Autobiographical Writing: The Power and the Pitfalls of 'Me'

This course explores autobiographical writing, primarily through students' writing and workshopping of essays, opinion pieces and snippets of memoir that the instructor and class discuss and critique, but also through reading a diverse group of past and current practitioners. While students will be able to steer their own efforts toward the manner of first-person writing in which they have the most interest, they will be expected to engage in study and execution of standard forms, such the opinion column. Students will benefit from instructor's experience writing memoirs and first-person opinion columns. Prerequisites: Journalism & Media 364S, 366S, or 367S.