Class Focus:

This semester English 1101 will focus on the power, the variety, and the preciseness of the English language.  Using Mark Dunn's novel, Ella Minnow Pea, as our central study, we will look at how writers use language and, in Dunn's case, play with language to convey deeper ideas and abstract concepts.  Other pieces that will support this central theme will be George Orwell's powerful essay, "Politics and the English Language," where he writes about the importance of using concrete words to convey abstract thoughts and Brett Staples' personal memoir on stereotyping, "Black Men and Public Space."