Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Spring Semester 2026
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
ENGL 240 002 (CRN: 25682)
WRITING ON AND ABOUT POETRY
Long Title: WRITING ON AND ABOUT POETRY: A SEMINAR IN PUBLIC-FACING WRITING
Department: English and Creative Writing
Instructor: Ellenzweig, Sarah
Meeting: 2:30PM - 5:20PM R (12-JAN-2026 - 24-APR-2026)
Part of Term: Full Term
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Seminar
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Distribution Group: Distribution Group I
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 3
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Undergraduate Professional
Visiting Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Section Max Enrollment: 12
Section Enrolled: 8
Waitlisted: 0 (Max 99)
Current members of the waitlist have priority for available seats.
Enrollment data as of: 25-NOV-2025 1:39AM
Final Exam: No Final Exam
Description: This is a public-facing writing/workshop class that focuses on poetry: what it is; how we read it; and why it matters- both historically and today. No prior experience with poetry or with public-facing writing is required, just openness, interest, and curiosity. Students will read a range of poems and poets from different pasts and presents, honing their interpretive sensitivity and examining poetry’s enduring capacity to move, fascinate, amaze, and incite. Students will come away from the workshop with greater confidence in reading poems and greater attunement to the subtleties of literary language and the pleasures of poetic form. Most importantly, students will gain the craft skills needed to write about poetry for a generally educated audience. In the process, the course will ask students to think in meaningful and rigorous ways about what writing for a “public” audience requires–about how effectively to convey some of the specialized academic knowledge they are acquiring at Rice to readers outside of their academic in-group: to online and published media, maybe prospective employers, even family and friends (for example). Students work together, alternately as authors and editors, on six short-form writing assignments, including reviews, poet profiles, and poem deep-dives (think LitHub, The Guardian “Poem of the Week,” Medium, The New York Times “Close Read.”) The assignments are collaborative and aimed at refining and elevating student prose through peer editing and in-class workshopping.