Writers on Writing

Writers don’t exist in isolation. They don’t hole themselves up in garrets and wait for inspiration to strike. They read the work of other writers, they pay close attention to what’s going on in the world around them, and they develop habits that support the kind of writing they most want to do.

In this class, we’ll read essays by professional writers explaining what fuels their writing practice, and what writing means to them. We’ll mine those essays for clues about how to shape our own writing habits. And we’ll write our own essays.

This class is for you if: a) you already have a critical writing practice and want to strengthen it; or b) if critical writing is challenging for you, but important to your academic goals. This is not a creative writing class, although we will test the boundaries between creative and critical writing while exploring the essay as a genre.

Because revision is the best way to develop new skills, students will revise major assignments multiple times. Writing assignments and feedback will be tailored to your skill set and academic goals. The primary thing we will do together is to read and absorb the work of writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jamaica Kincaid, and David Foster Wallace.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Critical Writing