4 semester hours
Participants on the Mendenhall Wetlands in Juneau, AK
Photo: Lindsey Smith
Professor David Anderson assisted by Professor Dennis Taylor
Travel writing has a long and impressive history. This course will help writers to know that history and become part of it.
I. Course Description:
This course will review major trends in travel and nature writing from popular versions of communing with nature to scholarly scientific observation and research in biology and other academic disciplines that are concerned with the relationship of the human realm and the natural world. Readings from the multicultural anthology At Home on the Earth (Ed. David Landis Barnhill) and The Nature Reader (Eds. Daniel Halpern and Dan Frank) provide the groundwork for exploring the sense of place in American views of nature. We will examine Hiram alumnus '72 and author David Brendan Hopes' A Sense of the Morning. The genre of travel writing, beginning with writers like Herodotus and Marco Polo, appeals to a wide range of fine writers, including Mary Montagu, James Boswell, Charles Darwin, Evelyn Waugh, Jan Morris, and Paul Theroux. In addition to reading such writers, students will compose their own travel essays based on travel experiences. Their descriptions of new experiences and sites may be heightened by irony, humor, cultural meditation, and a sense of a “mind in motion” that pushes toward larger meanings — ethical, political, and personal. Prerequisite: English 206 or permission.
II. Goals and Objectives
We expect students to learn how to keep journals and to recognize the attributes of effective journal development. The course also teaches students the form and methodology for various types of travel writing from scientific publications to personal narratives.
We expect students to develop an understanding of what constitutes good travel writing. We also expect students to understand the importance of place in writing about nature in travel. Students will also write about their own personal experiences, fictional or historical, to express their understanding about their encounters with the natural world as they travel and encounter experiences for the first time.
The course presents environmental challenges and social dilemmas as addressed by historic and current authors. Students will formulate their own positions from research and readings on these subjects, ending with a position paper.
The course fulfills an elective requirement for a minor in Writing, as well as the requirement for addressing the ethical and historical aspects of science for Biology major. The course can be counted as one of the distribution requirements for general education.
This course stresses the importance of mentoring (peer and faculty) in the development of writing skills. By sharing works in progress, the course encourages students to develop a sense of mutual regard in a community of writers at different stages of development in their own writing abilities. By requiring peer review, group discussion and multiple revisions, the course demonstrates through practice the value of sharing responsibility for a product produced by individuals within a community of scholars.
III. Course Expectations
1. Texts
The Best Women's Travel Writing, Ed. Lucy McCauley (Travelers' Tales)
2. Required papers, projects and assignments:
You will be required to read given texts and to turn in four works, each emphasizing a different aspect of Travel Writing.
3. Expectations for attendance:
We expect students to attend all class sessions and field trips. If you must miss a class we expect you to show us the courtesy we will show you by informing us beforehand to let us know why you must miss the session. Failure to do so may result in our handing you a less courteous grade than you might expect based on grades on your assignments.
4. Expectations for class participation and behavior:
We expect all students to participate in class discussions, readings, peer reviews and dialog. We also expect students to demonstrate the same courtesy to other students as they expect to receive when listening to new ideas and critiquing new works.
5. Expectations for academic honesty:
We subscribe to the Hiram College policy on academic honesty as stated in the Academic Procedures section of your Hiram College Catalog. By turning in the first assignment to this course, you also acknowledge to us that you subscribe to this policy as well. We suggest you read the entire policy. Plagiarism is not acceptable. "An essay or term paper is designed to develop a student's own ability to think clearly and critically about a subject and to express ideas fluently . . . To avoid any suspicion of plagiarism, students should acknowledge any work not their own; in other words, any language, illustration, information, or diagram which is not original must be documented."
IV. Course Structure:
David Anderson will introduce travel writing and present the bulk of materials for the course during the first two weeks, following the model of a 3 week course with intensive work. The students will then submit papers by internet receiving feedback from David Anderson with consultation by Denny Taylor. David will rejoin the program for the last 3 weeks in Turkey and Germany.
V. Assessment and Evaluation:
Paper deadlines are important. The course follows a developmental writing model that encourages prompt submission of works or revisions and evidence of continuous improvement. Emphasis in determining grade is placed on the Professors' assessment of your work, in which you demonstrate evidence of improvement through revisions and through sequential assignments in the course.
VI. Epilogue
Although we have planned a direction for the course, student interest and concerns will focus the emphasis placed on each subject and the directions we explore. Our goal is to help each student to improve in producing works depicting the facets of travel- nature writing most important to him or her. We encourage your active participation at all times. We also ask you to keep an open mind to the comments and criticisms offered throughout the course. Some of the most effective plant growth comes from what appears to be the most severe forms of pruning. Even if you do not agree with the assessment provided by peers and faculty, you may be able to profit as a writer by following through with suggested changes, gaining the valuable lesson of experience by doing so. We look forward to working with you this semester.
David R. Anderson
andersondr at hiram.edu
Dennis J. Taylor
taylordj at hiram.edu
last updated 4 May 2008
Banner Photo by Mathew J. Wilson