Sometimes assignments are due between sessions, as noted below.
Session 1: Introduction to the Class as a Writing Community; The Essay as a Genre; Why Write?
- Review
- Course Policies Document
- First Week Assignments
- Exercise 1
- Info Sheet
- In-Class Writing
Assignment due: Course Information Sheet
Assignment due: Exercise 1: Introductory Exercise: Personal Artifacts: Treasured Objects and the Self
Session 2: Treasured Objects and the Self / Writing and Creativity
- In-Class Writing:
- Oliver Sacks, “The Creative Self.”
- Distribute: Essay 1 Assignment
Session 3: Self, Family, Memory, and Culture
- Homework on James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son” due
Session 4: Family Memories, Food, and Culture; The Danger of a “Single Story”
- In-Class Writing:
- Frank Bruni, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater.
- Lauren Musni, “How Birthday Pancit Helped Me Learn to Love My Filipino Heritage.”
- Distribute: Essay 2 Assignment
Assignment due: Essay 1, Version 1; email to peer reviewers
Session 5: Peer Review Workshop: Essay 1 Version 1
Assignment due: Prewrite, Essay 2 due
Session 6: Self, Family, Memory, and Culture: Sibling Relationships
- In-Class Writing:
- James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
- Peer Review: Prewrite, Essay 2
Session 7: Self, Family, Memory, and Culture: Parents’ Perspectives
- Homework on Tillie Olsen, “As I Stand Here Ironing,” and Andre Dubus, “A Father’s Story” due
Assignment due: Oral Presentation Proposal
Session 8: Friendships / Chosen Families
- Homework on Gail Caldwell, Let’s Take the Long Way Home, and Toni Morrison, “Recitatif” due
Session 9: The World of Work
- In-Class Writing:
- Stephanie Land, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive
- Hope, Jahren, Lab Girl: A Memoir
- Frank McCourt, Teacher Man: A Memoir
Assignments due:
- Essay 2, Version 1; email to peer reviewers
- Writing Exercise: On the Job
- As you read the Jahren, Land and McCourt pieces, you’ll also be writing a short account of a job you have held. (The job can be paid or volunteer. If you have not held a paid job, write about what you have observed about a family member’s or friend’s job.)
- EXERCISE: Write for about 15 minutes describing a day in the life of a job you have held.
- This description may include: the work setting, your own duties, relations with co-workers, managers and possibly, customers or clients. When does this day occur—at the start of your employment there? In the middle of your time there? On your final day? Be vividly descriptive.
- In what ways might you develop this as an essay?
Session 10: The World of Medicine: Patients and Healers
- In-Class Writing:
- Leslie Jamison, “The Empathy Exams”
- Oliver Sacks, “Witty Ticcy Ray”
- Atul Gawande, “The Case of the Red Leg”
Session 11: Peer Review Workshop: Essay 2, Version 1
Assignment due: Revision Essay 1; email to peer reviewers
Session 12: Peer Review Workshop: Revision Essay 1
Session 13: The Experience of Mental Illness / Mental Anguish
- Homework on Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind, and Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted due
- Distribute: Essay 3 Assignment
Session 14: Crossing Cultures: The Writer as Cultural Translator
- The Writer’s Tool Kit: Observation, Participant Observation, Interviewing
- In-Class Writing:
- Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
- Prewrite Essay 3 due
Assignment due: Revision Essay 2; email to peer reviewers
Session 15: Peer Review Workshop: Revision Essay 2
Assignment due: Essay 3, Version 1; email to peer reviewers
Session 16: Understanding History Through Individual Lives: Portraiture / Case Study as a Writing Strategy
- In-Class Writing:
- Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns
Session 17: Peer Review Workshop: Essay 3, Version 1
Session 18: Making the Case for Social Change: Experimenting with Form—The Epistolary or Letter Form
- Homework on Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” due
Session 19: Making the Case for Social Change: Sexism in Contemporary U.S. Society
- Homework on Laura Bates, The New Age of Sexism due
Session 20: Making the Case for Social Change: Investigative Essay Contextualizing Social Problems: Racial Inequality in Contemporary U.S. Society
- Homework on Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration” due
Assignment due: Revision Essay 3
Session 21: Revision Essay 3 Workshop
Session 22: Writing Day
Session 23: Making the Case for Environmental Action: Awareness / Experimenting with Form
- Homework on Barry Lopez, “Crossing Open Ground,” Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and Michael Pollan, “Why Mow? The Case Against Lawns” due
Assignment due: Prewrite Essay 4; email to peer reviewers
Session 24: Debating a Moral Issue: Is It Ethical to Kill Animals to Eat Meat?
- In-Class Writing:
- Peter Singer, “All Animals Are Equal”
- Michael Pollan, “An Animal’s Place”
- Peer Review: Essay 4 Prewrites
Assignment due: Essay 4, Version 1 due with cover letter
Session 25: Essay 4 Workshop: In-Class Reading
Session 26
- Revision Essay 4 and Final Reflection Letter due
- Optional:
- Submit Final Portfolio of all essays
