[a] Alaska RF
Memoirs and Travelogues Across Cultures
IDST 101
Autumn 2020, Module 2
Final Writing Assignment
Memoirs and Travelogues—The Review Essay
Your final writing assignment will be in the form of a review essay of the kind you will be reading throughout weeks five through seven of the module. The short version is that you will write an essay that combines an analysis of the four major works you have been studying during this course—Elenore Smith Bowen's Return to Laughter, Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men, John McPhee's Coming into the Country, and George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. You will write an essay of 3,000 words (about ten pages) that examines similarities and differences (and themes between them) in those books.
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| [b] Paris RF |
Review Essay
You will be reading a few good review essays from the New York Review of Books for the last three weeks of our course. The basic idea is as follows. A good review essay has a two-pronged approach. It is, on the one hand, a “review” of the books. By this, I mean that you need to engage examples from the books, including quotations from them that "speak to" your themes. This should not be at all difficult, given the immediacy of much of the material. In the “rest” of the essay you should show how the themes in the works intersect, and illustrate the main topics of our course—memoir, travelogue, and ethnography.
You will be reading a few good review essays from the New York Review of Books for the last three weeks of our course. The basic idea is as follows. A good review essay has a two-pronged approach. It is, on the one hand, a “review” of the books. By this, I mean that you need to engage examples from the books, including quotations from them that "speak to" your themes. This should not be at all difficult, given the immediacy of much of the material. In the “rest” of the essay you should show how the themes in the works intersect, and illustrate the main topics of our course—memoir, travelogue, and ethnography.
We will discuss this in detail during out class sessions.
Additional Notes
This assignment asks you to engage the four books and to review all of the work you have done thus far in the course (the exam you will take in Week 6 is good preparation for this). The assignment does not require you to do “research,” and substantial outside work will almost certainly be counterproductive. For example, searching for biographical material on the authors will not be as useful as simply analyzing the books (in much the way that you are asked to do every week in quizzes, focused work, and exams.
Additional Notes
This assignment asks you to engage the four books and to review all of the work you have done thus far in the course (the exam you will take in Week 6 is good preparation for this). The assignment does not require you to do “research,” and substantial outside work will almost certainly be counterproductive. For example, searching for biographical material on the authors will not be as useful as simply analyzing the books (in much the way that you are asked to do every week in quizzes, focused work, and exams.
Details
[1] Your essay should be 3,000 words. Less than that will reflect a lack of preparation and hurried work. You need to get started on your ideas as soon as you read this assignment (three weeks before it is due), and to begin organizing your thoughts. As I have stated, everything you are asked to do in this course (quizzes, exams, focused work) is geared toward preparing you for this assignment. Review those materials, and you should be on your way.
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| [c] Mules Without Men RF |
[2] 3,000 words does not mean "one draft and a death-march to the word count." That always leads to horrid, bloated, writing. You need to review the writing guide and try to write at least two drafts. Look carefully at the material on pages 11-30. Do not just try to write this assignment on the final weekend (or the results will be very poor).
[3] As always, I want you to include an illustration. It can be whatever you wish, and you need not worry about copyright issues, since it will not be published or distributed.
[4] Good luck. I am happy to help if you have questions.
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Review essays are due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 6 in Beloit
and 3:00 p.m. (if you are in China) on December 7.
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| [d] Africa RF |
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