I believe that the best writing is derived from good reading; therefore, this class is reading intensive. I try to balance the reading load by giving you time to respond to the reading in class. In order to encourage you to keep up with the reading and to ensure your preparedness to participate in class discussions, you should expect to be asked to write about and/or respond to your assigned readings  in class every day. These reading responses  will take the form of a written response to a particular prompt, or sometimes they may be more creative or experimental. They may even be oral responses or participation responses. Whatever form they take, the responses will require that you read the assigned texts thoroughly in order to be successful. You will need to be active readers! These responses will become a record of your thinking about your reading and classwork and will become an occasion for you to reflect and make connections.

Along with preparing you to be a better reader, this class will help you develop as a writer of non-fiction by reading the writing of others. This process helps you read your own writing more carefully and critically. Therefore, you will be responsible for responding to the writing of your peers. You will respond through constructive comments during in class workshops. You will also be responsible for at least one written response each workshop day. You will submit thorough, thoughtful comments that your assigned writer can act on in their revision process.

You will be responsible for FOUR 5-8-page essays. The first will be a personal essay or memoir, the second a writing as history piece, the third an example of travel writing, and the fourth a kind of literary critic-at-large. These four essays will be discussed more fully in separate assignment sheets. Please read and reread these assignment sheets and follow them closely. The essays should be 5-8 pages double-spaced in a font like Times New Roman 11 or 12. The heading should include your name, the date, and the title, no need for more. Use 1 or 1.25 inch margins. Do not do insulting page lengthening goofball spacing font arrangements.