Beyond Evergreen: Writing Our Way into the City

Below is a suggested course syllabus and assignment sequence that WR100 instructors can use or adapt as they consider ways to include YOTC in their courses. Two program wide activities will be included as part of the Writing departments YOTC activities—a Panel of Writers and a student written anthology. Information about both of these follow the course-specific materials. In addition, writer Rafael Alvarez, who has written extensively about Baltimore, will be visiting Loyola in October as part of the Modern Masters Reading series. There is also a list of readings (most from the syllabus below) that are available on the Blackboard eReserve system to all WR instructors.

WR W100: EFFECTIVE WRITING

Suggested Syllabus & Assignment Sequence

EARLY SEPTEMBER

Unit 1: Foundations of the Essay

Theme:  My Home, My Hometown

Essay #1 Focus:  Home
Essay #2 Focus:  Hometown                 

Writing strategies:

Creating an original idea within the framework of a single 
sentence
Structures of texts: narrative, analytic, discursive thought
Levels of Generalization
Image-Information-Idea

Readings:            

• Gretel Ehrlich, “Architecture”
• Linda Hogan, “Dwellings”
• Judith Ortiz Cofer, “More Room”
• Bell Hooks, “Keeping Close to Home:  Class & Education”
• John Stilgoe, “Outside Lies Magic”
• James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village”
• Something on Columbia, Maryland; “Fake Towns Rise” in Wall Street Journal, 5/31/06; Portland, Oregon
• Habitat for Humanity
• Film:  “The World of Tomorrow”

LATE SEPTEMBER-EARLY OCTOBER

Unit 2: Expanding the Essay

Theme:  Concept and Character of the City

Essay #3 Focus:  Your [Our] City

Writing Strategies:

Inquiry into the subject of/for an essay. Addressing a broad topic
Exercise in using broad range of information sources (e.g., observation, interviews, library, public documents

Readings:

• E.B. White, “Here is New York”
• Joan Didion, “Miami”
• Annie Dillard, from An American Childhood (Pittsburg)
• Adam Gopnik, “Looking for Mr. Ravioli (New York)
• Ian Frazier, “Take the F” (Brooklyn)
• “Bags in Trees” (New York)

MID-OCTOBER-NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

Unit 3: Writing a Contemporary American Essay for Publication

Theme:  City of Baltimore

Essay #4 Focus: Writing to Change the World, a Contemporary American for an anthology that will be distributed to the incoming first-year class as a way to “introduce” them to Baltimore during summer or fall orientation.  This will provide the students composing the essays with a real audience and purpose.

Writing Strategies:

Conduct broad-ranging research in support of an essay
     --learn a body of information
     --understand goals and methodology of research
Generate and support an original idea

Possible Topics & Strategies for Research

Readings: 

• Liz Bowie, “On Their Own” series in Baltimore Sun
• Rafael Alvarez, Gregory Kane, Dan Rodricks
• David Simon
• Frank Shivers
• Laura Lippmann
• Anne Tyler
• H.L. Mencken
• Taylor Branch
• Lucille Clifton
• Tony Hiss and Calvin Trillin in The New Yorker

Readings & Resources

Not all readings need to be by Baltimore authors or about Baltimore (although we do want to have a strong showing of them) some will be about cities, or features of cities, or other relevant topics that model the types of essays students will produce. Copies of essays will be available for instructors to upload onto their Blackboard site through the LND Library electronic reserve system. If you don’t know how to do this, it is very easy and allows you to make a “coursepack” with the students printing them out themselves so copyright/fair use issues are not really a problem. It is flexible and adaptable (texts can be added throughout the semester). You can mix or add whatever you want. Peggy will provide some how to sessions on this or you can ask the Blackboard support folks.

Here is a list of readings/sources we generated that may be of help (thanks to Elizabeth Leik and David Belz for lots of help) and we welcome suggestions:

About Baltimore

Rafael Alvarez:

• Hometown Boy; The Hoodle Patrol and Other Curiosities of Baltimore, 1999
• “Who Are We?” (Baltimore Magazine, Jan 2006) about diversity of Govans

Russell Baker, Growing Up (memoir about growing up in Baltimore)

Dan Rodricks (columns about Baltimore in the Sun) “Dear Drug Dealers”, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/

Gregory Kane (columns about Baltimore in the Sun)

David Simon (Homicide and The Corner)

Taylor Branch (MLK/civil rights trilogy, essays , op eds)

Frank R. Shiver Maryland Wits and Baltimore Bards

Liz  Bowie, “On Their Own” series in Baltimore Sun on homeless teenagers, http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/

Others

James Baldwin “Stranger in a Village”

John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Judith Ortiz Cofer, (get title--essay about grandmother’s house)

Annie Dillard

EB White, “Here is New York”

Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic

G. Ehrlich“Architecture”

NY Times series on class in America (May 2005)

Liz  Bowie, “On Their Own” series in Baltimore Sun on homeless teenagers. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-ontheirown,0,2843457.special?coll=bal-local-utility

Assignment/Unit ideas (see below for more specific assignment sequence):

My Home, My Hometown

Essay #1 Focus:  Home
Essay #2 Focus:  Hometown
Essay #3 Focus:  Your [Our] City
Essay #4 Focus: Writing to Change the World, a contemporary American  essay for an anthology that will be distributed to the incoming first-year class as a way to “introduce” them to Baltimore during summer or fall orientation.  This will provide the students composing the essays with a real audience and purpose.

OTHER RESOURCES

• Department Instructors Elizabeth Leik and David Belz
• Enoch Pratt Library  http://www.epfl.net/index.html;
• •  Maryland Room http://www.epfl.net/slrc/md/index.html
• Wayne Schaumburg Guide to Walks, Talks and Tours http://home.earthlink.net/~wschaumburg/index.html
• Baltimore Cultural resources   http://www.baltimore.org/
• Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage   http://www.mdch.org/
• Baltimore publications:

The Sun   http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Urbanite  http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/homepage.html
Baltimore Magazine  http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/
Baltimore City Paper  http://www.citypaper.com/

Other local resources with good speaker potential who are in the “Preach the Gospel whenever possible; use words if necessary” school of thought:

--Liz McAllister, Jonah House (http://www.jonahhouse.org/index.htm)
--Ralph Moore, Jesuit-trained community activist who’s fighting the battle of “bandit signs” and the housing crisis in Baltimore City.
--Mary Pat Clarke, long-time Baltimore city government leader, also big on the housing issue.
--Tom Composto, teacher and Jesuit priest who at one time ran a free dental clinic on Whitelock Street in West Baltimore.

Baltimore Book Festival

Start: 09/29/2006 - 5:00pm
End: 10/01/2006 - 7:00pm
Mark your calendars for the 11th edition of Baltimore's best weekend book bonanza! Note later date this year: September 29, 30, and October 1. Visit the festival's site for updates: http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/resources/up182.aspx?ff=2

15th Annual Baltimore Writers' Conference

Start: 11/18/2006 - 8:00am
End: 11/18/2006 - 7:00pm
November 18, 2006,  University Union on the campus of Towson University.
Sponsored by Towson University's Masters in Professional Writing Program, the Johns Hopkins University Master of Arts in Writing Program, and CityLit Project.

Readings available on Blackboard Course reserves;

The list of readings are available at Peggy O’Neill’s WR100.15 Blackboard Course Content Area. The electronic files are listed by author with a brief title. Below are the file names followed by the fuller citation.  

About Baltimore

BaltimoreasInspiration: Urbanite August 2005 (Writers on how Baltimore inspires them to write—includes Ron Tanner!)

Rafael Alvarez:

AlvarezWho “Who Are We?” (Baltimore Magazine, Jan 2006) about diversity of Govans
AlvarezDominant: “Dominant Symbol” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezEraFades: “Era fades, step by step”  from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezVitalLimbs: “Vital limbs of the city” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezPattersonPark: “For all their blessings, 24 in Patterson Park family give thanks” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezCrabsCrawl: “Crabs crawl from Bay to belly in less than a day” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezAflicker: “A flicker of hope in darkest hour” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezGoodEggs: “Good eggs and nice memories of Easter” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezOneFamilysFaith: “One family’s faith in the ‘90s” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezBawlmer: “Bawlmer --- don’t you love it, hon?” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezForaninnocent: “For an innocent abroad in San Francisco, lunch has its price” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezTalesofFells: “Tales of old Fells Point” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezRemembering: “Remembering Christmas with Grandmom on Eastern Ave” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezTheQuest: “The quest for Bawlmer’s treasures” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezOKMom: “OK, Mom, right to the moon” from Hometown Boy, 1999
AlvarezUnusualspin: “An unusual spin, but elevating art” from Hometown Boy, 1999

Liz Bowie:

BowieOnTheirOwn: “On Their Own: Chapter One” (The Baltimore Sun)

Mark Chalkley

ChalkleyBaltimoreScents: “Scents of Place.” Urbanite 26 (Aug 2006) 56-59

Bonnie Crockett

CrockettSBaltimore: “Encounter: South Baltimore Hit and Run.” Urbanite 26 (August 2006) 39-41

Tony Hiss:

HissReinventingBaltimore: “Annals of Place: Reinventing Baltimore” (The New Yorker, April 29, 1991)

H.L. Mencken:

MenckenDays: “Days of Innocence”

Jason Tinney

TinneyVespas: “Baltimore Observed: ScooterCity” Urbanite 26 (Aug 2006) 33-37

Calvin Trillin:

TrillinBmoreTasting: “U.S. Journal: Baltimore, MD.: Tasting” (The New Yorker, Nov. 5, 1979)
TrillinBmoreFair: “U.S. Journal: Baltimore: City Fair”  (The New Yorker, October 28, 1972)
TrillinAnnapolis: “U.S. Journal: Annapolis, MD.: Thoughts During A Filibuster on Subways (The New Yorker, May 31, 1976)

Countee Cullen:

CullenIncident: “Incident”

Philip Levine:

LevineBecoming: “Becoming You”

Others

Marianne Amoss

AmossMySpace: “True Tales of MySpace.” Urbanite 26. (Aug 2006) 61t

Joan Didion:

DidionMiami: “Miami”

Gretel Ehrlich:

EhrlichArchitecture: “Architecture”

Elizabeth Evitts

EvittsPlace  Editor’s Note. Urbanite 26 (August 2006)

Ian Frazier:

FrazierTake: “Take the F”
FrazierBagsinTrees: “Bags in Trees: A Retrospective” (The New Yorker, January 12, 2004)

Adam Gopnik:

GopnikBumping: “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli” (The New Yorker, September 30, 2002)

Linda Hogan:

HoganDwellings: “Dwellings”

bell hooks:

HooksClosetoHome: “Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education”

Joyce Carol Oates:

OatesTheyAll: “They All Just Went Away”

Judith Ortiz Cofer:

OrtizCoferMore: “More Room”

E.B. White:

WhiteHereisNY: “Here is New York”
WhiteDepartment: “Department of Amplification” (The New Yorker, August 5, 1961)