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Writing the Personal Essay (Online)

Instructor: Liza Monroy – www.lizamonroy.com

Note to students: While this syllabus is posted to give you an overview of the course, it is subject

to change. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Writers’ Program at (310)

825-9415 or via email at writers@uclaextension.edu.

As UCLA's principal provider of continuing education, the majority of UCLA Extension courses

are designed for the post-baccalaureate professional-level student. Enrollment is therefore

normally reserved for adult students 18 years of age and older. The Writers’ Program may

consent to enroll younger students based on special academic competence and approval of the

instructor. Students who enroll in a Writers’ Program course without first receiving permission

of the instructor are subject to withdrawal. To request instructor approval, please contact the

Writers’ Program at 310/825-9415.

If you have administrative questions about this or other courses please contact Alicia Wheeler at

awheeler@uclaextension.edu or 310-794-1846.

If you would like to request a refund, please contact refunds@uclaextension.edu

Description:

"Personal Essay" is a broad term that encompasses humorous essays, opinion pieces, and essay-

and book-length memoir, but which always details the writer's journey through a specific

experience. This workshop teaches aspiring personal essayists how to be a compelling first-

person narrator and employ craft elements such as theme, character development, voice, pacing,

scene-setting, and exposition to tell their stories. The goal is to complete at least one publishable

personal essay (800-2,500 words) and develop material for future essays.

The Class:

In our lives, we are both always experts and novices. Personal essay is a form that allows for

exploration and use of compelling, transformative moments and material from your life to

communicate meaning to a reader. Personal essays take the messiness of experience and turn it

into narrative art. The form requires craft: how do you avoid self-pity and maximize self-

implication? What makes a story exciting and engaging for a reader rather than coming across as

“navel-gazing” on the part of the author? What material makes for an interesting personal essay?

How do you craft a persona on the page? We will discuss the requirements of the form: complete

self-disclosure and deep examination, creating tension, character arc, using scenes and dialogue,

distilling the “one big thing” your essay is about, and the blurry boundaries of fact and

imagination in the form known as “creative nonfiction”—a writing form defined by what it is

not. Students will learn to develop the habits of mind for writing personal essays that work, and

will have detailed feedback for revision provided by the instructor. Toward the end of the class,

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we will discuss the process of submission, getting your essays out into the world to be

experienced by readers.

Students will also learn the art of thoughtful, considered critique. Sometimes the best way to

improve your own writing is by reacting critically to another’s work: considering the choices the

writer made, how the essay is working, and where it might stand to be revised.

Lectures will be posted regularly on writing technique and style, how to approach the subject of

the essay, the necessity for integrity and honesty, as well as handling writing about others.

Goals:

By the end of the course, you will possess an understanding of personal essay writing: honesty,

self-reflection, tension, when to use scenes and exposition, distilling your theme, the “one big

thing” your essay is about, keeping the narrator central, and self-disclosure on the page.

Readings:

I will provide all required reading via links made available to you in our weekly folders on the

Discussion Board.

Some books I recommend for any personal essayist’s shelf:

The Situation and the Story: the Art of Personal Narrative – Vivian Gornick

Keep it Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction

– Lee Gutkind

The Writing Life – Annie Dillard

On Writing – Stephen King

Grading Criteria:

For those who choose to be graded, ten points for each of nine essays, and ten points for

participation, for a possible total of 100. Students will be judged on the basis of improvement in

their own work, not in comparison with others. All pieces must be typed and double-spaced with

the student’s name. Workshop comments should be typed and double-spaced for each writer, as

well.

The Online Classroom:

Participation is vital to an online course. Students are expected to check for announcements and

updates, and comment to discussion boards 3 times throughout each week, sometimes more,

while attending to their writing projects. This is a college-level course, where we will aim for

true discovery and discussion as opposed to “drive-by” postings. We have a uniquely diverse

community here; the goal is to use it! The more you participate, the better the experience will be

for everyone.

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Weekly Topics and Assignments:

*Note –word count for all assignments and exercises is up to 800. Most essays in mainstream

publications (The New York Times, Self magazine, Newsweek, etc) run at approximately 800-

1500. Essays targeted at literary journals (Creative Nonfiction, Tin House, McSweeneys) can run

much longer (around 5000), but for our class I ask you limit your length for our purposes.

Excerpts of longer works are acceptable provided enough context to understand the piece as a

stand-alone.

Some Guidelines for Workshopping Your Classmates:

Workshopping is a weekly process that develops good writing habits of mind. One of the best

ways to improve your own writing is to think actively about the writing of others. With that in

mind, I would like you to write a concise, two paragraph response to your classmates’ weekly

essays. One paragraph should touch upon and discuss what you feel the writer did successfully in

the essay, backed up with at least one concrete example. (ie, “I thought you characterized your

mother very well. The scene where you’re watching her use the curling iron reveals the

narcissistic tendencies that are central to the conflict with her you introduce on page 2.”)

The “what’s working” paragraph can point to places that captivated, riveted, engaged—and,

importantly—why these moments are successful.

Then, please write a second paragraph responding to points you think need revision, also

explaining your rationale. (ie, “The dialogue with your mother on page 3 repeats some of the

information you’ve set up at the beginning of the essay. The reader already knows this, so you

might consider reworking the scene to show rather than tell.”) Give suggestions for how the

writer might address specific problems.

Two paragraphs keeps things specific, to the point, and manageable. The main thing is not to say

“It was great! I loved it,” or “I didn’t get it,” and leave it at . We want to help each other learn

and develop as much as possible, and one of the main ways to do that, in editing and responding

to each other’s work, is to describe why you reacted as you did. Also, keep in mind reacting to

the work and not the writer. This is an important distinction in workshopping personal essays.

“I’m so sorry about what happened with your mother,” is not a workshop comment, but “The

sadness of the situation comes through in your essay, and I felt the impact this had especially in

the scene on page 2” is. Remember to hone in on “one big thing” both for the positive paragraph

and the critique. It’s not our job as readers to “fix” everything, but rather to provide our thoughts

on the most important elements of an essay that are both working well and in need of

improvement. When your piece is being critiqued, remember that you ultimately retain

ownership over your writing, so if a nugget of feedback doesn’t sit right with you, or your

instinct is something different entirely, you needn’t incorporate that particular feedback. Other

feedback will ring a bell. This will begin to feel familiar as the weeks of our course progress.

Critiques are due within one week after the essay is due to be posted. You are not required to

comment on feedback, though you may if you wish to, and also ask any questions for

clarification.

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A note about line editing: writers are responsible for proofreading and line-editing their own

work. We will be focusing on form, content, and style. Also, as the essays are drafts, it is

possible to assume that sentences and paragraphs—or even the entire work—will be rewritten, so

line editing is not a good use of our time in a workshop.

You may post discussion questions and reactions to the personal essays from the textbook in the

designated forum on the discussion board at any time. There is a thread for each of those essays

in the General Discussion forum where I have started the conversation. Each essay somehow

relates to that week’s topic, so to get the most out of the course, participate in these discussions

as well. (You will not be penalized, though, if lack of time prevents you from completing and

discussing the textbook readings. The primary goal is writing your own personal essays and

commenting on your classmates’ essays.)

Where to Find Everything on the Blackboard Site:

Discussion Board: This is where the weekly lessons and readings live, in folders categorized by

week. You must download these at the beginning of each new week of the course. (Start days for

our weeks are Wednesdays – more on that on the schedule below.) This is also where you will

find a folder in which to post your essays and provide feedback on classmates’ essays.

Syllabus and Content: This is where you can download the syllabus.

Contact me with any questions via email and I will respond within 24 hours.

Evaluation:

To help the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program better serve our students, at the end of the course

you will be asked to complete an evaluation. These evaluations are 100% anonymous and help

shape the program curriculum. Please take the time to fill out this quick form, and don’t be

afraid to be candid in your responses.

Week One – Wednesday 10/3—Thursday 10/11

Lesson: The Self (the “I”) in the Personal Essay - Narrator-Protagonist - Essay as Search, Essay

as Journey

Reading and discussion: Cheryl Strayed, “The Love of My Life,” The Sun (link provided)

optional reading: Interview with Cheryl Strayed on The Rumpus

Exercise 1: write a personal essay of up to 800 words in which you create a sympathetic

narrator/protagonist (perhaps despite odds against the narrator being likeable)—in an attempt to

understand something. Consider techniques Strayed used in “The Love of My Life.”

Essay due: Thursday, October 11th

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Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, October 19th

Week Two – Wednesday 10/10—Thursday 10/18

Lesson: Communicating Large Themes Through Moments

Reading and discussion: Mary Gaitskill, “Lost Cat” (note – this is a wonderful essay but it is also

atypically long. Please allow enough time to read it)

Exercise 2: When did something small teach you something big? Or get you thinking about

larger questions? Write a personal essay of up to 800 words on this theme. Focus on telling the

story and let the larger idea arise organically.

Essay due: Thursday, October 18th

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, October 26th

Week Three – Wednesday, October 17th—Thursday, October 25th:

Lesson: Narrator/Character Separation: Who You Were Then, Who You Are Now

Reading and discussion: Phillip Lopate’s article on double perspective; optional reading: George

Orwell, “Such, Such Were the Joys” (an essay Lopate heralds as one of the best examples of

double perspective in use)

Exercise 3: an essay of up to 800 words utilizing the double perspective technique. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, October 25th

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, November 2nd

Week Four – Wednesday, October 24th

—Thursday, November 1st

Lesson: Conflict and Tension in the Essay

Reading and discussion: Nick Flynn, “Proteus”

Exercise 4: an essay centered on a conflict, whether internal or with another person. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, November 1st

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, November 9th

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Week Five – Wednesday, October 31st—Thursday, November 8th

Lesson: Writing About Others, Writing about Yourself

Reading and discussion: Dominic Zarillo, “A Father, a Son, and a Fighting Chance” from The

New York Times Modern Love column

Exercise 5: an essay about a relationship/conflict/incident involving someone else that implicates

the self. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, November, 8th

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, November 16th

Week Six – Wednesday, November 7th—Thursday, November 15th:

Lesson: Crafting Compelling Scenes

Reading and discussion: Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”

Exercise 6: an essay told in scene (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, November 15th

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, November 23

Week Seven – Wednesday, November 14th—Thursday, November 22nd

Lesson: Imagination & Memory

“Reading” and discussion: NPR Morning Edition Podcast – ‘Lifespan’: What Are the Limits of

Literary License?

Exercise 7: an essay involving an event you don’t exactly remember clearly, or an event

someone else involved would have a completely different take on. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, November 22nd

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, November 30

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Week Eight – Wednesday, November 21st—Thursday, November 29th:

Lesson: Writing is Rewriting

Reading and discussion: revision strategies, various

Assignment: Completed Personal Essay. This week will be dedicated to finalizing a draft of a

completed personal essay, either based on work generated in previous exercises, or entirely new

work. As usual, essays should be posted for workshopping/feedback. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, November 29th

Feedback on others’ essays due: on or before Friday, December 7th

Week Nine – Wednesday, November 28th—Thursday, December 6th

Lesson: Targeting Your Essay For Publication

Reading and discussion: personal essay markets

Exercise 9: Locate a personal essay column. (Examples: Modern Love, Lives, Self Expression,

Salon.com’s Life column, Huffington Post, etc) Hone in on a column in a publication where you

would want your essay to appear.

Post your final essay of up to 1500 words. It can be an expanded revision of an essay you’ve

written during the quarter or new work. (10 points)

Essay due: Thursday, December 6th

Feedback on others’: on or before Friday, December 14th

Week Ten – Wednesday, December 5th—Thursday, December 13th:

Mini-Lesson: Keeping it Going After Class

Incorporate feedback into your final essay; finish outstanding work.

Final deadline for overdue work/catch-up: Friday, December 14th. Quarter ends

December 18.

Good luck, take risks, and have fun!!!