This course gives students the opportunity to develop, share, and get feedback on their writing in a workshop format. The focus is on the essay, a genre we will explore from a variety of angles: formal, informal, personal, academic, traditional, and experimental. Through juxtaposing one type of essay with another, students will expand their repertoire of strategies and practice the art of shaping writing for particular occasions, audiences, and purposes. We will study different, often mixed approaches to the essay, including autobiography, critical analysis, literary techniques, and ethnographic methods such as oral histories. Students will benefit from a group of readers with different perspectives, close readings of their work, and constructive criticism. There is an option of fieldwork as the basis for one required essay.

Readings include essays by Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Richard Rodriguez, Vivian Gornick, Susan Griffin, and Alice Walker. Students will present their writing in weekly workshops at least twice during the semester. Writing requirements include a course journal, two short (3-5 page) essays and one longer (8-12 page) essay or the equivalent.