Day 1
Sat. Aug. 29
Intro to the course, self-introductions
Literary writing and concrete details
Definitions of home
(whiteboard from class)
Homework:
➤ wRITE A DEFINITION OF “HOME” AS A LIST OF CONCRETE DETAILS
Define “home” as a list of concrete details. Make me feel “there.” Type it up in a Word document (.doc or .docx file) — Times New Roman Font, 12-point font, double spaced. Your list should be ~100 words long, more or less.
Give your file a name that clearly identifies it (e.g. “Zhang San, Definition of Home.docx”) and upload it to our shared Box folder.
(just to give you an idea of what this’ll probably look like…)
➤ READ “THE OLD HOUSE AT HOME” (EXCERPTS)
Read this classic piece of literary journalism, which paints a vivid portrait of a neighborhood saloon in New York in 1940. I highly encourage you to read my annotated version. If you have trouble seeing the annotations, please message me!
Come to next class prepared to share your favorite detail — a detail that really makes you feel like you’re “there” — and explain why you like that detail.
➤ PLAN TIME FOR AN OUTING
Your first writing assignment, due Tues. Sept. 8, will require you to go out into the world, find an interesting place, and write about that place from direct observation. For this to be a meaningful experience, I recommend you budget some time for a trip out into Kunshan (or wherever you’re located right now) — probably during the weekend of Sept. 5-6.
➤ READ the course handbook, peruse the syllabus
The syllabus describes what this course is about; the course handbook explains how class works. I suggest you skim through the syllabus to get an idea of what we’ll be doing, and read the course handbook more carefully to understand my class policies in detail.
