American Studies 351 - Seminar: Writing about American Society: The Grind and the Glory: Writing about Work

Topics course. Same as ENG 384. A writing sample and permission of the instructor are required. Enrollment limited to 12: In 1972, the journalist Studs Terkel published Working, a tome of oral histories documenting what people did all day and how they felt about it. The book was, in part, “about a search … for daily meaning as well as daily bread.” This is a writing workshop where students will actively question the way we work and how we define labor, both seen and unseen. We will also consider the meaning of work today, amid a pandemic that has divided American society into “essential” and “nonessential” people. Using the journalist’s tools — interviewing, reporting, writing, editing, and revising — students will capture the voices and vicissitudes of fortune of the workers among us as we dream, scheme, and struggle to hold on.

Writing Sample Required. Not open to first-years, sophomores