Department of English

A workshop for writing informal essays on such subjects as autobiography; family history; college life; character profile; analyses of popular culture; reviews of movies, television programs, books, and performances; political and social issues, and parody and satire. Emphasis on individual conferences and and learning to critique and edit each others' drafts and revisions. We'll also read non-fiction by writers like John McPhee, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Annie Dillard, Maxine Hong Kingston, Paul Theroux, Paul Fussell, and Joyce Carol Oates. Other texts will be a four-month subscription to The New Yorker and articles from magazines like Harper's and The Atlantic Monthly. This a course for people who simply want to improve their writing as well as for students who would like to try their hand at a different kind of writing than the standard academic paper.