Welcome to the Official Blog for COLI 211Z

My name is Rowan G. Tepper, and I will be your professor/guide for this course. Let me briefly introduce myself: I am a doctoral student in BU's department of Comparative Literature, in the Philosophy, Literature & Theory of Criticism track, in my second year here of three. I hold a M.A. in philosophy from Boston College (2006), and a B.A. in philosophy from Goucher College (2004). I have held numerous jobs in the years since I graduated college, and it took three rounds of applications to graduate programs before I found my niche here at BU. I hope that my experience, which is disproportionate to my relatively young age (I will celebrate my 28th birthday during the week before our course begins), will prove beneficial as we proceed through this course.

While the course will cover most, if not all, aspects of the application process, we will be concerned particularly with discovering and developing the style of writing best suited to you. We will approach this principally through readings in literature, which are intended to provoke stylistic experimentation on your part. Thus, while you need not have finished reading it before the end of the first week of class, I strongly encourage you to begin reading "A Void" by Georges Perec at your earliest convenience. It is a novel written entirely without using the letter "e" - and it is actually a very good read! We will thus begin to see the vast array of styles upon which you can draw.

Style is emphasized so much because it is an essential element of any application that immediately stands out to those reading and evaluating them. It is particularly crucial in graduate school "personal statements." Moreover, the importance of having developed styles and techniques of writing extend beyond this one application.

We will, however, begin with an overview and our first matter of business will be the resumé or cirriculum vitae which will be included in any professional or academic application.

Again, welcome, and thank you for joining my course this winter. I hope this will be an enjoyable and productive session.