
For students with some previous experience in poetry writing. Frequent assignments stress use of language, diction, word choice, line breaks, imagery, mood, and tone. Considers the functions of memory, imagination, dreams, poetic impulses. Throughout the term, students examine the work of published poets. Revision stressed.
21W.763J (CMS.309J) Transmedia Storytelling: Modern Science Fiction - Flourish Klink
Students investigate the genre of science fiction across the different media that include the short story, the screenplay, moving image, and games. Students write critical essays and their own works of science fiction, and submit critical analyses of each other's efforts in a roundtable workshop environment.
21W.764J(CMS.609J) The Word Made Digital - Nick Montfort
Video games, digital art and literature, online texts, and source code are analyzed in the contexts of history, culture, and computing platforms. Approaches from poetics and computer science are used to understand the non-narrative digital uses of text. Students undertake critical writing and creative computer projects to encounter digital writing through practice. This involves reading and modifying computer programs; therefore previous programming experience, although not required, will be helpful. The graduate section includes additional assignments. Maximum of 18 students.
21W.765J(21L.489J) Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice - Nick Montfort
Techniques of creating narratives that take advantage of the flexibility of form offered by the computer. Study of the structural properties of book-based narratives that experiment with digression, multiple points of view, disruptions of time and of storyline. Analysis of the structure and evaluation of the literary qualities of computer-based narratives including hypertexts, adventure games, and classic artificial intelligence programs like Eliza. With this base, students use authoring systems to model a variety of narrative techniques and to create their own fictions. Knowledge of programming helpful but not necessary.
21W.767J(CMS.612) Writing for Videogames - Clara Fernandez Vara
Explores the convergence of fiction, dramatic writing and game design in writing for videogames. Addresses the problematic relationship between storytelling and games, from both an analytical and practical standpoint. Discusses theory and analysis of pre-existing games. Assignments provide students the opportunity to tackle specific writing problems in a creative way. Basic programming knowledge and previous coursework in game design, videogame theory, interactive narrative or play writing is useful but not required. Graduate students complete additional assignments.
Limited to 15.
21W.770 Advanced Fiction Workshop - Junot Díaz
Prereq: Permission of the instructor
For students with some experience in writing fiction. Write longer works of fiction and short stories which are related or interconnected. Read short story collections by individual writers, such as Sandra Cisneros, Raymond Carver, Edward P. Jones, and Tillie Olsen, and discuss them critically and analytically, with attention to the ways in which the writers' choices about component parts contribute to meaning. In-class exercises and weekly workshops of student work focus on sources of story material, characterization, structure, narrative voice, point of view and concrete detail. Concentration on revision.
21W.771 Advanced Poetry Workshop - Erica Funkhouser
Prereq: Prior manuscript submission required
For students experiences in writing poems. Regular reading of published contemporary poets and weekly submission of manuscripts for class review and criticism. Students expected to do a substantial amount of rewriting and revision. Classwork supplemented with individual conferences.
21W.772 Digital Poetry - Amaranth Borsuk
Digital forms of poetry, including hypertext poems, Flash-animated poems, poems within short digital videos and interactive forms of poetry and games. Readings in early hypertext theory and creative writing. Experiment with creating poetry for wireless access on hand held devices. Test the assumptions of these early theorists through practice of creating digital poetry. Students discuss online examples of each of these kinds of digital poetry and then compose their own work, to present in class for critique and revision. The final project allows students to build upon their experience throughout the term with these forms.
21W.773 Writing Longer Fiction - Joe Haldeman
Prereq: A fiction workshop or permission of instructor
Designed for students who have some experience in writing fiction and want to try longer forms like the novella and novel. Students interested in writing a novel are expected to produce at least two chapters and an outline of the complete work. Readings include several novels from Fitzgerald to the present, and novellas from Gogol's The Overcoat to current examples. Students discuss one another's writing in a roundtable workshop, with a strong emphasis on revision.
21W.775 Writing about Nature and Environmental Issues - Staff
Nature has inspired a rich legacy of writing and making art, much of it drawing on the belief that, as Wendell Berry says, “We are alive within mysteries.” With the challenges of conservation, renewable energy, and global warming, a new tradition has arisen of more scientifically-minded writing on environmental issues. In this class, we celebrate, analyze and practice the rich American traditions of writing about nature and the environment. We read essays by such writers as Emerson, Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Michael Pollan. We also watch and discuss two documentary films: one about nature photographer and advocate Ansel Adams, and the second, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, about a contemporary St. Francis and "dharma bum" who lives in San Francisco and tends a flock of wild parrots. The primary work of this class is to develop skill in writing clearly and effectively. We write and revise 3 short essays and one longer, research-based essay on an environmental topic of the writer’s choice. We also keep naturalist's notebooks, to practice descriptive writing, the foundation of all good nature writing.
21W.777 The Science Essay - Seth Mnookin
Drawing in part from their own interests and ideas, students write about science within various cultural contexts. Students employ a broad repertoire of literary tools, such as narrative, scene-setting, and attention to larger issues of structure. Students study the work of science writers such as Alan Lightman, Oliver Sacks and Malcolm Gladwell to help them create essays of substance and grace that have science and technology as their subjects. Not a technical writing class.
21W.778 Science Journalism - B.D. Colen
An introduction to print daily journalism and news writing, focusing on science news writing in general, and medical writing in particular. Emphasis is on writing clearly and accurately under deadline pressure. Class discussions involve the realities of modern journalism, how newsrooms function, and the science news coverage in daily publications. Discussions of, and practice in, interviewing and various modes of reporting. In class, students write numerous science news stories on deadline. There are additional longer writing assignments outside of class. Enrollment limited.
21W.784 Becoming Digital: Writing about Media Change - Nick Montfort
Compares pre-digital to digital media to explore the unique problems that arise in this transition, including the manipulability of digital images, the ethics of anonymity on the Internet, the social repercussions of the computer, and the allure of computer gaming. Readings include subject-specific texts, augmented by philosophical articles relevant to the course themes, and some film. Frequent writing and revision, an oral presentation, and intensive class participation are required. Enrollment limited to 18.
21W.785 Communicating with Web-Based Media - Ed Barrett
Analysis, design, implementation, and testing of various forms of digital communication through group collaboration. Students are encouraged to think about the Web and other new digital interactive media not just in terms of technology but also broader issues such as language (verbal and visual), design, information architecture, communication and community. Students work as small groups on a term-long project of their choice. Various written and oral presentations document project development.
21W.786J(CMS.336J) The Social Documentary: Analysis and Production - Vivek Bald
An introduction to the history of the social documentary from the 1960s through the 1980s. Explores how social upheaval and the shift to smaller, more portable film cameras, and ultimately hand-held video, converged to bring about an upsurge of socially engaged documentary film production. Students screen and analyze a series of key films from the period and work in groups to produce their own short documentary using digital video and computer-based editing. Enrollment limited to 18.
21W.787 Film, Music and Social Change - Vivek Bald
Examines films from the 1950s onward that document music subcultures and moments of social upheaval. Combines screening films about free jazz, glam rock, punk, reggae, hip-hop, and other genres with an examination of critical/scholarly writings to illuminate the connections between film, popular music, and processes of social change. Students critique each film in terms of the social, political, and cultural world it documents, and the historical context and effects of the film's reception. Students taking the graduate version of this subject (CMS.837) complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited to 18 students.
21W.788J (CM.334J) South Asian America: Transnational Media, Culture, and History - Vivek Bald
Examines the history of South Asian immigration, sojourning, and settlement from the 1880s to the present. Focuses on the US as one node in the global circulation, not only of people, but of media, culture and ideas, through a broader South Asian diaspora. Considers the concept of “global media” historically; emphasis on how ideas about, and self-representations of, South Asians have circulated via books, political pamphlets, performance, film, video/cassette tapes, and the internet. Students analyze and discuss scholarly writings, archival documents, memoirs, fiction, blogs and films, and write papers drawing on course materials, lectures, and discussions.
Limited to 18.
21W.789 Communicating with Mobile Technology - Ed Barrett
Students work in small collaborative design teams to propose, build, and document a semester-long project focused on mobile applications for cell phones. Additional assignments include creating several small mobile applications such as context-aware mobile media capture and games. Students document their work through a series of written and oral proposals, progress reports, and final reports. Covers the basic of J2ME and explores mobile imaging and media creation. GPS location, user-centered design, usability testing, and prototyping. Java experience recommended.
21W.790 Short Attention Span Documentary- Vivek Bald
Focuses on the production of short (1- to 5-minute) digital video documentaries: a form of non-fiction filmmaking that has proliferated in recent years due to the ubiquity of palm-sized and mobile phone cameras and the rise of web-based platforms, such as YouTube. Students shoot, edit, workshop and revise a series of short videos meant to engage audiences in a topic, introduce them to new ideas, and/or persuade them. Screenings and discussions cover key principles of documentary film – narrative, style, pace, point of view, argument, character development – examining how they function and change in short format. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
21W.792 Science Writing Internship
Part-time internships in Boston-area media and industries are arranged for students wishing to develop professional writing and publishing skills. Students planning to take this subject must contact the instructor by November of the previous term.
21W.797 Communication Workshop for CME
Prereq: Acceptance in the CME program
Communication intensive subject for MIT undergraduates participating in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange program. Intensive week-long workshop focuses on written communication, including discipline-specific material and library research, and emphasizes argumentation skills.
21W.798, 21W.799 Independent Studies in Writing - Tom Levenson
Primarily for students pursuing advanced writing projects with the assistance of a member of the Writing Program. Students electing this subject must secure the approval of the director of the Writing Program and its Committee on Curriculum. HASS credit for Special Topics subjects awarded only by individual petitions to the Committee on Curricula. Normal maximum is 6 units; to count toward HASS Requirements, 9 units are required. Exceptional 9-unit projects occasionally approved. 21W.789 is P/D/F.
21W.890 Short Attention Span Documentary- Vivek Bald
Focuses on the production of short (1- to 5-minute) digital video documentaries: a form of non-fiction filmmaking that has proliferated in recent years due to the ubiquity of palm-sized and mobile phone cameras and the rise of web-based platforms, such as YouTube. Students shoot, edit, workshop and revise a series of short videos meant to engage audiences in a topic, introduce them to new ideas, and/or persuade them. Screenings and discussions cover key principles of documentary film – narrative, style, pace, point of view, argument, character development – examining how they function and change in short format. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
21W.ThT Writing and Humanistic Studies Pre-Thesis Tutorial
Definition of and early stage work on a thesis project leading to 21W.ThU. Taken during the first term of a student's two-term commitment to the thesis project. Student works closely with an individual faculty tutor. Required of all students pursuing a full major in Course 21W. Joint majors register for 21.ThT.
21W.ThU Writing and Humanistic Studies Thesis
Prereq: 21W.ThT
Completion of work on the senior major thesis under the supervision of a faculty tutor. Includes oral presentation of the thesis progress early in the term, assembling and revising the final text, and a final meeting with a committee of faculty evaluators to discuss the successes and limitations of the project. Required of students pursuing a full major in Course 21W. Joint majors register for 21.ThU.
21W.UR Research in Writing and Humanistic Studies - Tom Levenson
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
21W.URG Research in Writing and Humanistic Studies - Tom Levenson
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.