Memoirs and Travelogues Letter Assignment

 

[a] Text and illustration RF

Memoirs and Travelogues Across Cultures

IDST 101

Autumn 2020, Module 2

Preliminary Writing Assignment 

Memoirs and Travelogues—The Letter

[The module form for this semester makes all assignments seem to come on too quickly. Nothing can be done about the format, but I am aware of the pressures, and have made certain modifications in the early writing assignments from years past, without detracting from the core principles of the assignment and what it can teach you].

By choosing the letter format for your first writing assignment, I am asking you to build upon the skills you have already begun to develop in analyzing (and providing examples for) memoirs and travelogues. You have already reached a point where you have some experience with the readings in our course, and your job will be to explain it to an intelligent  non-specialist.

[b] Reaching, teaching RF

Teach it, really.

It needs to be a real person, and the letter will be sent (organized by the Beloit College history department). It is a real letter to a real person. Do not treat this as an "exercise." It is not a fake-letter that is really supposed to be a paper. No, it is really a real letter to a real person.

Letters from “the field” (or our modified “archive” of source materials on the syllabus) are a good way to refine your thoughts about liberal arts education, and they are a useful medium for beginning the intellectual “framing process” that will accelerate as we move through the next half (and more) of the course. The letter writing exercise is especially useful while studying the memoirs, travelogues, and ethnographies covered in this course.

The nonfiction writer John McPhee explains to his own students that a letter is often precisely the solution to problems of interpretation or clarity—when in doubt, write to mother, he says. In this case, it is not a plea of “send money” that the letter contains, but a reworking, rethinking, and contextualization of your work. You need not limit yourself to kinfolk, but you need to think about who the recipient will be (ideally someone who will welcome a letter about real liberal arts educational ideas).

You owe it to yourself to listen to this long interview with McPhee (but I know that you are pressed for time). You really should, but at the very least, though, listen to the first five minutes or so. It is the very purpose that lies behind this assignment.

John McPhee NPR (1978) 22:40
Click on the second blue circle on the right side of the page (it is worth it)

Now start writing. Toward that end, you should pay attention to the following issues.

1. The letter should be 1,500 words. You may not go under that amount, and may choose to write a bit more (I will read every word, but, after another few hundred words, you're probably doing it for yourself, which is fine). I am looking for high-quality writing, and simply dashing off three pages will likely result in a C (or worse). A solid job will require a good deal of careful work.

[c] I said, "start writing" RF

2. Just in case you think that writing four or five pages—spilling them onto the page and turning it in—pay very close attention to my writing guide and our class discussions. I expect this to be a well-written essay in letter form (we'll discuss the letter genre in class). 

3. I am asking you to connect with a very specific reader, and to explain “memoirs and travelogues...and maybe ethnographies) in a level of detail that she will find satisfying. You are the expert, and your “audience” is the person who will be reading your letter (think of my own role as reading over her shoulder). I have found that this kind of assignment helps students to explain even abstruse matters, because the personal relationship they have with their readers demands an attention to patient explanation that is often lacking in more “academic” forms of writing, in which they assume that a professor already knows what they are writing about.

Your reader probably doesn't, and I want you to explain it.

Make it make sense.

4. You may approach your materials from any angle that you like, but you will need to “cover” at least the following items, no matter what order you choose.

          a. You must discuss what "memoirs," "travelogues," and maybe "ethnographies" 

              are. Provide your reader with at least a few ways of thinking about them.

          b. Give your reader a sense of what you have learned up to this point about 

              reading memoirs, travelogues, and ethnographies. Use specific examples from 

              our course materials.

          c. Finally, give your reader some sense of what it is like to learn about those 

              materials, as we are doing in this class. Discuss some of the details from  

              your readings. Again, use specific examples.

          d. You must have at least one illustration. Trust me. I know what I'm doing. It can be anything (and you won't be publishing this, so permissions won't be required, although you should cite anything that is not your own drawing with a footnote).

[d] Evocation RF

5. The best way to approach the writing process is in three parts (this is a friendly suggestion). First, create a structure (we'll discuss this in class), and jot down some notes for each of the “sections” of your letter. Second, using those notes as a guide, write a rough draft of the whole letter. Third, revise, polish, and refine.  

Voilà you will have something not unlike what Alexis de Tocqueville might have written about understanding a complex, foreign culture that baffled and enticed him 180 years ago. While your letter won’t be as long as Tocqueville's Democracy in America, it is likely—if it is done well—to be much like Tocqueville’s rich and evocative letters back to his family about encountering people, texts, and institutions in a strange land called the United States. 

You get the idea. If you don't, just raise your hand (virtually) and ask me (or send me an e-mail message). I'll be happy to help.

***  ***

Letters are Due (as .pdf copies sent to me by email)

by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 8

Add the word count to all papers!

[e] And then you may rest RF