W4900 Advanced Expression and Style (in Spanish)

If you enter Columbia with lots of AP Spanish credits they may try to steer you into her 4900 class. This is a bad idea -- it's basically L&R in Spanish. Doesn't cover much beyind basic grammar and not much attention given to developing writing style. Even worse: because of the high course number, many beginning Spanish Grad. students sign up for the course, which makes the grading that much tougher. Sign up for a Spanish Lit. class instead.

I took this class my first semester at Columbia, with AP credits, and loved it. We worked through various genres, poetry, short story, essay etc., receving a sample of each type of writing, reading and then discussing it, and then writing a piece in that style. We did grammatical exercises as necessary, but the exposure to various extremely interesting works in Spanish, and the chance to practice writing was wonderful. Class discussions were intimate and helpful to those (like me) who needed to practice their language skills. (Prof. Rozencvaig has the gift of waiting patiently while someone struggles for a word without making them feel stupid. If you still have trouble, she will gently offer a suggestion, but she'll wait while you finish your thought.) I have nothing against wanting to take a Spanish Lit course, but don't skip Perla Rozencvaig's class either. - You get to read the likes of Jorge Luis Borges, and Ana Lydia Vega, and you get practice writing and speaking as well. Generally, an excellent course.