geog 340 cultural geography book synopsis
For your last “exam,” I would like you to write a 900-word (give or take about 100 words) book proposal or synopsis.
Imagine you are proposing a book to a top academic publisher that fits, thematically, with the four books you have read this semester in this class.
Your task is to write a short proposal/synopsis for your own autoethnographic monograph (do not call it a novel!), highlighting what aspect of your life and culture you will be focusing on, a rough and broad arch of the book, and emphasizing themes related to cultural geography.
Do not write this proposal/synopsis as a “paper” with a heading and all the things you learned in high school and refuse to forget. Rather, I want to see an actual proposal or pitch (minus the details about “target audience,” cover letter, timeline, and other details found in real proposals).
It should look like a professional synopsis, as well as be free of grammatical errors. Read it out loud as part of the editing process to make sure it says what you think you want it to say.
Pretend I am the publisher’s acquisitions editor who will be looking for a compelling (and true!) personal story that is no less wrapped up in issued of culture and place. Make that pitch to me. Describe, briefly and methodically, what your book will be about, what it will address, how it will be directly related to cultural geography. Make sure you provide an original title for your book.
This is a short writing assignment that should not take longer than a couple of hours, so don’t overdue it, but don’t under-do it either. For several of you, this is a matter of passing or not. For those of you doing well in the class, who knows, this might one day become an actual book proposal!
The formatting and appearance is up to you (including where to put your name, etc.), but I would use an actual book proposal or synopsis as a template or guide. If you don’t know what a book proposal or synopsis looks like, you can visit this magical place where such questions are answered:
The books that we have read, but don’t need to be written about to much just mentioned are added in the files section.
