Composition I

Composition 1

Introduction to Composition: Writing Self, Writing Community

“Raat thodi ne vesh jaya, the proverb I grew up on. The night is short and our garments change.

Meaning: Don’t put down roots. Don’t get too comfortable. By dawn, we may be on the move, forced to reinvent ourselves in order to survive. Invest only in what we can carry. Passports. Education. Jewellery.”

– Shailja Patel, Migritude

The theme of this class is the writing of identity in all its forms, including individual identity, collective memory, and the body and the senses.

What does it mean to interact with the world through the body and through the senses – taste, touch, smell, sound, sight? How do the senses inform the history of our communities, including food culture, decorative arts, and other community traditions?

How do we write as individuals who live in bodies marked for race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, and socioeconomic class? What does it mean to write when we have been marked as “other” in terms of one or more of these categories? How do we understand and construct our own identities within the framework of multiple categories of belonging and non-belonging?

We will examine readings and workshop submissions for words and phrases that jump out at us, for techniques we can borrow, imitate, or steal, and we will use them as entry points into the conversation, practice, and discourse of college essay writing.

Readings will include work by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Shailja Patel, Gloria Anzaldua, and others.

 

Goals – Students will:

  1. Develop a relationship with writing as a process of thinking and rethinking
  2. Practice modes of thought and writing, including:
    • observing and reporting,
    • critical reading, analyzing, and interpreting,
    • evaluating and arguing,
    • revising, editing, peer review, and constructive criticism
    • elements of style, voice, diction, syntax, context, and audience.
  3. Gain experience in college level research:
    • the evaluation of secondary sources,
    • annotation,
    • integration of quotations,
    • appropriate use of MLA citation guidelines.
  4. Learn to apply skills developed in this class to other contexts

Major Assignments:

  1. Family Recipes, Family Traditions (4-5 pages)
  2. My Identity, Family, Community (4-5 pages)
  3. Writing Self, Writing Community (text analysis, 3-4 pages) + Presentation
  4. Family, Collective Memory, Oral History (Research based)
    1. Annotated Bibliography
    2. Interview
    3. Outline
    4. Abstract
    5. Mini Conference Paper
    6. Research paper (6-8 pages)