Home > Honors Program > Sample Honors Classes > Honors English Composition Fall 2000
Honors English Composition Fall 2000
ENGL 1101-Honors B
Composition I: American Youth Cultures From the 1980s to Now
Dr. Julie Buckner Armstrong
This course uses film, music, and selected readings to examine recent depictions of American youth. Are today’s young people really as spoiled, apathetic, and morally bankrupt as the media makes them out to be? Do they really care only about video games, violence, sex, drugs, and loud music? Have traditional moral values really declined so far? We will cover these issues and more through discussions about selected groups and a variety of writing assignments. The course’s end result will be a student-produced magazine that defines and represents the views of the contemporary under-25 set at VSU.
Unit One: Punk Rockers
Texts: Repo Man (film), musical selections from The Clash, The Dead Kennedys, and others
Writing Assigment: Personal Narrative Essay
Unit Two: Rappers
Texts: Boyz N the Hood (film), musical selections from Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, and others
Writing Assignment: Review Essay
Unit Three: Slackers and Riot Grrls
Texts: selections from Generation X and A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over the World (books), musical selections from Nirvana and Hole
Writing Assignment: Editorial
Unit Four: Student Selected
Texts: music and a film or book will be determined by the class
Writing Assignment: Feature Article
Unit Five: Preparing Our ‘Zine
Writing Assignment: Students will revise and select essays, editorials, and articles to be collated into a ‘zine (hard copy and/or on-line).