You will be required to submit a brief writing assignment each week during Seminars One through Five. The writing topic will be provided during that seminar.
Note that you should be taking notes as the seminar progresses so that by the end you've got a rather clear path toward the writing assignment.
Whitman is often seen as the writer who truly embraces those Emersonian ideas of American identity and self-reliance. Discuss, using examples from our readings this seminar, how Whitman's poetry focuses on specific "American" themes and ideals. Your best approach to this is to pick a specific selection or two and explicate that selection in your response. This will prevent you from just broadly "reporting" rather than analyzing.