ENGL 5280: Writing About Place

University of North Carolina, Charlotte

As writers of nonfiction, students write about specific places by researching their histories and imagining their futures, whether those places are preserved, threatened, stagnant, or revitalized. Through drafting, editing, and multiple revisions, students produce illustrated work suitable for publication consideration. Section information text: In this writing-intensive course, we will explore at a distance each other’s experiences of unique places through language and to a lesser extent, through photography. A sense of place, enduring or transient, can be deeply meaningful to us, whether we feel we inhabit it as a native, as a willing visitor, or even as a captive. Writing about place is the subject of diarists and travelers, of anthropologists and historians, of the young and the old. As writers of nonfiction, we will reflect upon the impressions made by specific places upon our sensibilities – researching their histories and imagining their futures – preserved, threatened, stagnant, or revitalized. We will seek to understand how places that are or once were natural and real, become through our writing, virtual constructions of words and images. Through drafting, editing, and multiple revisions, undergraduates will prepare a total of 20 pages of polished writing by the end of the term. Graduate students will prepare a total of 30 pages of polished writing by the end of the term. Special topics not included in other courses. May be repeated for credit as topics vary

Average GPA: 3.70

Grade distribution records: 22 students across 5 terms.

Grade distribution

Based on 22 student grade records across 5 terms and 1 professor.

Instructors

• Gregory Wickliff 22 students, Average GPA 3.70