"Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged." — Sun Tzu (73).

Writing an essay is like art or warfare. With both there is a certain amount of time when you can act. With art there is inspiration. Inspiration must be nursed into shape or it leaves you. With warfare you stay vigilante to the movements of your enemy and use strategy. The skilled writer works between the medium of making an essay a necessity and a piece of art. You can't dash it off and expect the writing to be great. You must craft it well but at some point you must leave it. Throughout this course we will talk about style and craft. We will also focus on writing cleaner and simpler prose. We will write journal entries daily. Sometimes we will revise journal entries and expand them. Every piece of in-class writing, or out-of-class reading is relevant to the course and requires discipline and practice. The skill comes from practice and patience.