English 3154: Literature, Medicine, and Culture
Spring 2008 CRN 12667
MWF 11:15-12:05, Derring 1090
Professor Bernice Hausman

Paper #1

Write a narrative of an encounter with illness or medicine, either your own or someone else's. Use the readings for class as a guide to style and substance. Think about what you want to convey to your reader about the experience either of illness or of the encounter with medical professionals. 4 pps. 10 pts.

How to go about writing this paper:
This paper will either take the shape of a personal narrative or of an ethnography (telling someone else's story, a story put together through interviewing the individual whose story it is). We have been reading personal narratives (My Own Country, Elegy for a Disease) for class. Embedded in My Own Country are ethnographically informed stories, told by Verghese about his patients. So you have examples of both forms already in class readings.

To write this paper you first need to think about the main concept, feeling, or knowledge that you want to get across to your reader. Structure your writing so that it is not just the recounting of events, but the purposeful ordering of events and experience to convey your main point. You will have to write more than one draft in order to make this happen, as your first draft is likely to be an exploratory attempt to tell the story. Good writing always takes more than one draft.

Although this paper is not analytical, you will probably want to include an introductory paragraph and a concluding one. Verghese provides examples of this in his chapters. Try not to be overly grandiose in these sections--as you have probably found with your reading, being humble (and sometimes naive) in the face of human experience and suffering is preferable to glorification and self important. Focus on conveying one or two ideas or emotions to your reader.

Important things to keep in mind:
Clarity is important, as is organization, neatness, and correct grammar. This is a somewhat creative assignment, but that does not mean haphazard, rushed, or so personal that the meaning does not convey. Again, use class readings as a guide to your own writing. Consider what you like about them, and what you find useful in their modes of storytelling.

See also Prof. Hausman's formatting page.