Description and Objectives

This class will study how techniques of fiction contribute to nonfiction pieces—profiles of people, places, or things, events in history, etc.—that make for successful journalism. Our main reading focus will be on the works of John McPhee, a writer for The New Yorker for many decades. Your grade will be based on class discussion and the several pieces of nonfiction you write for the class.

 

Textbooks

The John McPhee Reader, John McPhee

Course Requirements

Daily reading of material.

Weekly quizzes on material.

Writing several nonfiction pieces.

Successful Students

This is our basic course of study. Successful students will read ahead, and carefully!

 

September: “Omission: Choosing what to leave out”

“That Sad Young Man”

“A Sense of Where You Are”

“The Headmaster”

 

October: “Oranges”

“The Pine Barrens”

“A Roomful of Hovings”

“Levels of the Game”

 

 

November: “The Crofter and the Laird”

“Encounters with the Archdruid”

“The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed”

 

December: “The Curve of Binding Energy”

“The Survival of the Bark Canoe”