Diagnosis And Other Essays

Kathleen Wilson (English)

'Diagnosis' And Other Essays: Exploration In Personal Writing

Revising and expanding work begun in ENGL454 The Writing Life, this creative thesis consists of a collection of six personal essays, ranging in topic from childhood wanderings in the woods of Virginia to missed flights, and medical mishaps. Research on the personal essay as genre, as well as extensive reading of personal essays and other life writings inform the composition process. Fellow essayists, including Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Anne Lamott, E.B. White, and Virginia Woolf, serve as models for both content and form. An epilogue to the collection explores the connections between writing instruction and practice.