Humanities Writing Seminars?

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
1

<p>“Humanities
First-year general education courses engage students in the pleasure and
challenge of humanistic works through the close reading of literary, historical,
and philosophical texts. These are not survey courses; rather, they work to
establish methods for appreciating and analyzing the meaning and power of
exemplary texts. The class discussions and the writing assignments are based
on textual analysis. These courses meet the general education requirements in
the interpretation of historical, literary, and philosophical texts. In combination
with these courses, students are required to take Humanities Writing Seminars
(HUMA 19100-19200-19300) that introduce the analysis and practice of expert
academic writing.”</p>

<p>"19100-19200-19300. Humanities Writing Seminars. PQ: These seminars are
available only in combination with either a two- or a three-quarter general education
318 Humanities (hcd) sequence in the Humanities. </p>

<p>These seminars introduce students to the analysis and
practice of expert academic writing. Experts must meet many familiar standards
for successful writing: clear style, logical organization, and persuasive argument.
But because they work with specialized knowledge, experts also face particular
writing difficulties: they must be clear about complexities and specific about
abstractions; they must use uncomplicated organization for very complicated
ideas; they must create straightforward logic for intricate arguments; they must be
concise but not incomplete, direct but not simplistic; they must clarify the obscure
but not repeat the obvious; and they must anticipate the demands of aggressively
skeptical readers. The seminars do not repeat or extend the substantive discussion
of the Humanities class; they use the discussions and assignments from those
classes as a tool for the advanced study of writing. We study various methods
not only for the construction of sophisticated and well-structured arguments but
also for understanding the complications and limits of those arguments. These
seminars also address issues of readership and communication within expert
communities. As students present papers in the seminars, we can use the reactions
of the audience to introduce the techniques experts can use to transform a text
from one that serves the writer to one that serves the readers. Autumn, Winter,
Spring. "</p>

<p>Are these like classes? Do they count toward to number of classes that you can take at a time? Anybody care to comment on their experience with these? Where they worth it? Did they make you a better writer?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Hokay. The following is coming from a first-quarter first-year, so take it with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>Writing seminars, in practice, are just extra required sessions that go along with your standard Hum class. They do not count against your number of classes. You essentially get grouped with a couple of your classmates and do small-group work on writing, editing, etc. for your Hum papers. Given the ballsiness of U-C Hum, this is a very good thing.</p>

<p>Seminars really do improve people’s writing. Srsly. These are useful.</p>

<p>Mine met once every paper, which means three times through the quarter. I have no idea whether or not that’s typical.</p>

3

<p>You’re automatically enlisted in one when you take HUM. It’s zero credit so it doesn’t count towards your courseload (number of classes), and it’s graded pass/fail. I didn’t even realize I was officially “registered” in one until it showed up on my transcript. They’re very informal, I’m surprised they get mentioned in the college catalog - they meet at an arranged (not scheduled) time with your writing TA maybe 3 or 4 times a quarter.</p>

4

<p>The quality of your writing seminar usually depends on the quality of your TA. I took readings in world lit this past quarter (I’m a first year) and I thought the seminars did not help too much. Most of the advice was fairly basic. For example, we were told not to consolidate quotes into a block and then analyze them all at once. Sometimes the seminar would be helpful, but the time constraint made involved critiques difficult. We usually had to write a rough draft and then present our thesis statements, but many people weren’t quite sure what point they wanted to make yet. The level of involvement in my experience was not very high. I thought office hours was much more useful, i.e., my instructor helped me focus more appropriately on a specific issue arising from the prompt.</p>

5

<p>S got some incredibly useful feedback from his TA from the writing seminars, both on what he did well and what he needed to do to improve. (He showed me the comments on his papers, and I was VERY impressed.) I’m sure it varies by instructor, but he felt like he hit the jackpot with his course.</p>

6

<p>Yeah I was just confused because it has course numbers. I was trying to imagine what it would be like to go to a class 2 or 3 times a week and do nothing but work on papers for another class. Thanks for clearing this up guys.</p>