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Apr 17, 2026
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WRIT 112 SC - Words, Words, Words
This course will examine the writer’s most fundamental tool: words. We’ll focus on how dictionary entries and metaphors—instruments that define words by using other words—construct and limit our daily perceptions. We’ll dig into etymologies and trace the histories of contested terms and cultural keywords such as identity, gender, iconic, liberal, celebrity, and so on. We’ll study how figures of speech evolve from the concrete to the abstract and how they influence the way we think about the world. Throughout the course, we’ll consider how our commonplace terminology is historically loaded, seemingly determinate, and yet open to change. To do this, we’ll read theoretical works by J.L. Austin, Raymond Williams, Marjorie Garber, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Guy Deutscher, and Elizabeth Knowles, as well as applied pieces by Annette Kämmerer, Jill Lapore, Emily Martin, John McWhorter, Leslie Jamison, and others. Assignments will comprise a series of short analyses and a linguistically and historically informed essay on a single word.
Course Credit: 0.5
Offered: Occasionally
Please refer to the course schedule on the Scripps Portal for current course offerings and details.
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