The basic thesis of this course is that we can become better writers by learning how to observe, describe, and critique the world around us; by studying models of successful prose; through lots of practice; and with feedback from other aspiring writers. "The Writer as Observer" is a fiction and non-fiction workshop focusing on the study, narration, and analysis of people in interaction. The kinds of writing we will study and produce include artistic journalism, cultural analysis, and short fiction. We will conduct two fieldtrips, in which the assignment will be to compose a report on how people behave in a particular setting: one trip will take us to a courthouse in Minneapolis, where each student will choose a session of a trial to attend; and the other to the Mall of America. We will divide time in the classroom between workshopping each other's productions, and studying published fiction and non-fiction from a writer's perspective.

Reading assignments will be regular and intensive: our purpose here is to mine professional writing for techniques and ideas. We will explore how a piece of writing maintains the reader's interest, how to end a story successfully, how to write dialogue, and other writerly concerns.