Writing the Journey: June 1999

"Writing the Academic Journey: An Examination and Review of a Writing Class Based on Travel Writing."

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Jon Volkmer
Ursinus College
jvolkmer@acad.ursinus.edu

Travel writing is defined by particular assumptions about the relationship between the writer and the subject matter. The writer adopts a role akin to that of traveler--the role of guest. This role is one of keen interest and observation and participation, but with accepted limits on one's abilities to understand and especially to judge. The writer strives to articulate experience and to describe observations. The writer can draw tentative conclusions, but is more sensitive to the changes the travel environment can bring about in herself rather that the changes she can effect in the environment.

The role of the travel writer offers an excellent paradigm for role of the student in a liberal arts education. In the spring of 1997 I taught a freshman composition course based on travel writing. I used a travel anthology as textbook, and created writing assignments that required students to take the role of travel writers, even when they never left the campus. My presentation will be a review of the conception, execution, and experience of this course. My co-presenters will be two students--one from an urban background and one from a rural background--who were students in this class. I will argue that travel writing can provide both a theoretical and practical basis for a successful writing class.

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Jon Volkmer
Ursinus College
jvolkmer@acad.ursinus.edu

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Updated May 23, 1999