Open Educational Resources
Document Type
Syllabus
Publication Date
Fall 2025
Abstract
In English 2100, our focus will be on autoethnography as a genre of writing. To write an autoethnography is to examine the value of the personal and use traditional modes of research to flesh out the narrative of the self. Through diverse research methods (interviews and site observation) and a multiple-step writing process (journaling, drafting and peer reviewing), your autoethnography should make a substantive contribution, have aesthetic merit, have reflexivity, make an impact, and express a reality.
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Comments
We will spend a lot of time reading other autoethnographies to get a sense of how they use their personal experiences to answer larger questions and to strategize the structure and style of your own autoethnographies. I believe a key to writing autoethnographies (and really any kind of writing) is to have practice with writing about your own literacy practices; writing about place; writing about people; writing about history; writing with numbers and scientific concepts; writing criticisms; and writing feedback. Therefore, throughout the semester, in addition to crafting three drafts of your autoethnography, you will be composing smaller pieces that give you this kind of practice.