English 101: Course Theme

Laurence E. Musgrove

All sections of English 101 that I teach will be focused on the theme of success.  

This theme will be central to the course as we look at a variety of questions related to success.

1. How do we define success?

2. What makes a successful writer?

3. What makes a successful person?

4. What makes a successful college student?

5. What makes a successful reader?

6. What makes a successful athlete?

7. What makes a successful presidential candidate?

8. What makes a book a bestseller?

9. What is a hero?

10. Why is American culture fascinated with self-help books and strategies for success?

We will investigate these questions as we read the assigned texts, including

• Work in Progress, a college composition text emphasizing writing as a process and rhetorical sensitivity

• Life Strategies, a self-help book by Philip McGraw

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a bestselling children's book

• Out of the Dust, a narrative poem from the perspective of a young girl growing up in the Oklahoma dustbowl during the depression

• A Sense of Where You Are, a short biography of Bill Bradley during his years as a Princeton University basketball player