Emerson College, Boston - Curriculum & Courses

Enrichment Courses

• TopBusiness
  • Principles of Business: Students analyze information related to business trends, strategies, opportunities, and operations and critically assess alternatives. Through lecture, discussion, case videos, and in-class assignments, students consider external and internal factors driving contemporary business decisions. Topics include: pricing, supply and demand, the management of people, processes, resources, and organization; the globalization of business; the use of information system to support business efforts; and basic concepts from marketing, sales, business ethics, law, accounting, and finance.
• TopCommunications
  • Fundamentals of Speech Communication: Introduction to basic concepts, theories, and principles of oral communication applied to speaking situations. Develops competence in oral communication through performance and critical analysis of student skills in a variety of speaking formats. Audience analysis, content discovery, communication strategies, arrangement of ideas, use of evidence and reasoning to support claims, language and style, voice and other delivery skills and ethical considerations.
  • Interpersonal Communication Skills: An introduction to the practices and principles of interpersonal communication. Focus on perception, creative/critical listening, nonverbal communication, emotions, power, and self-disclosure. Issue of ethics, technology, and culture are woven throughout class content and discussions. Stages of relationships will be explored as well as the influence of communication within and between those stages. Numerous applications to a variety of situations, including those in the family, workplace, and romantic context are undertaken as students draw from their won experiences.
  • Intercultural Communication: Analysis of readings in intercultural communication focusing on verbal and nonverbal customs of various cultures as information from both cultural and language perspectives. The course focuses on specific topics or cultures. Background in other cultures helpful but not essential.
  • American Sign Language: An introduction to American Sign Language and American deaf culture. Students are introduced to commonly used signs and basic rules of grammar. The course also explores information related to the deaf community, interaction between deaf and hearing people, and deaf education.
    
    
• TopCommunity Service
  • DiscoveryWorks Community Service: Join our exciting community based program directed by our professional staff in a high energy, hands-on service program. Within the Boston area, you may help maintain a recreation center, care for the elderly, work with disadvantaged children and lead the Summer Discovery Community Service volunteer program. Please Note: This class meets for 2 hours daily for a total of 30+ hours of community service. A Certificate of Completion will be awarded.
    
• TopDance
  • Perspectives in World Dance: Focuses on learning to “see” and “hear” the form and music of the art of dance across world cultures. Students focus on specific dance ethnographies to understand cultural difference through a study of dance and human movement and to explore contemporary anthropological concerns about representation, globalization, history, and identity. Throughout their study, students focus on various theoretical models in anthropology for studying dance/performance.
• TopFashion
  • Dress Codes: American Clothes in the 20th Century: Examines American clothes and fashion in the 20th century, with a primary focus on the visual elements of everyday success. Six distinct periods are studied according to the silhouette and decorative details of each. Further, each fashion period is studied within the context of its indirect influences (social, cultural, historical, technological, economical). Particular focus is given to concepts of masculinity and femininity, and gender ambiguity; challenges to gendered clothes (such as trousers on women, long hair on men); and anti-fashion (zoot suits, beatniks, hippies, punk, goth).
• TopGovernment
  • U.S. Government and Politics: Develop knowledge and understanding about the American political system including national, state, and local government. Examine constitutional foundations, citizenship, civil liberties, public opinion, political parties, the electoral system, and the legislative process as well as the judicial history of these issues.
• TopHistory
  • Contemporary World History: Integrates the political, social, intellectual, literary, and artistic aspects of the 20th-century landscape in examining such major themes as nationalism and the disintegration of empires; war and revolution; anti-colonial movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; and the efforts to construct a new world order.
• TopJournalism
  • Discovering Journalism: Understand how journalism has changed America and the world. Consider the role of journalism as a public service in a democratic society. Read, view and listen to the finest and most influential stories. Chart the news in U.S. history, from the American Revolution to today's digital revolution. Analyze and understand how print, broadcast, and online news have evolved. Examine media from other parts of the world. Explore ethical issues confronting the contemporary journalist. Develop knowledge of the First Amendment principles.
  • Introduction to Magazine Writing: Introduction to writing for commercial markets. Students develop, research, and write nonfiction articles and learn where to market them.
  • Fundamentals of News Writing for the Web: Participants will focus on the fundamentals of writing - grammar, spelling, syntax, organization, and accuracy - and will practice the basics of news writing for the web. They will learn how to begin research, understand what makes a news story interesting, and create written work that exhibits good leads, informative content and polished endings. Guest speakers also will be invited to share their expertise.
• TopMarketing
  • Communications, Media and Society: Introduces students to communication theory and the fundamental relationships that exist between communication systems and society. Emphasis is placed on the social, political and economic context in which marketing communication emerged and evolved, and the role it plays in maintaining, expanding and articulating our way of life.
  • Marketing and Marketing Communication: Explores the key types and core functions of contemporary organizations and the multiple roles marketing plays among them. Marketing’s 5Ps and the “marketing mix” are examined in depth so as to understand the context in which marketing communication is practiced. Cases are introduced to acquaint students with the notion and essential elements of “strategy.”
• TopMusic
  • Listening to Music: Intended for students with little or no experience in music who want to develop their listening skills and musical understanding. Emphasis is on a non-theoretical study of the elements and compositional principles of music, and careful listening to selected works of master composers in the context of a brief survey of classical music in its historical and social context.
  • History of Jazz: A study of the evolution of jazz, a continuously evolving form synthesizing many different music styles. Attention is given to its African American origins, historical identifications, antisocial tendencies, political aspects, and subjective effects that have effected cultural change. Emphasis is placed on listening to the works of Armstrong, Ellington, Davis, Gillespie, Parker, Monk, Coltrane, and Mingus.
    
    
• TopNutrition/Science
  • Food and Nutrition: This course is an introduction to food systems, diet, and nutrition. It helps the student become an informed consumer of food by discussing what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from, how it is processed, and how it affects our health. Students learn principles of nutrition, including the function of nutrients, food composition and diet analysis, the workings of the digestive system, and the nutritional roots of disease. The environmental, sociological, and psychological implications of food are discussed, and emphasis is placed on dispelling common myths about food and on questioning information presented in the media.
• TopPhotography
  • Digital Photography: This course teaches the fundamentals of digital photography, including camera controls, editing images, photo finishing using digital applications such as Photoshop, and printing. Critiques of student work will develop "the critical eye." Students must have the use of a digital camera with adjustable speed and aperture.
• TopPsychology
  • Introductory Psychology: Presents topics across the range of sub-disciplines that make up the field including the history of psychology, research methods, attention and consciousness, learning, memory, language, motivation, emotion, social perception and interaction, child and adult development, and mental illness. Students are engaged in discussions, presentations, and demonstrations centered on key ideas in the field.
• TopSAT Preparation
  • SAT Prep Classroom Course (with an ACT Boost) by The Princeton Review : Prepare for both the SAT and ACT this summer! The SAT course is structured to produce high score improvements through effective, proven verbal skill-building and math instruction. Includes The Princeton Review guarantee and Live Online Wrap-Up in the fall. The ACT Boost course builds on the skills you’ll learn in your SAT program and will help you get your highest ACT score. ($795 supplement - includes all books and classroom materials, satisfaction guarantee, fall Wrap-Up)
    
    The Princeton Review SAT/ACT Preparation with Special Summer Bonuses and Year-Round Follow-Up!
    
    The world’s best test preparation available this summer continues all year with the following free benefits and courses. During the school year, take advantage of thee Princeton Review (TPR) benefits, just a click away:
    
    - Take our Princeton Review 101 courses for FREE
    o Admissions 101: Overview of the College Application Process
    o Financial Aid 101: Understanding the Financial Aid Process
    - FREE unlimited access to our online SAT and ACT courses
    - FREE online wrap-up courses before your SAT/ACT test date
    - FREE TPR apps for your iPad, iPhone, and Blackberry
    - Exclusive Live Online Summer Discovery events hosted by Princeton Review staff
    - Access to our best-fit college search program and the extensive admissions/financial resources of PrincetonReview.com
    
    
    
    $795 Supplemental Fee
  • SAT or ACT Small Group Tutoring (4 Students Maximum) by The Princeton Review: This is a hybrid of private tutoring and a classroom course, a tailored offering with a maximum of 4 students per class. Includes The Princeton Review guarantee and Live Online Wrap-Up in the fall. You choose which prep program you want – PSAT/SAT or ACT. ($1,599 supplement - includes all books and classroom materials, satisfaction guarantee, SAT or ACT fall Wrap-Up)
    
    The Princeton Review SAT/ACT Preparation with Special Summer Bonuses and Year-Round Follow-Up!
    
    The world’s best test preparation available this summer continues all year with the following free benefits and courses. During the school year, take advantage of thee Princeton Review (TPR) benefits, just a click away:
    
    - Take our Princeton Review 101 courses for FREE
    o Admissions 101: Overview of the College Application Process
    o Financial Aid 101: Understanding the Financial Aid Process
    - FREE unlimited access to our online SAT and ACT courses
    - FREE online wrap-up courses before your SAT/ACT test date
    - FREE TPR apps for your iPad, iPhone, and Blackberry
    - Exclusive Live Online Summer Discovery events hosted by Princeton Review staff
    - Access to our best-fit college search program and the extensive admissions/financial resources of PrincetonReview.com
    
    $1599 Supplemental Fee
• TopTheater
  • Introduction to Acting : An introduction to the acting process. Exercise work develops a relaxed instrument able to respond freely, in the body and the voice, to emotional and external stimuli. The course moves from fundamental explorations through improvisation to work on scripted material.
  • Theatre into Film: Course will explore the artistic languages of theater and film. Dramatic material written for the stage will be read and analyzed and the process of adaptation of that material will be explored. Texts include the works of such playwrights as Shakespeare, Strindberg, Williams, and Albee. Film texts include the work of directors such as Lumet, Cukor, Solberg, and Nichols.
  • Development of the American Musical: The development of the American musical theatre from the early minstrel shows to the works of Stephen Sondheim is studied with a critical examination of representative musicals. Slides and recordings of Broadway productions supplement the lectures.
• TopVisual Arts/Media
  • Foundations in Visual and Media Arts Production: This course combines lectures with hands-on workshops. It examines the relationships among photography, graphics, audio, film, video, and emergent digital media within the context of cross-media concepts, theories, and applications. The course traces the creative process from initial conception and writing through production and post-production, sensitive to a range of aesthetic considerations. Students will proceed through a series of digital media exercises that will lead to completion of a final project. Students will gain a basic competency in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, and DVD Studio Pro. Course time will be divided evenly between lecture and lab time, balancing theory and practice.
• TopWriting
  • Introduction to College Writing: Introduction to college writing focusing on cultural analysis that appears in academic work and in the public intellectual sphere. The course emphasizes how writers work with texts (including images, film, music, and other media) to develop writing projects. Through four main writing projects that concentrate on drafting, peer review, and revision, students learn to be constructive readers of each other's writing and to understand the rhetoric of intellectual inquiry.
  • College Essay Workshop: This workshop will focus on how to approach writing the college essay. Students will discuss writing techniques and strategies on how to present themselves in 500 words. At the end of class, students will be able to identify and develop their strengths as writers, brainstorm multiple ideas in response to essay prompts, anticipate and meet audience expectations, and develop effective revision strategies whether working collaboratively or individually. Additionally each student will have created, workshopped and revised at least two college essays.
  • Introduction to Creative Writing: Fiction: This course focuses on the basic vocabulary, techniques, and traditions in creative fiction writing. The course includes the discussion of published work. Students practice their writing craft through exercises and other assignments, many of which will be shared with the class in an introductory workshop setting.
  • Screenwriting Basics: Examines the fundamentals of writing for narrative film. Investigates structure, character, conflict, scene writing, and dialogue, taking students from ideation through to the development of a detailed outline.