76-461 Personal Essay

Units: 9.0 Department: English Prerequisites: 76-260 or 76-265) and 76-460 Related URLs: http://hss.cmu.edu/HTML/departments/engl Prerequisites: 76-260 or 76-265 with a grade of A or B and 76-460 or 76-462 with a grade of A or B. This is an advanced writing course that has been specifically designed for the student who wishes to polish and practice the skills of prose writing while pursuing the intellectual challenge of this peculiar form, the personal essay. Professional writing majors were particularly considered as clients for this course. The form of the personal essay did not exist until Michel Montaigne accidentally invented it in the 16th Century. His speculative musings, observations of nature and, especially, himself came together to make a unique genre which engages any topic while the actual subject of any topic is the essayist. To try to explore ones mind on a particular question has become a favorite activity of writers ever since all the way down to Erma Bombeck and Russell Baker. Essays by Montaigne will be read to see how he put his thoughts together; was it a casual endeavor or a self-conscious craft? For us, the second method. Then, we will turn to more contemporary practitioners to study and enjoy their variations on the model. Meanwhile, students will put their writing skills to the test of this seemingly informal, arbitrary form. Some students will, at first, find it difficult not to make a point, not to stick to the subject. The object here is to engage the full range of the minds capacity for speculation and observation, recall and realignment of opinions and information. And, the results of this self-inquiry expressed in disciplined, lively prose. Student essays will be workshopped in class. By the end of the course, a student is required to have a portfolio of a minimum of 35 pages of essays of various lengths and all are to be finished. Rewritings of workshopped essays will be called for.

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Spring 2005 times

No sections available for semester Spring 2005.