ENGL 1134 - FWS: True Stories

Fall, Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar.

Staff.

When students write personal essays for college applications, they often discover how challenging it can be to write about themselves. In this course, we’ll examine how well-known authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Alison Bechdel, Tim O’Brien, and others construct their public, written selves. We’ll also consider how the style of writing affects how readers understand an author’s personality and motives. Readings will include short essays, possible some poems, and a few longer works. Through the writing frequent essays, we’ll explore why and how people write about themselves—for self-exploration, political or social change, purely to practice a form of art, or for other reasons—and we’ll investigate how writing shapes lived experience.