Plan

The arc of this course will move, roughly, from reading to writing.

In the first half of the semester

We will spend the first several weeks of the semester reading, writing, and talking about the work of theorists and scholars who have studied how writers approach situations of conflict and difference. We will focus on a single essay (usually about 20–30 pages long) in each class. I will lead some of these discussions, but for many of our classes, I will ask one-third of you (5/15) to jump-start our conversation by writing a brief response to the reading and posting it a few days ahead of time to this site. The rest of us will come to class ready to talk both about those responses and the reading itself. You can thus expect to write a short reading-response about every other week, as well as several brief comments on other responses each week. (This may sound a little wonky in the abstract; it’s actually an easy and manageable system in practice.) My hope is that, as we work through these readings together, you will develop ideas for your own project on writing and diversity.

In the second half of the semester

I will ask you to develop, draft, and revise a mid-length piece focusing in some way on an issue in writing and diversity. This might be a study of a particular writer addressing a situation that involves conflict and difference, or trying to write across such lines of conflict. Or it might be an analysis of a text that highlights issues of diversity. Or it might be a study of a person trying to figure out how to write for a new or different set of readers than they are used to. The choice is yours. What’s important is that you identify a subject that both interests you and contributes to the ongoing conversation of the class.

Our focus in the second half of the semester will shift to these longer projects. You’ll still be doing a lot of reading, but now that reading will be of the work-in-progress of your classmates. I’ll ask you to take your own project through several drafts and revisions, so you’ll get plenty of feedback to your work. We’ll finish the semester by sharing and talking about these pieces.

In sum

This is a class that asks for consistent, thoughtful work over the course of the semester. You won’t have to binge-write a long research paper, but you will need to keep up both with the course readings and the responses your classmates write to them, and to draft, develop, and revise a substantial piece of your own.

Your grade for this course will be based on that final project, although I will also factor in the work you do from week to week. (See Grades for details.) I’ll let you know if I think you are falling behind, but I can assure you now that, if you keep up with the week-to-week work of this course, you’ll do fine.