Course description and goals

Texts

Requirements and grading policies

Course calendar 

To Marlboro Writing Page

(Printable version of this syllabus here.)

Writing Seminar:  Through the Eyes of a Child

Gloria Biamonte, Office:  Dalrymple 24

“Genius is but childhood recovered at will.”     Charles Baudelaire

In this writing seminar , we will be reading novels (and a few short stories) told from the perspective of a child or a young adult.   Beginning with Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , we will explore each child's mysterious, beautiful, and often painful journey into adulthood.   Central to our discussion will be a consideration of how each child narrator/protagonist creates a self/constructs an identity—often against enormous personal, societal, and cultural obstacles.   We will consider how particular cultural moments and pivotal historical events shape these children, and are, in turn, shaped for us, the readers, by the lens of their young eyes.   We will also consider the literary and cultural needs to which the coming-of-age novel responds.

And, of course, . . .we will write.   During this semester, we will explore writing as an activity that we learn by doing, with some coaching.   For this reason, our class time will be spent generally doing, not listening to lectures about writing.   The way we will work toward our goal is through lots of practice in writing, critiquing, and rewriting.   A long distance runner improves her or his times by running faster, more frequently, and through good coaching.   A painter spends long hours in the studio, reworking line and color—getting it just right.   This class will be your writing studio. You will work on your craft, rewriting, revising, rethinking, polishing; and I will be your coach, your advisor, and your supporter, but not the only coach.   All of your writing will be read by other students, and each of you will become a coach.   We will take seriously the opening line of Patricia Hampl's book, I Could Tell You Stories : “A writer is, first and last, a reader.”  

More specifically we will try to accomplish these goals:

•  build up your writing confidence so that you can tackle a variety of writing tasks

•  help you find a writing process that works well for you

•  let you experience the benefits of writing teamwork—the encouragement, advice, and response of prepared readers and writers

•  increase your ability to generate a topic and a controlling idea

•  help you to write a documented essay that paraphrases as well as integrates quoted material

•  provide you with the skills to support an evaluative statement by establishing criteria

•  enable you to strengthen your analytic reading skills by learning to recognize the writer's intention, central ideas, organization, and use of language

•  help you to understand the importance of unity, organization and supporting evidence

•  allow you to experience the value of language as a tool for thinking deeply and clearly   

We will work toward our goal through lots of practice in writing, critiquing, and rewriting.