Writing the Essay

Catalog description

In his essay 'The Singular First Person' Scott Russell Sanders claims, 'choose to write about my experience not because it is mine, but because it seems to me a door through which others might pass.' In this class students will examine the personal essay; its form, history, and presence within Anglophone and international literature. But most importantly students will write personal essays, keeping in mind that the essay is a passageway from personal experience to public presentation, from reader to writer, from past to present, and from the known into the unknown. Students will develop habits of creativity including journaling, brainstorming, and collecting materials. Students will develop their voice on the page through drafting and revising and will also learn from each other in a writers' workshop. Readings will include works by Montaigne, Woolf, Thoreau, Baldwin, Borges, Didion, Lopate, and many others. Prerequisite(s): BUS 1010 or FYWR 1020 . This course satisfies the UG Humanities requirement.