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21W.731-1

Writing and Experience: Exploring Self in Society

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2004

Topics

  • Introduction to the Course: Why Write from Experience?
  • Crafting the Self: Experience and the Shaping of Identity
  • Crafting the Self: Experience and the Shaping of Identity Diary/Journal as a Narrative form
  • Self in Society: Language, Legitimacy and the Writer’s Craft
  • Self in Society: Learning, Schooling and Identity
  • The Self and the World of Work: Writing About Work and Work-Related Issues
  • Workshop, First Version, Essay #2
  • Writing About the Ethics of Work
  • The Self and the Community: Experience and “Catalyst Writing”
  • Catalyst Writing #2: Drawing upon Experience to Write about Social Change
  • Drawing Upon Experience to Create Fiction
  • Drawing Upon Experience to Create Fiction (cont.)
  • Workshop, First Version, Essay #3
  • Workshop, First Version, Essay #4
  • Last Class - Student Readings, Celebration

Readings

  • Students should buy new editions of these texts and bring Fields of Reading or On Writing Short Stories with them to class as required. Students should also have on hand a college dictionary and thesaurus. For a general writing reference, also see Easy Writer .
    Required
  • Comley, Nancy R., et. al., eds. Fields of Reading: Motives for Writing . 7th ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780312412579.
    Required
  • Bailey, Tom, ed. On Writing Short Stories . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780195122725.
    Required
  • Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide . 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780312243487.
    Required
  • In Fields of Reading:
    Required
  • In Fields of Reading :
    Required
  • ———. 1984. (Excerpt) (Distributed in class)
    Required
  • Mead, Rebecca. “Sophie’s World.” New Yorker 75, no. 31 (October 18/25, 1999): 184-93.
    Required
  • Witherspoon, Abigail. “This Pen for Hire: On Grinding Out Papers for College Students” Harpers 290 (June 1995): 49-57. (Handout)
    Required
  • Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. pp. 760-774.
    Required
  • “Writers on Writing” series, New York Times . (Distributed in class)
    Required
  • Quindlen, Anna. “The Eye of the Reporter, the Heart of The Novelist.” New York Times, Sept. 2, 2002.
    Required
  • Mead, Rebecca. “Eggs for sale.” New Yorker 75, no. 22 (August 9, 1999): 56-65.
    Required
  • Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. 40th anniversary ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. (Originally published in 1962.) (Excerpt)
    Required
  • Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. (Excerpt)
    Required
  • Klein, Naomi. No Logo. New York: Picador: Distributed by Holtzbrinck Publishers, 2002. (Excerpt)
    Required
  • Documentary Film Clip: No Logo.
    Required
  • Documentary Film Clip: Eyes On the Prize.
    Required
  • In On Writing Short Stories :
    Required
Sources