Course Readings
Miami's first-year students are reading about diverse places and people around the world, considering how place shapes writing, how language used to describe people or groups shapes an audience’s understanding, and how writers can use language responsibly as democratic citizens in public debate to craft persuasive arguments and address global audiences.
In English 111, College Composition, students read a variety of mostly non-fiction writing––essays, interviews, memoirs, speeches––collected in the course reader, Writing & Place: Critical Spaces for Composing. Students write autoethnographies, rhetorical analyses, researched arguments, self-reflections, and design their own projects in response to their reading, class work, and personal goals.
Students in English 112, Composition and Literature, read a variety of literary texts–complex narrative works of fiction, drama, poetry, and some non-fiction. They study how narrative, dialogue, and figurative language, especially metaphor, shape textual meaning and audiences' responses. And they practice using these elements in their own writing. Students write personal reading histories, analyze a novel's narrative or point of view, explore dialogue and inter-textuality among several texts, examine metaphor's effects in poetry and non-literary writing, and end with reflection. They continue to develop their understanding of the rhetorical situadedness of writing, begun in English 111, by reflecting on audience, purpose, and context for every piece of writing.
Miami also welcomes new students to its community of learning through the Summer Reading Program. In this important tradition, now 25 years old, we underline those activities we value most as a community: critical engagement with ideas; close interaction among faculty, staff, and students; and reading, listening, talking, and learning as characteristics of active, responsible citizenship.
English 111
Writing & Place: Critical Spaces for Composing
The English 111 course reader—Writing & Place: Critical Spaces for Composing— was compiled by English department faculty and graduate instructors for use in all College Composition classes.
English 111 & 112
College Composition at Miami
"It was like the sun had just popped up out of the middle of complete darkness, blinding me. I saw the huge flash and then rocks and other projectiles coming straight at me. I had little time to react; all I could do was lower my head..." (Excerpt from C. Matthew Jones, "Outside Baghdad," published in College Composition at Miami.)
English 111 and 112 students are also reading College Composition at Miami, featuring writing produced by Miami students in first-year composition classes.
The 2007 Summer Reading Selection
What is the What
by Dave Eggers
The Office of Liberal Education and the Summer Reading Program Committee are pleased to announce the selection of the book for this year's program: What is the What by Dave Eggers. Dave Eggers and Alex Pial will be the 2007 University Convocation keynote speakers.
Alex Pial is from Lakes State, Southern Sudan. He is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, having spent four years in Ethiopian refugee camps, six years in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, and five years in Nairobi. Alex spent 18 months as outreach director for the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, in charge of resettlement issues and community outreach for Sudanese refugees in Burlington, Vermont. Alex has worked extensively for two years telling the story of the Lost Boys of Sudan and their efforts to rebuild Sudan for peace.
About the book
Separated from his family, Valentino Achak Deng becomes a refugee in war-ravagegd southern Sudan. His travels bring him in contact with enemy soldiers, with liberation rebels, with hyenas and lions, with disease and starvation, and with deadly murahaleen (militias on horseback)—the same sort who currently terrorize Darfur. Based closely on actual experiences, What is the What is heartrending and astonishing, filled with adventure, suspense, tragedy and, finally, triumph.
- Copies of What is the What will be available during Summer Orientation at the Shriver Center Bookstore for all first year students. Faculty and staff who wish to participate in the program should contact the Office of Liberal Education.
- Dave Eggers will address University Convocation on Friday, August 17th at 9 a.m., at Millett Hall.
- Discussion sessions with a Miami faculty or staff member and upperclass students will follow Convocation.
- First-year composition students also read and discuss the Summer Reading selections in their composition classes.
For more information, visit the Summer Reading Program website