THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE FACULTY SENATE Senate Document Number 0896F Date of Senate Approval 12/05/96 Statement of Faculty Senate Action: APC 6: Change in the Department of Literature & Language Program EFFECTIVE DATE: Fall 1997 DELETE: p. 146, following Lang. 353, title and course description ADD: Lang. 353 Advanced Essay Writing An advanced writing course in which students further develop their language skills by writing essays on interdisciplinary topics using a variety of modes: argumentation, exposition, narration and description. The thematic focus of the course may vary. Prerequisite: freshman composition requirement and 45 credit hours. Course offered on demand. IMPACT STATEMENT: The substitution of the Advanced Essay Writing for Persuasive Writing will require no new faculty. Several members of the existing Literature and Language faculty will teach it. As the course focus and content may vary, faculty members will shape it to suit their strengths. RATIONALE: Writing at the college level and beyond is a complex skill which cannot be learned, once and for all, in one or two introductory courses. Though many upper-level courses throughout the university require writing, few are able to provide intensive instruction on ways to produce clear, concise, coherent prose. We often get requests from students for an advanced writing course outside of the creative writing track. The existing Persuasive Writing course was intended to fulfill that need, but now seems too narrowly focused on argumentation. Advanced Essay Writing, with its broader focus and interdisciplinary content, should draw students from various departments and give them an opportunity to practice, reenforce, and develop their writing skills at a much higher level of sophistication. As many departments require senior writing projects, Advanced Essay Writing will help prepare students for these, as well as for other required writing in the senior year and beyond. EFFECTIVE DATE: August, 1997 ADD: p. 150, following LIT 359, Major Women Writers, the following: Lit 360 Modern Jewish Writers Major authors, topics or themes studied in historical, cultural and/or intellectual contexts. May include works in translation, and may focus on American, European, Middle Eastern, African or Asian Jewish writers. May be repeated for credit as content varies. Course offered every other year. IMPACT STATEMENT: The addition of this course will not require new faculty. At least three current members of the Literature faculty are prepared to teach it. The course has been taught twice in the past four years. The course could be designed to fit within the parameters of a religious studies minor, currently under consideration. The course would also become one of the core courses being developed within the area of Jewish Studies. Occasionally, funding for the course could come from a recently established endowment for Jewish studies curricular development and enrichment. RATIONALE: As stated in the catalog, "The program in literature offers students an opportunity to study world literature rather than only British and American literatures." In the 19th and 20th centuries in particular, Jewish writers from throughout the world have made substantial contributions to world literature. However, the work of Jewish writers as such has not been studied in a systematic way in any of the department's courses prior to the introduction of Modern Jewish Writers, which has been taught twice as a special topics course. The study of imaginative literature written by and about Jews will give students information and insight into Jewish civilization, a civilization about which many of our students know very little. The addition of this course to the curriculum will fill a significant gap in the Literature and Language Department's curriculum.