Note: May be counted toward the College Writing Requirement

This is a course for students interested in improving their writing in a productive, friendly workshop setting. Half the course will be devoted to student work. The other half will be spent discussing selected published essays by a variety of writers. We will consider three functions of the essay, including (1) self-exploration; (2) social and cultural criticism; (3) ethical debate. We will also study stylistic and rhetorical aspects of the essay form. The goal is to encourage creativity, clear expression of ideas, and persuasive power in essay writing. We will read the work of Montaigne, James Baldwin, John Berger, Joan Didion, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson, and a variety of contemporary essayists. Topics will include race, freedom, sexuality, culture, identity and other controversial issues.