Today’s Travels — February 23

Welcome back, explorers!

Today, we’ll be traveling to Pittsburgh to explore the Duquesne Incline and Mt. Washington and, weather- and time-depending, two of Pittsburgh’s historic steps — The Canton Avenue Steps (the steepest — with a 37 percent grade) and the Ray Avenue Steps (the longest set of steps — 378 — in the city).

Then we will head over to the Carnegie Museum of Art to see, among other things, the exhibit by Yuji Agematsu you read about (see the article from The New Yorker posted here on our site). Along the way, we’ll be gathering found objects we’ll use later to replicate Agematsu’s sculptures.

What you need to know:

• We’ll have the van, but if you choose to drive separately, there is paid parking at both The Incline and the Museum. Parking should be around $5.
• The incline costs $2.50 each way ($5 total) and you’ll need cash and exact change. (Note: Anyone with a fear of heights can stay at the bottom of the Incline, no worries.)
• Admission to the Carnegie museums is $11.95 with your student I.D.
• We have a long day, so bring snacks and beverages if you’d like. The museum has a cafe, but it can be pricey.
• The weather today looks spotty, so be sure to dress in layers and bring an umbrella.

Agematsu Projects:

I’ll give you each a baggie and some notecards. During our travels, keep watch for small, interesting objects. When you find something that interests you, you’ll put it in the baggie and make a note on your card (where you found the object, the time and date, and a line or two about why this object caught your attention, and a line or two about your day). At the end of the day, you’ll put your notecards in your baggies (be sure your name is on them) and give them to me. I’ll be working with Pittsburgh artist Meghan Tutolo to cast your objects in resin a la Agematsu. I’ll give your sculptures to you at the end of our semester.

Next up:

I’ll be scheduling individual conferences with each of you before Spring Break to go over your blogs, talk about our readings, work on your travel-writing craft, and answer any questions you may have as we move into our next few weeks. Please be sure to sign up for a conference.

Our next trip will be on March 23, when we’ll visit the Carrie Furnaces and Braddock. We’ll have the van, and we’ll be taking a group tour of the furnaces. Our tour will be led by Rivers of Steel experts. The cost for the tour is $17. We’ll drive from Braddock through Wilmerding, checking out the Westinghouse Bridge and the Westinghouse Castle along the way. We’ll stop for pizza (on me) at historic Vincent’s Pizza at 4 p.m., so our class will run a bit later than usual. This will also make up for the day we’ll be missing because of Spring Break.

Our next reading assignment:

Before March 9 Read: The Pittsburgh Stories, by Willa Cather; Read: The Trolleyman, by Bob Pajich

Answer on your blog: Regarding “Paul’s Case” — How are the story’s themes—a working-class parent unable to understand and support a son’s love of the arts; the class tension between Paul and the cultured, upper-class patrons where he ushers at the Carnegie; and his acceptance by actors in Downtown Pittsburgh—universal and yet the setting and nuance clearly Pittsburgh?

Regarding “The Trolleyman” — How does Pajich write working-class Pittsburgh? What kind of place makes up the landscape of these poems? What is familiar — and unfamiliar — about the place he recreates here?

Today in Travel Writing: Saturday, Dec. 6

Today we’ll be visiting the Maxo Vanka murals at St. Nicholas Church in Millvale.

Please arrive to class on time because the docent tour begins at 1 p.m. and we want to be sure to hear all the stories behind the creation of the murals. (They’re amazing.) We’ll need to leave exactly at noon to get to Millvale by 1 p.m.

Then we will head over to the Carnegie Museum of Art to experience the Civil Rights work of Teenie Harris, legendary Pittsburgh photographer and chronicler.

Please bring your Pitt ID. I called the museum and, while they weren’t certain our IDs would be identical to Oakland’s, they said they would try to scan them. If it works, your admission to the museum will be free. Otherwise, admission is $11.95.

Admission to the Vankas is free.

See you soon!

Return to the Carrie Furnaces and a Preview of This Week’s Travels to the North Side

I hope you all enjoyed our visit to the Carrie Furnaces, our tour of the furnace and the Iron Garden, and the amazing iron pour. Here are some photos from our trip. A glimpse of travel writing in action. (Also see the new print issue of The Insider for a short feature on our class and trip. Available in news bins and public spots all over campus. And see Kevin’s great feature story about our trip at The Insider online here.)

Our tour guide, Penn State Master Gardener Anna Johnson, explains the many kinds of plant life that has grown around (and in) the Carrie Furnaces since the furnaces stopped producing iron 32 years ago. “Birds carry seeds, the winds blow them in. Most of the plant life has come here from somewhere else, then adapted and survived,” Johnson explained. “So the plants are immigrants like everybody in Pittsburgh,” a man in our tour group said. “We all came here from somewhere else.”

Ron Baraff, director of the museum and archives for the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, which supervises the Carrie Furnaces site, explained the importance of the mill’s history in Pittsburgh. “I hate when people call the Carrie Furnaces an abandoned mill,” Baraff said. “We’re anything but abandoned. Look at us. We’re here There’s all this life here.”

Nikki comes out of the furnace.

Melissa hard at work writing down what matters.

Taking in the view from the Iron Gardens, as Anna Johnson explains the varieties of trees that have begun to thrive on the site. The gardens are modeled on urban-renewal efforts in Germany, where shuttered mills and factories have become thriving public spaces.

Nikki, Melissa, Kevin and Brooke inside the furnace. “Look at us,” Ron Baraff said. “We’re here. There’s all this life here.”

***

And now, onward:  The North Side

Today our first stop will be Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum on Sampsonia Way. Please visit the City of Asylum site to learn more about this essential program and how it helps endangered writers.

After City of Asylum, we’ll head over to The Mattress Factory, located at 500 Sampsonia Way. Here’s the link: http://www.mattress.org.  Remember to bring your Pitt ID for discounted admission ($10) to the museum.

We’ll also visit Randy Gilson’s wonderful creation, Randyland, located on Jacksonia Street near Sampsonia Way. Here’s some info about Randy and his home:  http://www.popcitymedia.com/features/Randyland0206.aspx

Remember to keep your blogs updated. This week you should have one post on the Carrie Furnaces adventure, one North Side preview, and one travel-related post of your choice. Read in Moon Pittsburgh:  The North Side.

Today in Travel: Saturday, Oct. 25

Hope you enjoyed our visit to Schramm’s and writing about all things autumn.

I liked it so much I went back the next day to lose myself in the big corn maze.

And play Children of the Corn…

This week, our class will be postponing our North Side adventures so we can participate in this incredible steel-history focused event. We’ll travel to The Carrie Furnace to watch an iron pour and to learn about the way nature is reclaiming one of Pittsburgh’s most important and historic factory spaces.

Driving directions are here. Cost for the event and tour is $10 at the door. The site suggests bringing a lawn chair (or maybe a blanket) in case you’d like to sit, rest, and, in our case, have some writing time.

The tour begins at 2 p.m., so we’ll be leaving campus at approximately 12:30. Please be on time, dress comfortably (good shoes for hiking around the furnace, warm and comfortable clothes), and bring your travel-writing gear. For more information about the Carrie Furnace, today’s event (including the story of the Carrie Deer), and Pittsburgh steel history, visit the Rivers of Steel Heritage site. (Dan Eldridge has additional information in our Moon Pittsburgh guide, p. 220)

To compensate for the lack of in-class lecture time today, I’ll be doing individual conferences to go over each of your blogs, talk one-on-one about your writing, provide guidance for revision and so on. Conferences will be next Tuesday, Oct. 28. Please see me to schedule a time between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. or between 4 and 6 p.m. Conferences will be in my office. Please make sure your blog is up to date and that any entries we’ve already workshopped have been revised. Also, please be sure to link your blogs to our class blogs and other sites, per our last assignment.

Assignment for November 8:

One entry about our visit to Carrie Furnace. One entry (if you have not already done so) about the North Side. One entry on any travel-writing topic you choose. Read in Moon Pittsburgh:  North Side, pp 46-55. Read Brian O’Neill’s column about Randyland. Spend time at the City of Asylum site.

Assignments for Saturday, Oct. 25

Write:  Three posts — one on our visit to Schramm’s, one travel-related post of your choice, one post offering research/insight into our next trip (North Side/Randyland/Mattress Factory).

Community-Building: Link your blog to your classmates’ blogs (if you haven’t done so already), plus one other travel blog you find online.

Read:  Susan Orlean’s My Kind of Place and Moon Pittsburgh’s section on The North Side

Today in Travel Writing: Saturday, October 11

Today, we’ll review your entries from our South Side visit and look at the way Kelly Lynn Thomas, a terrific student travel writer, wrote and published a piece about her own visit to The Strip:  Jesus Bisque.

We’ll discuss E.B. White’s Here Is New York, with particular focus on his use of luminous details and insights/observations.

We’ll have a lecture on how to hunt and use luminous details in your work, and, time-permitting, a lecture on finding your travel-writing niche.

Doubly-time-permitting, we’ll discuss possible publishing opportunities at sites like In the Know Traveler, the Matador Network, Go Nomad, In Travel and Virtual Tourist. Whatever we don’t get to in class today, we’ll pick up next time.

***

Today’s Trip:

Because of our transportation challenges, I’ll be tweaking our destinations a bit from our original plan. Today’s trip will be a little closer to campus, and very seasonal.

We’ll be visiting Schramm Farms for Fall Fest.

We’ll have some time in class to research family farming trends, etc. to prepare. Please remember to dress appropriately (it’s going to be cloudy, but shouldn’t rain any more; there will be mud), bring your travel notebooks and cameras/recording equipment. On site, be prepared to:

* Find a seasonal/timely/trend-driven angle

* Gather your background details (who, what, when, where, why, how, how much)

* Interview at least three people (get useful quotes, full ID of your source, photos, etc.)

* Collect sensory and luminous details (per today’s lecture)

* See if you can match a detail on site to your travel-writing niche. Food, for instance.

* Most of all: have fun discovering something new.

This Week in Travel Writing

Our subject for this week is Pittsburgh Steel. Please be sure to research the Homestead Strike, the Carrie Furnaces, and The Pump House. You’ll want to check out the legend of Joe Magarac, too.

If you’re free, there will be a showing of the film “10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America: The Homestead Strike” on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at The Pump House (880 East Waterfront Drive, Munhall, PA 15120 — driving directions here).

The hour-long film is a great resource for understanding the conflict between the steelworkers labor union and Andrew Carnegie/Henry Clay Frick/the Pinkertons.

***

In class, we’ll review the pieces you wrote about our visit to The Strip District.

Hope you had more fun than a box of lobsters.

Please be sure to post your story to your blog, along with relevant digital content. Also remember that your blog should be updated with two additional posts — one research-based post about this week’s subject (Pittsburgh Steel) and a second post on anything you’d like to write about that’s travel related.

We’ll also discuss E.B. White’s “Here is New York” as a piece of travel writing that captures a place — New York City — that seems almost impossible to capture.

(Think of how overwhelming the Strip District felt, the challenge of capturing all that life, all those sensory impressions.)

To prepare for our discussion, please choose a paragraph (or two) from the essay that you find especially wonderful, engaging, confusing, troubling, inspiring, etc. Choose a moment/paragraph that moves you. What is it about that paragraph that stands out? How does it capture a sense of what New York is? How does it help you to see and feel and understand the city? Also, find one metaphor for the city or the city experience that E.B. White uses in the essay. Talk about why he might have chosen to use a metaphor in that particular moment. What can metaphors add to travel/place writing?

What metaphors can you use to describe Pittsburgh’s Strip District?

Don’t forget to bring LONELY PLANET and your MOON PITTSBURGH guides to class, too, as well as your travel-writing gear.

 

Our Saturday Trip to the Strip (That Rhymes)

This Saturday, we’ll be traveling to the Strip District (free, though if you can’t find street parking, you can park in designated lots for $5) and the Heinz History Center (admission is $6 with student ID).

Please be sure to update your blogs before class with your short piece about the Westmoreland museum, as well as tips you’ve found about the Strip District.  We’ll meet in class at noon and quickly review your blogs. Then we’ll head out.

Most of the best action on Saturdays in the Strip happens early, so we’ll try to get to the Strip as soon as possible. Please don’t be late to class. I don’t want to leave anyone behind.

I’m still working on alternatives to you all driving your own cars, but for now, nothing’s a go. Please plan to drive and share a ride. Please feel free to bring a guest with you to our trip, if you’d like. I think we can accommodate one per person, car-share-wise.

To prepare for our trip — and maybe to help you find a tip to post to your blog —  please visit: Neighbors in the Strip and read about the history of the area.

Please remember to bring a travel notebook, a camera or videocam and/or other recording device with you. Please also print a copy of the Secrets of the Strip Walking Tour, available from the Neighbors in the Strip site and bring it along. We’ll be following (somewhat) this guide as a group. We’ll visit the History Center, then you’ll be free to explore on your own.

Try to decide beforehand what you’d like to focus on during this trip. What will you be in search of? How will you focus your travel-gaze? (Think: lens, expertise, obsession, interest.) Be ready to practice the techniques you’ve learned from reading LONELY PLANET  (if you haven’t finished reading the book, do your best by tomorrow).

If you’re freelance-inclined, think about markets for your work and possible angles. (See LONELY PLANET again for ideas about his.) The holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving) are coming up — what does the Strip have to offer? Local/organic foods are trending. What can you find in the Strip? The Strip should provide plenty of inspiration.

The weather should be cool, maybe with a few sprinkles, so dress accordingly. Remember to wear good walking shoes because we’ll be hiking about. If you’d like to shop or eat, please remember to bring cash. Many places in the Strip take cards, but a few wonderful spots are cash-only.

And bring your sense of adventure. It should be a great day.

Links to class blogs

Melissa Travels Far and Wide

Travels of a Pitt Student

Writing in Pittsburgh

Kevin Scrima

Welcome and syllabus

Did you ever have to sit through a slide show of your Uncle Jimmy’s trip to West Palm? Have you ever had to read (or write) something called “What I Did on My Summer Vacation”? Have you ever gotten a puffy-paint t-shirt, a lava ashtray, a bell shaped like a cow, or a miniature silver-plated spoon as a souvenir of someone else’s journey? Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, you just should have been there.”

If so, you already know everything good travel writing isn’t. And this is a great place to start.

And place really is everything.

 Pitt-Greensburg Travel Writing 2014

Course Rationale

You’ll learn the basics of travel writing through reading, craft lectures and hands-on practice. Every class meeting, we will venture into Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas to discover something new and write about it.

You’ll keep a travel blog where you’ll post your stories, photos and videos, as well as reading responses to our texts. You’ll read and analyze different kinds travel narratives, and learn how to craft and publish your own travel pieces.

This course is designed for anyone who’d like to try his/her hand at travel writing for targeted audiences or who would like to prepare for a career in magazine writing, publishing, or general content writing.

Prerequisite: ENGWRT 0550/Intro to Journalism or instructor permission

Course Learning Objectives

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Research a travel destination
• Travel to destinations they’ve researched and report on the experience
• Write travel narratives and use digital-storytelling techniques to add new dimensions to their work
• Create and maintain a travel blog
• Critically read and analyze a wide variety of travel narratives
• Have a better understanding of travel-writing markets and audiences
• Have a better understanding of their cities, towns and neighborhoods and use that understanding to craft travel narratives for a variety of audiences
• Be able to generate fresh ideas for magazine articles and identify target publications
• Be able to research and report various kinds of travel articles, including how-to pieces, reviews, feature articles and reportage, essay/columns and more
• Understand the importance of revision in the writing process
• Understand the ways digital storytelling techniques are used along with traditional prose to enhance travel narratives. Students will produce digital content (photo essays, illustrations, video or audio supplements) to accompany their individual stories.
• Be able to write a query letter/pitch to an editor
• Understand the way news values and audiences shape travel narratives
• Demonstrate craft skills, a mastery of basic Associated Press style and good grammar                                  

Required Texts:

 Required Texts:

Here is New York, by E.B. White

My Kind of Place, by Susan Orlean

Moon Pittsburgh, by Dan Eldridge

Tour Anytime (online link to cell phone/walking tours) – http://www.touranytime.org

Best American Travel Writing 2013

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

The Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Writing

Required Tools:

• A cell phone (to use TourAnytime)
• Reporter’s notebook/pen
• A video/camera/recording device (a smartphone is fine)
• You will need access to a computer or tablet, both at home and in class. (Computers are available for in-class use as needed – please let me know at the beginning of the term if you’ll need to borrow a computer or tablet in class or if you’ll bring your own device)

Assignments and Projects:  At the beginning of the term, you will set up a blog. You’ll use your site to post your assignments for class, and as a space where you can generate and share ideas and research-findings.

You’ll set up your site during our first class. You’ll be free to use whichever blogging platform you’d like. (I use WordPress and recommend it or Google Blogger for those of you who just starting out.)

In terms of writing assignments, you’ll average one article for every class meeting, plus two additional blog entries. You’ll have a total of seven articles and 14 other general blog entries by the end of the term.

In between deadlines, you’ll revise your work and update your articles based on comments you’ll receive in workshop. Your articles will vary in length, but most will be between 500 and 900 words. All articles and revisions and general blog posts are due at the beginning of each class and should be live on your blogs by then.

Here’s a general schedule (subject to change – come to class to keep up-to-date with assignments and changes to our schedule):

Week One: Course Introduction/Blog Creation/Defining Your Passions — Westmoreland Museum of Art

Reading assignments:

Lonely Planet Guide, Moon Pittsburgh on Strip District, online research

Writing assignments: Piece on Westmoreland Museum of Art; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you)

Week Two – September 13: Strip District and Heinz History Center

Reading Assignments – Here is New York; Moon Pittsburgh, online research

Writing assignments: Piece on Strip District/Heinz History Center; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you)

Week Three – September 27: Homestead Works;

Reading Assignments: Sedaris, Moon Pittsburgh, online research

Writing assignments: Piece on Homestead Works; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you).

Week Four – October 11: South Side and Mount Washington (Ducky Tour, Pittsburgh Steps, Incline)

Read: Orlean, Moon Pittsburgh, online research 

Writing assignments: Piece on South Side and Mount Washington; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you)

Week Five – October 25: North Side (Mattress Factory, City of Asylum, Randyland, Warhola Scrap)

Read: Selections from Best Am. Travel, online research 

Writing assignments: Piece on North Side; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you)

Week Six – November 8: Fallingwater

Read: Selections from Best Am. Travel, Moon Pittsburgh, online research

Writing assignments: Piece on Fallingwater; two general blog posts (one research-based about our upcoming destination; one open post about an element of travel or writing that interests you)

Week Seven – December 6: Millvale/Max Vanka Murals and Carnegie Museums/legacy

Writing assignments: Piece on Max Vanka Murals/Carnegie Museums; two general blog posts (about some element of travel writing or your travel experiences this semester 

Blogs should be complete, up-to-date and ready for grading by Friday, Dec. 12.

• Attendance:

 

Your attendance is essential and factors in as your participation grade (50 percent) for the course. Therefore it’s important that you attend every class. Come to class on time and be prepared. If you miss more than two classes without a doctor’s excuse or other extenuating circumstances, your grade will fall one letter for each additional absence.

• Deadlines:

 

Don’t miss them. Your stories and research assignments are due and must be live on your blog at the beginning of every class. Stories should closely follow any and all guidelines.

• Class participation:

 

Your participation in workshop, discussions, and class trips is vital. Please come to class prepared. Read the assigned texts and be ready to discuss them. I will call on you often, so please be ready for that. Keep your blogs up to date and post your best work. During workshop, be ready to offer informed, sensitive, constructive suggestions that will help your classmates revise their work and make it better and, ultimately, publishable. During our trips, please be responsible and courteous. Be on time and follow all instructions. Be professional when interviewing. Be attentive and engaged. Follow the University’s Code of Conduct at all times.

About our class trips:

Our class trips should be factored into the cost of the class. Therefore, you’re responsible for admission fees, food, advance registrations as needed, etc. Most of our trips are free or have very low admission fees.

You’ll need to arrange your own transportation to and from the trip sites. Students can ride-share. University policies prohibit students from riding in cars with the instructor.

We will begin each class in our classroom on campus, where we’ll review your stories and engage in readings/craft discussions. Please arrive on time for class and at all trip sites.

Be prepared for the physical and journalistic demands of each trip. Come to the trips having done your advance research and with a notebook, cell phone, recording device and camera/video device (a smartphone that does all of these things is fine) in hand. See our Lonely Planet guide for guidelines on what you’ll need and how you should plan to operate as a writer in the field.

Grading

Class participation/workshop/quizzes as needed: 50 percent

Written assignments (quality, creativity, effort, technical and craft expertise, efforts at revision, ability to meet deadlines and follow instructions): 50 percent

Important Dates:

September 1 – Labor Day (University closed)

September 5 – Last day to change schedule with no record on transcript

September 22-26 – Advising appointment sign-ups for Spring registration

October 14 – Fall Break/No classes

October 24 – Last day to withdraw from a course

November 26-30 – Thanksgiving Break

December 5 – Last Day of classes

University Policies:

Students in this course will be expected to comply with the University of Pittsburgh’s Policy on Academic Integrity_. Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. This may include, but is not limited to, the confiscation of the examination of any individual suspected of violating University Policy. Furthermore, no student may bring any unauthorized materials to an exam, including dictionaries and programmable calculators.

Disability Services

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Director of the Learning Resources Center, Dr. Lou Ann Sears, Room 240 Millstein Library Building (724) 836-7098 (voice) or los3@pitt.edu as early as possible in the term. Learning Resources Center will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.

Copyright Notice

Course materials may be protected by copyright. United States copyright law, 17 USC section 101, et seq., in addition to University policy and procedures, prohibit unauthorized duplication or retransmission of course materials. See Library of Congress Copyright Office and the University Copyright Policy.

Statement on Classroom Recording

To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student’s own private use.