ENGL 070Y. Nonfiction Workshop

This course, titled “Nonfiction Workshop,” is something of a hybrid course. We will be examining and deconstructing first-rate works of nonfiction in a number of genres, including excerpts from memoir, first-person essays, features, magazine writing, short sketches, and advocacy pieces. Students will then use those works as templates and write their own pieces, adopting the techniques observed in the works we have read and studied. Those student-written pieces will then be workshopped by their fellow-students and the professor. The common thread throughout the course is that all writings will be strictly fact-based. The emphasis will be on the principle elements of nonfiction writing – including (but not limited to) voice, structure, scene, detail, fidelity to the facts, clarity, and depth. Class size is limited to twelve. Open to students of all majors who are seriously interested in working on their writing.
Humanities
Spring 2026. Gup.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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