本课程介绍如何写出适合社会大众阅读的散文，尤以刻划个人故事为主的文章。也就是说，学生透过对真实人物的观察及访问，纪录与现代美国大众息息相关的文化活动。在接下来的数周内，我们将会读到不少探讨现今大众文化课题的文章，以及一些作家、科学家、哲学家、诗人、历史学家、文学学者等人的呕心沥血之作。这些文章讨论到许多现今社会中的流行话题，文中以自述或回忆的方式阐释一场争论、一个立场，或是细微的观察。而同学们也将依这些文章的体裁大量写作，写作时须注意自己写作的目的及目标读者的期望。

course is an introduction to writing prose for a public audience--specifically, prose grounded in, but not confined to, personal narrative. That is, you will write essays that engage elements and aspects of contemporary American popular culture and that do so via a vivid personal voice and presence. In the coming weeks we will read a number of articles that address current issues in popular culture along with essays, pieces of carefully-crafted nonfiction, by writers, scientists, philosophers, poets, historians, literary scholars, and many others. These essays will address a great many subjects from the contemporary world, using personal narrative and memoir to launch and elaborate an argument or position or refined observation. And you yourselves will write a great deal in the variety of forms that the essay genre embraces, attending always to the ways your purpose in writing and your intended audience shape what and how you write.