This course is an introduction to the study of nonfiction prose and to the principles and practice of expository writing. Readings will range from the origins of literary nonfiction (letters and diaries) to modern personal essays to larger works (biography/memoir) by some important writers of the 20^th  and 21^st centuries. Students will develop a critical understanding of the literary, social, and cultural dimensions and contexts of these various forms of nonfiction writing and will also develop skills in literary analysis, focusing on the communication of this analysis in essay form, while using terminology appropriate to the conventions of the genre.