This Advanced Non-Fiction course will serve as a meeting point between your pasts and futures as writers. You will take stock of your college writing and reading so far, and use earlier discoveries to push those pieces into new dimensions. You will produce, over the semester, several short pieces, and two substantial (circa 8-10 pages) essays, which you will subject to guided revisions. These pieces can serve as part of your final Capstone project - and/or future writing. You will also revisit, through reading articles, essays, memoir fragments and experimental prose - the uses of close observation, and tactics for introducing the five senses into your own writing. Exploration and risk-taking will be emphasized throughout the semester, along with a rigorous analysis of the craft displayed in your own and your peers’ writing, and in course readings.

We might think of writing like Mary Shelley's processes with Frankenstein: a lightning bolt of inspiration--and then toiling "day and night in order to complete my work. It was, indeed, a filthy process in which I was engaged." This advanced nonfiction course focuses on argumentative exhumation, tinkering, and breathing life into our projects, especially the second time around. We will envision, then reenvision, our writing. The workshop will impose a rigorous level of participation and accountability; it will also allow us to take risks with craft, inspiration, approaches, and our limitless capacity to grow as writers. As you begin to assemble (or panic about!) your final writing portfolios for Capstone, this course offers the opportunity to think creatively and critically about revision: to think and write anew, and to welcome the enlargement, refinement, and transformation of your creative practice. Must be enrolled in one of the following classifications: Junior, Fifth Year or Senior. Pre-req of LLSW 3510 Intermediate Non-fiction minimum grade of C.