Texts: The Art of the Personal Essay, Phillip Lopate, ed. and The Anchor Essay Annual (or some other collection of essays).

This is a course largely in the personal essay, a form in which the author's presence is clearly visible and often dominant. We will read and discuss a number of personal essays taken from our text, and you will write three of your own of lengths between 4-10 pages (longer if the material requires). Ideally, two of your essays will go through the workshop process; all will go through a number of drafts.

As you will see from the texts, the essay takes many forms and encompasses an extremely broad range. All experience is possible subject matter. You can write about travel, food, film, ideas, commentaries, people, an event or issue, nature, urban life, etc.

We will begin the course by reading and discussing the essays from the texts, and we will continue to read from the texts throughout the semester. At the same time, you will be writing your own essays. We will conduct our first workshop in the second week of classes. We will need a hard copy of the essay at least two days before it is to be discussed.

During our workshops, an editor will be responsible for thoroughly knowing the essay and will steer the class discussion. The editor's comments about the essay are to be formally written and handed in no later than the following class meeting. This will hone our critical skills. During the workshop, the writer of the essay will remain silent; he or she will respond only when the class discussion has ended. This forces us to remain focused completely on the writing at hand.