English 201
Creative Non-Fiction
Dr. D.R. Ransdell
M, T, R 11:30-12:30
Orvieto Study Abroad Program
Summer May-June 2016
http://ransdell.faculty.arizona.edu
Course Description:
The purpose of this class is to explore the experience of Italy through creative non-fiction. We’ll analyze the way authors use writing to make meaning of their experiences and the way they use setting to create voice. You’ll write critiques of those narratives but write similar versions of your own. Through your personal journal entries, you’ll have the chance to explore, examine, and capture your thoughts and observations about your summer travel experiences.
Although we will look at multiple aspects of the intersection of writing and travel, central questions for the course include: What makes travel narratives effective? How do they help us interpret and digest our own experiences? What other social or political purposes might such writing serve? What are some limitations? What does travel writing teach us about the target culture and its peoples? What do our experiences abroad teach us about our home culture and ourselves?
Note that since this is a college writing course, you are naturally expected to submit writing that is free of grammatical and mechanical errors; otherwise you will lose credit. (See Grammar Highlights below.)
Materials:
O’Reilly, James and Tara Austen Weaver. Travelers’ Tales: Tuscany. Palo Alto: Solas House, 2002. (print copy only)
Doran, Phil. The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian. New York: Gotham Books, 2005. (electronic version available)
Perrottet, Tony. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists (Original title: Route 66 A.D.) (Selections will be available on my website, but feel free to pick up your own copy; electronic version available)
Note: If you’re going from Tucson to Orvieto and back again, you’ll probably want hard copies that you can enjoy later. If you’re traveling before or after the program, you might want to use electronic versions instead.
Course Breakdown:
Journals (4): 40%
Analyses (3): 30%
Final Reflection: 25%
Presentation: 5%
Journals: These assignments are designed to give you space to record and reflect on your experiences. You might reflect on life in Italy and how it contrasts to life back “home.” Use Italy to ask yourself big questions. Shape your pieces with your readers in mind (tell them a story rather than bore them with a bunch of facts) and include a title.
For the first week, you might want to record your first impressions about Italy, your preparations for your trip, your reason to choose Italy, your expectations, etc. You might even want to write about a film or novel about Italy, Italian friends or relatives, or previous travels that may affect your summer abroad experience.
For subsequent weeks, feel free to write travel narratives that explain your experiences visiting a city, a town, a site, a famous square, etc. Detail your efforts to speak Italian. Explain about a hilarious misadventure when you went out to dinner and had no idea you were ordering octopus or your pleasure at discovering an unexpected garden when you were out exploring on your own. Give advice to future travelers. Write a letter home to your folks or your friends in which you reflect on incidents that happened. Record an interesting dialog you had with fellow students or natives and analyze what you learned from it. Try your hand at imitating some of our writers. (“The Reluctant Umbrian: How I Learned to Laugh and Love in Orvieto.”)
Almost any topic that helps you understand your summer abroad experience and that you feel comfortable sharing with your classmates will be appropriate. Do give your pieces some kind of logical shape. (You don’t need a thesis statement per se, but include a kind of intro and conclusion.)
Minimum length: 1500 words.
Analyses: Write an organized, edited reader-response analysis of the text(s) we’ve read or parts of them, especially in terms of how a consideration of place stimulates self-awareness. Include an engaging title, a thesis statement and a forecast, topic sentences, evidence from the texts, analysis, and a conclusion. Note that it’s usually best to analyze one or two aspects of a text rather than to cover lots of ideas without reflecting on them. (A reader-response analysis asks you to explain your personal reaction to a text: how it resonates, how you relate or fail to relate to it, how it helps you make sense of something, how you disagree. For example, in what ways do Doran’s experiences compare with your own?)
Minimum length: 1500 words
Final Reflection: In an organized, edited essay, reflect on how your experiences through writing and reading have helped you contextualize your entire Orvieto experience. You might want to refer to some of your earlier pieces or briefly quote them. You also might want to compare some of your first impressions to how you feel about Italy, travel, even yourself! by the end of the course. Your final paper should be 2500-3000 words. A little longer is quite all right. Note that longer papers usually earn more credit.
Presentation: You will read one of your essays (or parts of it) to the Study Abroad community on the last day of the program (Friday). (6-8 mins.) You’ll want to practice a few times to get used to reading in a clear, loud voice. You’ll want to enunciate carefully and plan for a few dramatic pauses so that your fellow students understand your punch lines or feel the full impact of your realizations. (No worries—this will be fun. J The art and photography students get to show off too!)
Technicalities: Double-space your work using Times New Roman 12 and compose your essays in Standard Written English. Essays and homework will be marked down 1/3 grade per class period late. Remember to back up all your work in a couple of places in case of computer snafus. Barring technical difficulties, I’ll ask you to submit all your work via Dropbox (possibly d2l) in Word or rtf.
Classroom Etiquette: Come to class on time and don’t leave until class is over. To avoid distracting classmates, use electronic devices only for course materials. (Use a laptop or a tablet, not a cell phone.)
Attendance: You are allowed to miss one class; thereafter, each absence lowers your overall grade by 1%.
Note: It’s important to write the right words, not just any words. However, special effort usually leads to higher grades. Remember to edit your work; otherwise you’ll lose credit.
Important Note: Summer school goes fast, especially when you’re abroad. Skim if you have to, but keep up. Look ahead and study the syllabus so that you can complete your work on time without it interfering with travel plans and our excursions. You might or might not have an Internet connection where you’re living; plan accordingly.
Daily Syllabus
Week 1:
T 5/24 Introduction, brainstorming for Journal 1.
R 5/26 For class: Complete your Journal 1 (upload and bring a copy to class); read Doran Chs 1-3.
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Week 2:
M 5/30 For class, read Doran Chs 4-18. We’ll discuss themes, personal connections, and techniques.
T 5/31 Read DoranChs 19-35. We’ll discuss story arcs and the way we might be creating Italy ourselves.
R 6/2 For class: Complete Journal 2. We’ll share journals in class.
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Week 3:
M 6/6 Post Doran analysis before class. Read Perrottet: Read Parts 1 (Pagan) and 2 (Holiday). (They’re on my website.)
T 6/7 Perrottet: Read Part 3 (Rome). I’ll share some other sections.
R 6/9 Complete Journal 3. We’ll share journals in class.
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Week 4:
M 6/13 Post Perrottet analysis before class. From TT, read: Calcagno (xiii), Mayes (3), Máté (11), and Morris (17).
T 6/14 Read Reavis (77), Piccolomini (90), Hall (105), Marin (123), and Salsini (137).
R 6/16 Complete Journal 3. We’ll share in class.
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Week 5:
M 6/20 Post TT analysis before class. (Write on any 2-3 selections.) From TT, read: McCauley (137), McFerrin (177), Kobacker (183), Walsh (191), and Lopate (197).
T 6/21 Read at least four selections from TT. Be prepared to explain why you choose those particular selections, what you liked or didn’t like, what you found useful, which narrative techniques stood out to you, etc.
R 6/23 Draft your Final Reflection. Also, choose a couple of possibilities for Friday’s presentation.
F 6/24 Final Paper “due,” but accepted through July 1st without penalty. J Late papers lose 1/3 grade per day but will be accepted through July 8.
D.R.’s Grammar Highlights
Note: following these simple guidelines might help you prevent common mistakes that could lower your grade.
When you make grammar mistakes, your readers may have to reread your sentence in order to understand it. That confuses them and makes them lose time. If you make enough mistakes, they’ll start to disagree with your opinions automatically! Instead, observe some simple rules to make your writing more effective.
1) Add a comma after a long introductory phrase: Even though it was long after midnight, I wrote three more drafts of my English essay. This comma helps your readers find the subject of your sentence.
2) Add a comma after a conjunction ONLY when the phrase that follows is an independent clause (a complete sentence). I thought I had enough time to write my essay, but I had to work until dawn to finish my work. (Note the difference: I thought I had enough time to write my essay but had to work until dawn to finish my work. No subject= no comma.)
3) Use commas around non-restrictive (unnecessary) clauses: My roommate, who never turns off her alarm clock, drives me crazy. The sentence could simply read “My roommate drives me crazy.” (If you have two roommates, the information becomes necessary so that you can explain which roommate is the sleepyhead: My roommate who never turns off her alarm clock drives me crazy. My other roommate never bothers to set one.)
4) Divide sentences with a semi-colon; use a comma after words such as “however.” We went to a terrific party last night; however, the food tasted awful.
5) Avoid run-ons. In other words, don’t run two sentences together your readers will be irritated. See what I mean? Run-ons are frustrating for readers because they assume they have misread and have to go back and reread your sentence only to find out that YOU are the one who made the mistake. Instead write: Don’t run two sentences together. Your readers will be irritated. If you want the sentences to work closely together, you might use a semi-colon instead: Don’t run two sentences together; your readers will be irritated.
6) Avoid fragments unless they are clearly used on purpose. A fragment is a word or phrase masquerading as a sentence but that is incomplete in some way. Bad idea? Once in a while it makes sense to use a fragment stylistically, but you have to be careful that it doesn’t seem like a mistake. For example, “Bad idea” isn’t a full sentence, but it demonstrates my example.
7) Avoid “number” mistakes. Grammatically, “everyone” is singular, but “their” is plural. Therefore it’s awkward to write: Everyone should bring their syllabus. Instead make the phrase plural: Students should bring their syllabi. (You can also use the singular form, but it’s awkward too: Everyone should bring his or her syllabus.)
8) Use colons precisely. A colon means one of two things: a list is coming or an example is coming. If you have an example or a direct quote coming, that example/quote might be a full sentence. Johnny told me a lot of things that night: “I’m not sure why I decided to kill Yiolanda, but once I did, the rest came easily.”