This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. A houseboat in Kashmir, a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome--there's no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment. Theologians, sky pilots, astronauts have felt the appeal of home calling to them from up above, in the cold black outback of interstellar space.

    Edward Abbey, from the opening lines of Desert Solitaire

When one really knows a [place] like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted  with a single person.  The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift in such a case, but the growth of a true friendship may be a lifelong affair.

Course Overview

This course will focus on a handful of writers who have written extended essays on a place. They write "non-fiction," a term more useful for explaining what it is not than what it is. These works are certainly creative, and have a strong element of the poetic. These writers all exhibit the serious attention to language, form and thought that characterizes other kinds literature--poetry, drama, fiction--but with particular attention to a common theme.

Our focus will be somewhat narrower than "the essay," but will nevertheless focus on a specific genre. This course will examine interesting and illuminating connections between literature and place.

Like all English courses, this is a course in reading and writing. You will not only read non-fiction essays, you will write them. The goal for this course is for you to become a better reader--more responsive and insightful--and a better writer-richer and more precise. Since this is a literature course and not course on philosophy or ecology, our attention will mostly be on the style and rhetoric in these writers and the shape of this interdisciplinary genre that has common topics and concerns. To read in this way, we will be noticing, interrogating, and comparing, which means careful reading, individually and as a community of readers. This process, which at best is both personal and collaborative, results in exploring all the possible meanings of each text.

Requirements:

Weekly Response

Since one goal of the course is to increase awareness of your role as agents in and observers of the world around you, you will write weekly reflective pieces on assigned readings, reminiscent of a journal entry. These personal responses are intended to be informal contemplations that nonetheless demonstrate an active engagement with the literature. These weekly entries should be about 250 - 300 words long, composed in response to study questions, and emailed to your instructor before the second class period of that particular work (usually Wednesday, but times can change). 

Purpose: Writing a log on the readings should help to enrich your understanding and strengthen your powers of verbal expression.  The best aspect of keeping a journal is that it supports your personal and intellectual growth. (It also verifies that you've done the reading, thought about it, and don't need quizzes to test that knowledge.) The weekly entry is your initial contribution to class discussion. I will review the group's entries and guide discussion accordingly. (That's why they should come in early.) In discussion, you are expected to go beyond those points, listen to others, and develop fresh ideas. The journal entry is not a substitute for talking and listening well.

Study Questions -- The study questions will pose questions about the reading and may provide links to Library or Web resources. The questions help provide a focus for your journal entry (so you don't just ramble or tell anecdotes). Entries that ignore questions may receive little or no credit. In general, the will ask these questions when we discuss the works.

Content of Entries -- You are expected to work toward three objectives: (1) Respond to a particular study question. (2) Show your knowledge of the reading, from beginning to end, both in large concepts and specific details. (3) Provide a point of view or question about the reading that contributes to class discussion. You are working to turn a mix of facts, ideas, and opinions into a crisp, coherent statement. Your reading log is a series of snapshots about what you are thinking and learning.

Your entries need not be a polished final product. The prose should be informal but clear and correct (please spellcheck and proofread) and could be considered the level of discourse you might expect in a good letter or memo from a colleague at work. It should be writing however and not "chat" (as in a chat room), because this kind of writing/speech can be slangy, disconnected, and simplistic in vocabulary.

Criteria for assessment -- Each log will be graded according to how successfully it: 1) exhibits a clear point of view about the reading that opens up discussion of key issues raised by the text; 2) uses evidence and correct MLA notation to support that point of view; 3) demonstrates clear and correct writing. Each log will receive a grade of 3 (strong), 2 (acceptable), 1 (poor) or no credit.

Papers and Peer Review -- Students will also be required to write two more formal, analytical papers, of about three to five pages (3-5) each. These essays should demonstrate critical thinking and the ability to formulate and present an argument. We will devote some class to writing the paper and to reviewing and editing them. A draft of your paper will be due early in the week, you will distribute to your group so your they can read and make comments and prepare for a group session on those drafts on a later day. If your paper fails to undergo a peer review, it will be penalized when submitted as a final draft. NO LATE WORK WILL BE ACCEPTED for the papers. For the responses, a few exceptions can be made. If you fail to hand in either Paper #1 or #2, you will unconditionally fail the course.  For the second paper, you must consult and write annotations for at least three sources, even if you do not cite them in your final paper.   

Presence, Preparation, and Participation -- English courses are not lecture courses; they are reading and writing courses that require your consistent and active engagement. As such, they often have a de facto attendance policy, as this one does. You can't earn high marks in this process if you aren't present, prepared, and participating. Your instructor and your classmates expect you to attend regularly and prepare thoughtfully for each class session. Complete the assignments prior to our meeting and come to class ready to work, share, and listen. Writers seldom work completely in isolation all the time; therefore, it is important, at different stages of the writing and revising process, to share information, discuss strategies, and receive feedback. Throughout the semester, you will most likely work closely with your classmates reading and responding to each other's work. Everyone will benefit if we are all prepared to engage in this type of work. Miss more than two weeks of class (7 days MWF, 5 days T,TH,) and you will receive an F for the course). Persons missing one class or none will receive extra credit.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism — The University Affairs Council has asked all faculty to include the following statement in our course policies: 

Plagiarism, or the use of work by another person, or the use of someone else's words, ideas or arrangement of ideas without giving proper reference to the author, is a serious violation of the Honor Code. You must give credit to other people's ideas and word, even if you put the idea in your own words (even if you paraphrase it). You must also provide full and correct documentation of the exact location of any sources that helped you, including Web or electronic resources. Plagiarism will result in an "F" for the course and the institution of formal disciplinary procedures.

Grading

Weekly Response: 3 points each, 30 possible
Two papers on assigned readings : 25 points each for total of 50 (A = 25; B=20; C=17; D=14; F=0);
Reflection essays: 5 pts each for a total of 10 points
3 Ps, including teaching: 10 pts