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Writing
Project #1: Travel Article |
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| ASSIGNMENTS
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UPDATE 26
September 1999 UPDATE 25
September 1999 UPDATE 21 September 1999
In this assignment, we will write an account of a visit to some particular place. Though the place may be either distant or close to home (e.g., River Street, Pinpoint, Tybee, Sam's Wholesale Club, Fort Pulaski, a housing project, the Civil Rights Museum), the purpose of the visit and the focus of the essay should not be primarily personal (no trips to the old homestead or fondly remembered family outings). Rather, through close observation and factual investigation, we should attempt to convey the social, historical, cultural, and/or natural significance of the place itself. Attend to the guidelines, suggestions, and requirements that follow. And please check this web page every few days for any updates to the assignment guidelines. Deadlines See Revised
Deadlines (above) Feedback Length: 1,200-1,400 words (approximately five or six double-spaced word-processed pages) Strategies  The
mere agglomeration of detail is no free pass to the reader=s interest. The detail
must be significant. (117)
If
a phrase comes to you easily, look at it with deep suspicion; it=s probably one of the
countless clichés that have woven their way so tightly into the fabric of travel
writing. (118)
Eliminate
every . . . fact that is a known attribute: don=t tell us that the sea had waves and the sand was white. Find
details . . . [that] do useful work. (119)
Your main task as a travel writer is to find the central idea of the place
you=re
dealing with. (122)
[W]hatever place you write about, go there often enough to isolate the
qualities that make it distinctive. Usually this will be some combination of the place and
the people who inhabit it. (126-27)
By
interviewing local men and women . . . I tapped into one of the richest veins waiting for
any writer who goes looking for America: the routine eloquence of people who work at a
place that fills a need for someone else. (130) For tips on
interviewing, visit the following course sites: Conducting Effective
Interviews,and Conducting
Interviews.
Some additional things to keep in mind: 1. Prepare for this assignment by reading some good professional writings on places and travel. Begin with the numerous brief examples in Chapter 13 of On Writing Well, and then study the sample essays handed out in class. Read (and reread) actively: identify passages that strike your interest, and then consider the strategies that were employed to achieve particular effects. For some book-length examples of travel writings, consider the following: just about anything by Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire, The Journey Home), Barry Lopez (Arctic Dreams, Crossing Open Ground), John McPhee (Coming into the Country, The Pine Barrens), Joan Didion (The White Album, After Henry), Bill Bryson (Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods), and Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Pantagonia Express). 2. Don't feel at all obliged to visit a traditional tourist spot. The place you choose may be remarkably ordinary (or seemingly so). It may even be downright awful. Just make sure that the place is real and accessible--no trips to heaven or back to the womb. And do visit (and revisit) the place to gather sharp, fresh impressions. Rather than rely on memories of a trip from your past (material more suited to a memoir than to a travel piece), visit a nearby spot to record your observations. 3. This assignment calls for some basic research: take notes on what you see and hear; obtain facts wherever you can find them. The essay should be built primarily on factual observations and informative details. If you turn to outside sources for information, make note of those sources. When we review first drafts on September 15, we =ll discuss the best way to integrate citations into our final texts. But we must cite our sources.4. As you make your visit (and even, perhaps, as you compose your draft), don't be too quick to impose some grand meaning on your subject. Let your detailed observations and investigations lead you (and the reader) to a conclusion: induction rather than deduction. On the other hand, keep in mind that your editor (and your readers) will be looking for a distinctive angle and a fresh approach to the subject. 5. Feel free to use the first-person pronoun in your essay, but don't focus excessively on yourself or your feelings. Keep your focus on the place. Format & Self-Evaluation 1. What part of this essay do you like most, and why? 2. What part gave you the most difficulty? Explain. Please be as specific as you can in your answers. Manuscript format Your Name Travel Essay Your e-mail address Draft (1 or 2) Date draft is due approx.# of words
Tentative Title of Your Essay |
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Visit 
