ENGL 1021 Sections

Styles of Professional Prose

Spring 2026 Sections

PREREQUISITE: ENGL 114/ENGL 1014, ENGL 115/ENGL 1015, ENGL 120/ENGL 1020, or another writing-intensive (WR) course at Yale.

ENGL 1021 (formerly ENGL 121 and ENGL 421) may be repeated for credit in a section that treats a different genre or style of writing; may not be repeated for credit toward the major. ENGL 1021 (formerly ENGL 121) and ENGL 3461 (formerly ENGL 421) may not be taken for credit on the same topic.

01. Writing about Music. Adam Sexton. MW 2.30-3.45

It has been said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture – and indeed, evoking melody, harmony, and rhythm with words can challenge even the most observant and eloquent among us. In this section of English 121, students will read and discuss writing on music by not only scholars and critics (e.g., Margo Jefferson and Kalefa Sanneh) but also journalists (Joan Didion and Susan Orlean), novelists (Zadie Smith and Jesmyn Ward), and many others. The focus will be on popular music, very broadly defined, and among the concepts to be investigated are taste and “cool.” Written assignments will include a critical review of a performance or recording, a literary essay on a musical topic, a profile of a musician, and an academic paper. The goal of the course is for students to improve their skills at observation, description, and analysis of culture.

02. Thinking and Writing about the Law. Andrew Ehrgood. MW 11.35-12.50

Law has an intellectual structure of its own, and the lawyers and judges who make law and interpret it have peculiar ways of imagining and talking about the world, habits of thought and expression that can mystify the nonlawyer. In this course, you will begin to learn to read and speak and write the lawyer’s language: you will learn to reason and argue in distinctively lawyerly ways about the sorts of problems that lawyers are paid to attend to. And as you acquire and become adept at this odd language, you will also evaluate it, assessing its appeal and usefulness to you as a thinker, writer, and citizen.

03. Writing about Medicine and Public Health. Randi Epstein. TTh 1.00-2.15

Medical and public health stories shape the way individuals view health and disease, and coverage sometime influences scientific research or health policy. This course will give students the chance to join this conversation by writing about medicine and public health for general audiences. To do this well, students must develop a keen sense of audience as they translate complicated science, explain its ramifications, and provide historical context. Students will write breaking news stories, blog posts, a researched feature article, and a personal essay. They will also have the chance to interview a patient and write a profile that combines the physiology of the disease with the impact of illness on wellbeing. In class, we will analyze essays, book chapters, podcasts, film and news stories for craft.
 

04. Writing about Finance, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility. Heather Klemann. TTh 2.30-3.45

How do we put ideas about modern financial markets and corporate strategies into words and images? This course examines the art and efficacy of white papers, case studies, investment memos, and open letters in corporate America. Each unit of the course considers assignment-specific questions: Who is the primary audience? What is the objective of the genre? What stylistic, organizational, and rhetorical practices does the genre deploy? Alongside these more customary business genres, we will consider creative journalism that brings to life the seemingly data-driven, mechanistic worlds of finance. Through workshops, readings, and in-class discussions, we will practice building concise and persuasive arguments and, alternatively, dramatizing details, description, and dialogue to tell Wall Street stories.
 

Questions? Before or during registration, contact the instructors or the course director, Adam Sexton.