Connor Jung holds out a single die to classmate Vy Trinh so she can blow on it, for luck. “Please not six!” he says as he tosses. They’re first-year students in “Reintroduction to Writing: Imagination and Research,” where today’s roll of the dice sets the writing format and audience for their assignment. Connor and Vy (who did roll a six) will explain an academic article about AI to tech executives, using an op-ed. Another group will explain it to a 7-year-old, in a greeting card.
Their instructor Anne-Elizabeth Brodsky, associate teaching professor and University Writing Program associate director, adapted this exercise from a colleague because it prepares students to be flexible. “Research and writing are often interrupted in unexpected ways,” she says. “Writing is not a product. Writing is a process. Writing is thinking.”
“I’m used to writing scientific papers, so I wanted to broaden my perspective,” says Trinh. “In this class I feel more free to think in different ways.”
Students in Imagination and Research roll the dice. (Students left to right: Connor Jung, Janice Chang, Vy Trinh, Jessica Lopez Sanchez), Photo by Larry Canner
A new start
Anne-Elizabeth Brodsky leads students through their daily writing assignment in her Reintro class. Photo by Larry Canner.
Writing tools like dice, Weird Al rap videos, or comic books are not unusual in Reintroduction to Writing—“Reintro,” for short. The class is required for all Krieger School students and is run by the University Writing Program (UWP) as part of the First-Year Foundation. Each Reintro class has its own flavor. Instructors use themes like historical graphic novels, forensic experiments, or archival research to engage their classes of 12 or fewer students.
Reintroduction to Writing replaced an optional expository writing class primarily taken by premedical students working on medical school applications. When UWP Director Matt Pavesich came to JHU in 2021, he wanted every Johns Hopkins student to learn more varied ways to write. “Our mission is to help students become more agile writers,” Pavesich says.
Every Reintro class requires students to practice writing in at least three genres, for two audiences, and reflect on their own writing. This always includes at least one academic paper, but students might also learn how to write a radio jingle, a rhetorical precis, or a policy memo. Some classes also work with Baltimore or community institutions like the Peale Museum, the Station North Tool Library, or the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Learning more than writing
The small size of the classes encourages companionship and creativity among a range of students with diverse majors and interests. Many of the students have been in Baltimore (or even the United States) for only a couple months when they start class. They’re learning ways to write, but they’re also learning how to make new friends, find the best local vintage market, and connect with the Krieger School and Baltimore.
International studies major Sarah DeGennaro took “Contemporary American Short Stories,” where JHU faculty and local authors frequently came to speak with the class. The class also introduced her to the Writing Center, where she now works as a tutor. “Reintro gives first-years a very low-pressure opportunity to practice writing and figure out their voice,” DeGennaro says.
Playing with words
Sometimes good writing is about what you don’t say. This is shown to the extreme in “Playing With Words,” led by Teaching Fellow Richard Essam. Students watch videos of grunting sound poetry, write entire stories using a single vowel, and examine Tree of Codes, a book written by cutting out 50 percent of an earlier book’s words. Essam got the kernel of the idea from his own toddler. Playing is learning.
“In high school, students learn a really formulaic way to write—introduction, who, what, why,” says Essam. “I want to break them of that and let them see how much more writing can be.”
In high school, students learn a really formulaic way to write—introduction, who, what, why. I want to break them of that and let them see how much more writing can be.”
—Richard Essam
Richard Essam (left) and librarian Donald Juedes look through unusual archival documents with “Playing with Words” students. Photo by Will Kirk.
His students cover the history of writing all the way back to Sumerian times. They also work with collaborative writing, poetry, children’s books, and more. They spend time in the Sheridan Libraries’ Special Collections looking at 17th-century books and learning how to use the library for the rest of their academic career.
“Coming into JHU, I knew it was very STEM-focused, so I wanted to branch out,” says Flora Tao, who is double majoring in molecular and cellular biology and medicine, science, and the humanities. “I liked working on everything from puns to essays to children’s books. Even in STEM there’s a lot of research paper writing, and this will help.”
Essam has been teaching writing classes at JHU for more than five years. He says the increased flexibility and diversity of Reintroduction to Writing has given the classes a new spark. Biology, history, and even engineering students (who have different writing course requirements) all work together finding new ways to write and think about writing. Anne-Elizabeth Brodsky agrees. “Now that we get to have humanities, engineering, and all sorts of other students all in the same room, you really feel a different energy in the classes.”
Lost Baltimore
Andra Morrison writes feedback for another student’s exhibit text in “Lost Baltimore.” Photo by Jim Burger.
Writing the display text for museum exhibits is both an art and a research project. Students in Lecturer Mo Speller’s class “Lost Baltimore” use black-and-white photos of rowhomes, churches, and laundries as the basis for their text, but also as a launching pad to learn about archival research, writing, and the history of the city.
Speller and his students worked with curators from the Peale Museum in downtown Baltimore for this part of class. Each student researched the background of one item from the Baltimore City Archives to really understand its history. Many of the buildings they researched were knocked down more than 80 years ago to build the McCulloh Homes in West Baltimore. The pictures, tax documents, and archived letters are the only things left of them.
“Since I live [in Baltimore] now, I wanted to learn more about its rich history,” computer science major Andra Morrison says. “A dream job of mine is to be an archivist. Now I’m more open to trying more history classes and maybe doing a history minor.”
Archive experience
Mo Speller and students review their exhibit text at the Peale Museum. Photo by Jim Burger
Speller, who is a PhD alumnus of the Department of History, often uses archives and digital and public humanities projects in his classes. His courses are intended to help students understand how to write across different genres and audiences. But he also wants them to think about how the past informs the present.
“They come here and see the exhibits,” says Heather Shelton, a digital curator at the Peale Museum who worked with the class. “But they also learn that you can use writing in any type of profession.”
Speller hopes to eventually create an exhibit at the Peale with some of these objects and photographs and include display text written by the students.
Composing the gene
Jason Ludden (far left) and Nichole Broderick (foreground) in the lab with “Composing the Gene” students. Photo by Larry Canner.
The first month of “Composing the Gene” is less about the technical aspects of genetics and more about reading and understanding theoretical concepts, then adding your own ideas.
Most afternoons, the students in Composing the Gene settle into small groups armed with graduate-level articles on subjects as varied as stasis theory and the impact of logging after forest fires. They write a collaborative rhetorical precis about their article, then come together as a class to debate and examine the ideas. Senior Lecturer Jason Ludden lets the students mentally tread water while answering questions, regardless of how stuck they seem.
“I want my class to be a safe space where students can try things they haven’t done before and fail at them in ways that help them understand,” Ludden says.
The goal is for the students to learn strategies and critical frameworks for any type of scholarly work. By the end of class, students should understand how academics and scientists argue and have a good basis in scientific theory.
The tinkering will continue when they go to the lab. Ludden partners with biology Assistant Professor Nichole Broderick to lead the students through three genetics experiments. They’ll identify if a piece of produce is genetically modified, match forensic DNA samples, and identify new proteins in soil. They’ll also write ethnographic analyses of the experiments and news articles about DNA to practice writing for both academic and public audiences.
This class is chock full of STEM majors, several of whom say they have been happily surprised at how helpful their writing classes have been. “I chose this class because I was interested in the fusion between writing and science,” biophysics major Jaeyoon Lee says. “There are so many different aspects to be explored, and I think scientific writing is one of the important forms of writing to learn.”
Photo by Larry Canner.
There are so many different aspects to be explored, and I think scientific writing is one of the important forms of writing to learn.”
—Jaeyoon Lee ’29
Comics, history, lives
Laura Hartmann-Villalta listens to Trisha Manda and Jasmin Mendoza- Aragon explain their strategy for drawing comics. Photo by Larry Canner
Senior Lecturer Laura Hartmann-Villalta echoed the idea of embracing failure in her first week of “Reintroduction to Writing: Comics, History, Lives.” She and her students took turns reading from their shared grade agreement. It is a qualitative system to award more points for in-class collaboration and revising their work than for technically checking all the boxes.
“Writing is not a linear process. It is an iterative process. Learning isn’t linear, either,” she says. “Revision itself is a skill. Learning how to do that is really important for success.”
Students create comics as a way to examine audience, message, and form. Their reference materials include Persepolis, a graphic novel about growing up during Iran’s Islamic Revolution; both the 9/11 Commission Report and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation; and their own social media posts. The final project is a 16-panel comic about any 20th-century conflict. It will be the culmination of a semester of library research, academic essays, and collaborative peer review on their chosen topic.
A student makes a rough comic draft in “Comics, History, Lives.” Photo by Larry Canner.
Writing is not a linear process. It is an iterative process. Learning isn’t linear, either. Revision itself is a skill. Learning how to do that is really important for success.”
—Laura Hartmann-Villalta
“This class is different from my other ones because it’s more discussion-based and more creative,” says psychology major Brandon Wu. “It’s interesting how you can have one interpretation about the words, and also about the images. It’s a lot about evoking feelings.”
After looking at pen-and-colored-pencil comics from previous years, the students excitedly swap ideas about framing their stories. One student is researching the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. Others will write about the Mexican Revolution or Japanese Kamikaze pilots. Wu asks if he could base his comic on the “emu war” between Australians and a herd of the flightless birds—from the perspective of an emu. Sure, says Hartmann-Villalta; just make sure you consider the audience.
Hartmann-Villalta says many students really want to work on their writing process but can’t dedicate the time under the daily constraints of academics, clubs, and college life. She hopes her structured focus on revision will give them time to explore, learn to cope with feedback, and gain inspiration and confidence. Here, they can create.
Changing the culture of writing
Reintroduction to Writing is just the base of the scaffolding supporting writing at the Krieger School. The University Writing Program also teaches higher-level classes and works with faculty in departments to add more writing to their curriculums. Biology Associate Teaching Professor Emily Fisher has been creating opportunities to write in typically less-writing-intensive classes for several years.
She’s beefed up “Introduction to Research in Biology” and “Genetics” by discussing media literacy and studying how biologists communicate. The upper-level microbiology class she teaches with Professor Jocelyne DiRuggiero includes reading biology-related articles from “Wired,” “The Atlantic,” or major newspapers. Students annotate articles, make graphical abstracts, and examine scientific illustrations. Eventually they write their own research article targeted at a lay audience. Fisher hopes this will help biology students get ahead of the curve. In her own experience, the process of writing research questions for fellowship applications or other audiences helps her find holes in her experiments and fix them.
“Writing and communication are a huge part of science,” Fisher says. “You have to read and understand the work that others have done, and then you have to describe your own research to be able to fund it.”
Outside the classroom, UWP works closely with the University Writing Center and its writing tutors and leads experiential research labs focused on writing. The program also hosts writing events and has a writer-in-residence who works with students one-to-one.
“We’re working to change the culture of writing on campus and that includes pushing the boundaries of how students understand and practice writing,” Pavesich says. “We’re trying to bring faculty and students into a bigger conversation.”
