Since I am in Paris for this semester, I am doing a couple of asynchronous courses online. One of those is my “Who is the Black Panther?” course for a literature and composition course. The other is a rhetoric and composition course, the first in the writing sequence. For that course, I am framing it, as I usually do, around personal essays, getting students used to writing in the classroom and the university. Below, you will find the course description for this course. I change these descriptions every semester, depending on what texts we read, and this one focuses on the interconnectedness bewteen reading and writing.

Writing helps us discover ourselves! In a letter to Horace Kallen in 1954, Lillian Smith wrote, “When I want to find something, I write a book. It is my way of searching. Not to give the world ‘answers’ but to find them myself.” Along with assisting us in finding out more about ourselves, writing allows us to tell our own stories and the stories of those close to us, stories that, without our writing, might never see the light of day. Ernest Gaines made this crystal clear when, in a little pocket notebook, he commented on why he decided to become a writer. He wrote, “Write because I must. Because there’s something out there that’s need to be said. If I don’t say it-nobody ‘else might not say it either. By this, I mean, who will write about my part of the country? Who will write about the way my people talk, the way they sing, the way they feel about God, the way they work?” Gaines wrote to preserve the community that shaped him. He wrote because when he initially went to libraries, he didn’t see any books about the rural, Black community he called home in South Louisiana.

To become a better writer, to dive into the depths of who we are as individuals, we must also make reading an active part of our lives. When asked how to be a better writer, Gaines said he could tell someone how to become a better writer in six words: “Read, read, read, write, write, write.” The more you read, the better you write because you begin to take in, even subconsciously, patterns and structures. You notice what makes a sentence work. You notice what makes an argument work. You notice a writer’s voice. Then, you take what you see and turn it into your own style and voice, using those that you read as mentors in your own process. You converse with them on the page, speaking back to them through your own words as they speak to you through their words.

Do you need more proof? Samuel Cohen, in the introduction to the anthology that you will use in this course, begins by pointing out that that “[w]e become active, critical, intelligent readers and writers by carefully reading the writing of others and then applying what we have learned to our own writing” (1). These activities coexist with one another. They are symbiotic, feeding off one another in ways that make you both a better writer and a better reader. As well, the tools you learn in this course will not remain separated from your other courses; the skills will transfer to your biology courses, to your business courses, to your education courses, to whatever course you take. Each of those courses, in some way shape or form, will require you to craft an argument and relate what you have learned either in writing or orally.

When we read and write, we become active participants in ongoing conversations with others. That does not mean we need to agree or disagree with what we engage with, but it means that we think about it critically, bringing our own experiences and knowledge to the text and our writing. Rhetorical theorist Kenneth Burke introduced the parlor metaphor as a way for us think about this ongoing conversation. Think about each text you read and each text you write as part of an ongoing conversation in a parlor. The conversation started long before you arrived, hence the text that you read, which itself pulls from older texts and experiences. You enter the parlor, and you listen (read) the conversation, then you write and put your own ideas into the conversation. Some people leave, you stay and continue writing. When you leave, others remain and new people arrive, adding to the ongoing and never-ending conversation to which you have made a lasting contribution.

Thinking about writing in this manner moves us away from thinking about it as a solitary act, one where you sit alone, in your room or a coffeeshop and stare at the blank page till something arises in you and you put it down. While we may sit alone to write, we are not alone because our words form the conversation that surrounds us. Others speak to us and we speak to them. Sometimes, we write together, talking with others about ideas and word choice. Writing has never been solitary, no matter what we may think. It has always been collaborative. In this course, I want you think about the ways that your writing collaborates with those you read and those you know. I want you to think about writing as conversation with the world around you and with yourself.

This course is designed to introduce you to the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills required in the university and beyond. The course will focus on writing effective, well-argued essays. We will accomplish these objectives through online discussion, online writing, and several essays. Over the course of the semester, you will write four essays or the equivalent of 15–20 pages of well-polished prose. By the end of the course, you will be able to demonstrate the student learning objectives above.

Remember that this is an online asynchronous course. That means that we will not have a specific time to meet for class and you will be responsible for your assignments each week and over the course of the semester. Each week will have a specific structure that will be the same (with a few exceptions) across the entire semester. The structure will be as follows: a short video lecture, a weekly writing activity, and a discussion board where you will discuss, with your classmates, the readings. Each of these components will work together to help you improve your writing and achieve the student learning outcomes above. The only variation in this schedule will be when we have essay due. I will let you know more when those weeks arise. You can see the tentative schedule, which probably won’t change, below.

What are your thoughts? As usual, let me know in the comments below. Make sure to follow me on Bluesky @silaslapham.bsky.social‬.