1. Caitlin Palmer
Apologia Essay
So often, writing as an academic skill is separated from real-life situations we’re in, and what we
do about those situations. Yet the skills that come from writing, including:
● exploration (“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” - E.M. Forster)
● organization (Going from one thing smoothly to another)
● self-expression (How well did someone else understand what you meant?)
● and an aesthetic (How did it feel? What did you come away with?)
are each a practice that should benefit us in our everyday communication.
Assignment:
Take a clunky, messy problem (of your own or someone close to you) that you have had trouble
discussing or presenting in a manner to resolve it. Write an apologia, the Greek term for a
defense or justification of an issue, or addressing a counter-viewpoint. How can you present
where you come from? How can you help someone who disagrees with you, see the issue in a
different light? What is a common ground you would like to come to?
Write an 800-1000 word essay that: 1) summarizes the situation; 2) expresses your stance and
perception of the addressee’s stance; and 3) arrives at a line of thought or questioning that could
create a “next step,” whether it be a solution, compromise, or request.
(*Note: This apologia is not expected to be shown to the addressee of your letter; that would be entirely
left up to you. The point of the exercise is to take tools of argument, persuasion, rhetoric, and clarity,
learned in the academic vacuum, and apply to a relevant personal situation.)
Contextual Reading:
- For this assignment, we’ll be reading three letters to the columnist Cheryl Strayed, or “Dear
Sugar” at The Rumpus literary journal, to see a breadth of clunky issues discussed. We’ll analyze
them for clarity, conciseness, and emotional significance/ representation.
- We’ll then read Strayed’s three responses to analyze for: addressing the issue, context/
widening of perspective, and a logical “next step.”
- Lastly, while the two previous make up a “he said/ she said” of an issue, we will read the full
apologia form of Bill Clinton’s impeachment address, and an article from the nontraditional
magazine Apology . How do these writers go beyond a representation of viewpoints, to make a
defense and/ or recognition of something?
