English 201
Creative Non-Fiction
Dr. D.R. Ransdell
M, T, 4:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m.
R 12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m.
Orvieto Study Abroad Program
Summer May-June 2015
http://ransdell.faculty.arizona.edu
ransdell@email.arizona.edu
Course Description:
The purpose of this class is to explore the experience of Italy through creative nonfiction. We’ll analyze the way authors use writing to make meaning of their experiences
and the way they use setting to create voice. You’ll write critiques of those narratives but
write similar versions of your own. Through your personal journal entries, you’ll have the
chance to explore, examine, and capture your thoughts and observations about your
summer travel experiences.
Although we will look at multiple aspects of the intersection of writing and travel, central
questions for the course include: What makes travel narratives effective? How do they
help us interpret and digest our own experiences? What other social or political purposes
might such writing serve? What are some limitations? What does travel writing teach us
about the target culture and its peoples? What do our experiences abroad teach us about
our home culture and ourselves?
Note that since this is a college writing course, you are naturally expected to submit
writing that is free of grammatical and mechanical errors; otherwise you will lose credit.
(See Grammar Highlights below.)
Materials:
Calcagno, Anne, editor. Travelers’ Tales: Italy. San Francisco: Travelers’ Tales, 2001.
(Amazon, new or used)
Doran, Phil. The Reluctant Tuscan: How I Discovered My Inner Italian. New York:
Gotham Books, 2005. (Amazon, Kindle, used)
Perrottet, Tony. Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists (Original title:
Route 66 A.D.) (Selections will be available on my website, but feel free to pick up your
own copy. Used copies are only $4 on Amazon.)
Course Breakdown:
Journals (4): 40%
Analyses (3): 30%
Final Reflection: 25%
Presentation: 5%
Journals: These assignments are designed to give you space to record and reflect on your
experiences. You might analyze your impressions of a church or a museum. You might
analyze something you witnessed while walking around Orvieto or your efforts to use
Italian. You might reflect on life in Italy and how it contrasts to life back “home.” Use
Italy to ask yourself big questions. Be careful to shape your pieces with your readers in
mind and include a title (or titles if you write several pieces rather than one long one).
For the first week, you might want to record your first impressions about Italy, your
preparations for your trip, your reason to choose Italy, your expectations, etc. You might
even want to write about a film or novel about Italy, Italian friends or relatives, or
previous travels that may affect your summer abroad experience.
For subsequent weeks, feel free to write travel narratives that explain your experiences
visiting a city, a town, a site, a famous square, etc. Detail your efforts to speak Italian
around town. Explain about a hilarious misadventure when you went out to dinner and
had no idea you were ordering octopus or your pleasure at discovering an unexpected
garden when you were out exploring on your own. Give advice to future travelers. Write
a letter home to your folks or your friends in which you reflect on incidents that
happened. Record an interesting dialog you had with fellow students or natives and
analyze what you learned from it. Respond to one of our readings (including your
classmates’) in an informal, reader-response style. Try your hand at imitating some of our
writers. (“The Reluctant Umbrian: How I Learned to Laugh and Love in Orvieto.”)
Almost any non-fiction topic that helps you understand your summer abroad experience
and that you feel comfortable sharing with your classmates will be appropriate. Do give
your pieces some kind of logical shape. (You don’t need a thesis statement, but you
might need an intro and conclusion.) You’ll have a chance to get some feedback from
classmates before submitting your final version.
Minimum length: 1500 words.
Analyses: Write an analysis of the text(s) we’ve read or parts of them, especially in
terms of how a consideration of place stimulates self-awareness. Include a thesis
statement and a forecast, topic sentences, evidence from the texts, analysis, and a
conclusion. Note that it’s usually best to analyze one or two aspects of a text rather than
to cover lots of ideas without reflecting on them.
Minimum length: 1000 words
Final Reflection: Reflect on how your experiences through writing and reading helped
you contextualize your entire Orvieto experience. You might want to refer to some of
your earlier pieces or quote them. You also might want to compare some of your first
impressions to how you feel about Italy, travel, even yourself! by the end of the course.
Presentation: You will read one of your essays (or parts of it) to the Study Abroad
community on June 26th.. (6-8 mins.) You’ll want to practice a few times to get used to
reading in a clear, loud voice. You’ll want to enunciate carefully and plan for a few
dramatic pauses so that your fellow students understand your punch lines or feel the full
impact of your realizations. (No worries—this will be really fun.  The art and
photography students get to show off too!)
Technicalities: Double-space your work using Times New Roman 12 and compose your
essays in Standard Written English. Essays and homework will be marked down 1/3
grade per class period late. Remember to back up all your work in a couple of places in
case of computer snafus. Barring technical difficulties, I’ll ask you to submit all your
work via Dropbox (possibly d2l) in Word or rtf.
Classroom Etiquette: Come to class on time and don’t leave until class is over. To avoid
distracting classmates, use electronic devices only for course materials. (Use a laptop or a
tablet, not a cell phone.)
Attendance: You are allowed to miss one class; thereafter, each absence lowers your
overall grade by 1%.
Note: It’s important to write the right words, not just any words. However, special effort
usually leads to higher grades. Remember to edit your work; otherwise you’ll lose credit.
Important Note: Summer school goes fast, especially when you’re abroad. Skim if you
have to, but keep up. Look ahead and study the syllabus so that you can complete your
work on time without it interfering with travel plans and our excursions. You might or
might not have an Internet connection where you’re living; plan accordingly.
Daily Syllabus
Week 1:
T 5/26 Introduction.
R 5/28 For class: Draft your Week 1 Journal for workshopping; read Doran Chs 1-3.
Note that your journal should be almost done so that you can quickly complete it after
getting a little feedback and adding a few final touches.
F 5/29 Submit Week 1 Journal. (by midnight)
==================
Week 2:
M 6/1 For class, read Doran Chs 4-18.
T 6/2 Read Doran Chs 19-35.
R 6/4 Draft your Week 2 Journal for workshopping.
F 6/5 Submit Week 2 Journal (by midnight).
==================
Week 3:
M 6/8 Post Doran analysis by noon. From TT, read: Morris (xv), Calcagno (xix), Lubin
(9), and Hemphill (41).
T 6/9 From TT, read: Hellenga (65), Fallowell (88), Thorpe (223), Ellis (300).
R 6/11 Draft Week 3 Journal.
F 6/12 Submit Week 3 Journal.
===================
Week 4:
M 6/15 TT analysis due by noon (write about any number of sections). Perrottet: Read
Parts 1 (Pagan) and 2 (Holiday). (They’re on my website.)
T 6/16 Perrottet: Read Part 3 (Rome).
R 6/18 Draft Week 4 Journal.
F 6/19 Submit Week 4 Journal.
===================
Week 5:
M 6/22 Perrotet analysis due by noon. From TT, read: Scheller (128), Gardaphe (139),
Sturla (215).
T 6/23 From TT, read: Alford (296), Hempe (148), and three selections of your choice.
Be prepared to explicate your choices to classmates: what you liked or didn’t, what you
found useful, and narratives techniques that stood out to you.
R 6/25 Draft your Final Reflection. Also, choose a couple of possibilities for Friday’s
presentation.
F 6/26 Final Reflection “due,” but accepted through July 3rd without penalty.  Late
papers lose 1/3 grade per day but will be accepted through July 10.
D.R.’s Grammar Highlights
Note: following these simple guidelines might help you prevent common mistakes
that could lower your grade.
When you make grammar mistakes, your readers may have to reread your sentence in
order to understand it. That confuses them and makes them lose time. If you make
enough mistakes, they’ll start to disagree with your opinions automatically! Instead,
observe some simple rules to make your writing more effective.
1) Add a comma after a long introductory phrase: Even though it was long after midnight,
I wrote three more drafts of my English essay. This comma helps your readers find the
subject of your sentence.
2) Add a comma after a conjunction ONLY when the phrase that follows is an
independent clause (a complete sentence). I thought I had enough time to write my essay,
but I had to work until dawn to finish my work. (Note the difference: I thought I had
enough time to write my essay but had to work until dawn to finish my work. No subject=
no comma.)
3) Use commas around non-restrictive (unnecessary) clauses: My roommate, who never
turns off her alarm clock, drives me crazy. The sentence could simply read “My
roommate drives me crazy.” (If you have two roommates, the information becomes
necessary so that you can explain which roommate is the sleepyhead: My roommate who
never turns off her alarm clock drives me crazy. My other roommate never bothers to set
one.)
4) Divide sentences with a semi-colon; use a comma after words such as “however.” We
went to a terrific party last night; however, the food tasted awful.
5) Avoid run-ons. In other words, don’t run two sentences together your readers will be
irritated. See what I mean? Run-ons are frustrating for readers because they assume they
have misread and have to go back and reread your sentence only to find out that YOU are
the one who made the mistake. Instead write: Don’t run two sentences together. Your
readers will be irritated. If you want the sentences to work closely together, you might
use a semi-colon instead: Don’t run two sentences together; your readers will be
irritated.
6) Avoid fragments unless they are clearly used on purpose. A fragment is a word or
phrase masquerading as a sentence but that is incomplete in some way. Bad idea? Once
in a while it makes sense to use a fragment stylistically, but you have to be careful that it
doesn’t seem like a mistake. For example, “Bad idea” isn’t a full sentence, but it
demonstrates my example.
7) Avoid “number” mistakes. Grammatically, “everyone” is singular, but “their” is plural.
Therefore it’s awkward to write: Everyone should bring their syllabus. Instead make the
phrase plural: Students should bring their syllabi. (You can also use the singular form,
but it’s awkward too: Everyone should bring his or her syllabus.)
8) Use colons precisely. A colon means one of two things: a list is coming or an example
is coming. If you have an example or a direct quote coming, that example/quote might be
a full sentence. Johnny told me a lot of things that night: “I’m not sure why I decided to
kill Yiolanda, but once I did, the rest came easily.”