Overview of Course

Travel writing during Semester at Sea is not hard—after all, you’re traveling! But the challenges of producing truly good writing in any genre are many: an author needs to observe attentively, to capture tangible sensory details, to tell a good story, to organize around a compelling central idea, to craft strong sentences. The work of this class is structured to walk through these steps via a cycle of note-taking, in-class writing, and discussion. Readings correlate to the voyage itinerary; we will consider them in terms of content and technique. Class sessions will shift between discussion of assigned texts and active writing and revision. By the end of the voyage, the raw material you generate over our weeks at sea will be transformed into a final portfolio of polished writing. Travel writing is about relationship—between different parts of the world, between individuals and cultures, between the persona you project and your inner sense of self. This certainly holds true for Semester at Sea, where the predominant activity is navigating between you and what’s different from you. Or not. One way or another, whether it’s port days or onboard nights, these relationships are what you will be writing about.