WRT 303 - The Personal Essay

Institution:

Stony Brook University

Subject:

Description:

The personal essay is a form that has recently come back into fashion. In this class we will engage the form by writing our own personal essays as well as reading and responding to the work of writers who have come to define the genre: examples include E. B. White, Langston Hughes, and Raymond Carver as well as more contemporary writers such as Joan Didion and Gene Shepherd. We will explore the differences between shaping experience as truth in a personal essay or memoir and as a work of fiction. As a definition of personal essay evolves, we will consider whether personal writing and essay writing (or 'essaying') have a place in academic writing. Students in this class will also be able to prepare a personal statement for their application for graduate or professional school.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.stonybrook.edu

Phone Number:

(631) 632-6000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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