The Visionary Course Pairing
Effective Writing (WR 100)
This course will introduce you to the discipline of writing in the university through analytical and productive work with the contemporary essay and its various genres. You will learn how to conceive and pursue a line of inquiry about a subject, how to develop an original argument, and how to support an argument with various sources of evidence, including scholarly research. You will develop and practice a full writing process, including planning, drafting, considering critical feedback, revising, reflecting, and editing. And you will hone your critical reading skills to evaluate and engage with other people's arguments. To help you achieve these goals, we will critically examine and respond to texts, in a range of genres, written by authors in the real world for real audiences. We will also do a lot of writings consciously and reflectively employing the concepts and strategies we learn about inside and outside of class. All of the work we do in this class is grounded in rhetoric: the effective use of language and symbols, always sensitive to context, especially one's audience and productive of change. The various skills you learn and practice in this course will enable you to become a more thoughtful, reflective, critical thinker who can participate in intellectual and world-shaping conversations inside and outside the academy.
Faculty biography
Professor Dominic Micer has been reading and writing for more than half a century and has been teaching writing for nearly a third of a century. His favorite book is Primo Levi's The Periodic Table; his favorite painting is Winslow Homer's Right and Left, and his favorite musical composition is Steve Reich's The Desert Music. He has been known to tell a joke or two in class; students in the class have been known to laugh at those jokes sometimes.
Ignatius and the Jesuits: History and Spirituality (TH 216)
A theological and historical investigation of the Society of Jesus, arguably the most influential order in the history of the Catholic Church. From the religious conversion of Saint Ignatius Loyola in Renaissance Spain to the state of the Jesuit order in contemporary America, this course endeavors to clarify and interpret the intellectual, spiritual, and pedagogical vision of Ignatius and his followers.The survey includes an examination of the Spiritual Exercises; a study of the evolution of the Society’s structure and mission from the first Jesuits to the present; analyses of diverse Jesuit writings over the centuries; a survey of the dazzling triumphs and nefarious intrigues imputed to the Society, and an overview of sundry ‘jesuitical’ observations on issues facing Catholics at the end of the twentieth century
Faculty biography
Fr. Stephen Spahn, S.J. was born in Denver Colorado, the youngest of 10 children. He graduated from Georgetown University where he met the Jesuits, entering the Maryland Province in August of 1993. He holds Masters degrees in International Politics and Philosophy from Georgetown and Fordham Universities respectively and the MDiv., ThM and STL degrees from Boston College. Ordained a priest in June of 2014, Fr. Spahn has served as Province Vocation Promoter, Parochial Vicar at Georgetown's Holy Trinity and Baltimore's St. Ignatius Parishes and Director of Ignatian Programs at Georgetown University. He presently serves as an Affiliate Faculty member in Loyola University Maryland's Theology Department and the Associate Director of its Office of Mission Integration.
Mentor biography
Nikki Jefferson is the Records Data Analyst for the Office of the Registrar at Loyola University Maryland. Nikki earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Loyola University Maryland and a Master’s degree in Emerging Media from Loyola University Maryland. In her free time, Nikki enjoys travelling, listening to true crime podcasts, discovering new restaurants with tasty dishes, and spending time with her family and friends
Virtual Advisor
WR 100 satisfies the Composition core requirement for all students. Students will be preregistered for TH 201 (Intro to Christian Theology) in their fall semester as it is a prerequisite of TH 216.
