This course is intended to help the beginning writer learn and practice the craft of writing in several different genres. Critical and expressive skills are sharpened through the practice of writing creative essays, short fiction, and poetry, and also through written and oral critiques of student work and analysis of the techniques of established essayists, fiction writers, and poets. Each unit of the course will begin with readings and exercises designed to practice the elements of writing in that unit, building up to the writing of our own essays, stories, and poems. These works will be critiqued in class, and students will revise and submit them, along with other exercises, to determine their final grade.