Writing Seminar I: Presenting Yourself in Words

Course Description

This week-long workshop explores the balance between self-presentation and effective communication essential to writing powerful college admissions essays, personal narratives, and academic essays for the college level. The course meets the needs of writers at any level, from students who feel the need to strengthen their writing skills to those seeking the next challenge of university-level writing. As you write and receive feedback daily—focusing for the week on drafting a college admissions essay alongside other writing assignments—you’ll learn not only about drafting, revision, organization, evidence, and style for university-level writing, but also about writing as a means of thinking, self-presentation, and communication.

Over the course of this week-long class, students will:
• Draft, revise, and complete a personal or college admissions essay;
• Practice close-reading techniques to analyze texts and to apply the lessons learned to their own writing;
• Familiarize themselves with a range of pre-writing and writing techniques, including brainstorming, free-writing, clustering, and outlining, by utilizing each during their own essay writing project;
• Respond to their own work and the work of their peers during guided peer feedback sessions.

This course focuses on one of the three core areas covered in Brown's popular course for undergraduates, "Critical Reading and Writing I: The Academic Essay:” self-presentation and writing letters of application (Presenting Yourself In Words); analysis within university-level writing (Writing About Media); and utilizing argumentation and evidence in a college research paper (Composing the Academic Essay). Taking all three courses effectively exposes students to the full range of writing taught in "Critical Reading and Writing: The Academic Essay." These courses have been designed in such a way that students may take a single one, or any two, or all three of these Seminars, and may take them in any order that suits their schedule.

Enrollment is limited to 12 students per section.

Writing Seminar I: Presenting Yourself In Words (one week) explores the balance between self-presentation and effective communication essential to writing powerful college admissions essays, personal narratives, and academic essays for the college level.

Writing Seminar II:Writing About Media (two weeks) teaches students to analyze and to craft expository writing for the university level; after close-reading primary texts in nonfiction, fiction, films and television, music, and/or other types of media, students write an argument in response to these texts, correctly incorporating paraphrases and quotations.

Writing Seminar III:Composing the Academic Essay (three weeks) guides students through the more in-depth process of writing a college-level research paper, teaching them the skills of close-reading, gathering evidence and evaluating scholarly sources, developing their own topics and organizing an argument, drafting an academic essay, undertaking substantial revision, and mastering the conventions of academic style and grammar.

Prerequisites: A proven facility with the English language, including grammar, and some confidence as a writer.

*For 1 week course sections scheduled for June 29 - July 2, 2020: Classes will not meet on Friday, July 3rd due to the observed Independence Day holiday. Due to the brevity of the course, meeting times have been adjusted accordingly Monday - Thursday to preserve in-class hours. We encourage students to remain on campus through Friday as our Campus Life team will be fully engaged with our students, offering a variety of activities.