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Creative Writing
Description and Requirements
In this course we'll spend
most of our time writing stories, dramatic dialogs, and poetry and
listening to, reading, and commenting on one another's writing.
Writing for this class will include exercises and completed works;
you’ll have plenty of opportunity and incentive to develop your
exercises into completed works. Assignments and exercises in this class
are structures that can guide you and push you to be better story
writers, playwrights, and poets. I assume that all of you are
serious about writing, and that all of you see your goal here as the
exercise and improvement of your fiction and other creative
writing. Take these assignments as invitations and guidelines,
put as much as you can into them and persist with them even when they
seem difficult. Go beyond what they ask of you.
You'll be writing both exercises or short assignments and more
developed stories, plays, or poems. Whenever you bring in an
exercise or short assignment, expect to read it aloud. Be sure to
save work that's handed back to you for the portfolio that you will
hand in at the end of the semester. There will be a mid-semester
portfolio review as well.
Everything other than in-class writing assignments must be typed. The
writing lab in Vodra and the Electronic Learning Lab in the
Professional Studies Building have computers available for your
convenience -- check them out. Later in the semester you’ll get a
chance to publish some of your work on the Web or in the form of
zines. This will be easier to do if you write using a computer
and save your work on disk (don’t worry about the format).
We'll also read and discuss published work in the form of handouts, and
carry that discussion over into writing assignments. As writers,
one way we can learn from other writers is by trying on their
techniques, trying out their ways of hearing and seeing the world and
of reshaping it, by relishing their use of language, and by imagining
ourselves into the point from which they started their stories --
seeing how they got from life to fiction. Some of the class's
writing assignments are meant to help you use stories this way.
A strong suggestion: Develop your ideas by keeping a journal. Whether
you have a specific assignment or not, give yourself time to freewrite
for 10-15 minutes a day -- and do it. If you're reluctant to
freewrite, or find yourself resisting doing it, you may find it helpful
to set a kitchen timer or use a stopwatch, so you know you don't have
to go any longer than just 10 minutes. In freewriting, don't censor:
just keep on writing. If you can't think of anything to say,
write "I can't think of anything to say" -- but keep writing. You will
have occasional assignments for using your journal.
All work other than in-class assignments must be typed,
double-spaced. Make your work look professional. Use a
conventional font in 10 or 12 point type and reasonable (say 1-inch)
margins. Proofread it. Your writing should be grammatically
correct, conventionally punctuated, and correctly spelled, unless you
have a compelling artistic reason in a particular piece of writing to
do otherwise. Use your grammar and usage handbook from EC1, grammar
resources on the Web, or one of the handbooks by Diana Hacker assigned
as “recommended” for this course to check problem areas. When I
point out a grammar or usage problem in your work, I expect you to
learn how to fix it and to avoid making it again in future work.
Comments and grading: I'll comment on your work in class, as will your
classmates. Take notes on the comments you receive. I'll be
available for further consultation during my office hours or by
appointment. Please make use of my office hours to come talk
about your writing or any other issues. When you hand in written work
to be commented on, email it to me as well, so that I can type my
comments – you’ll find them easier to read.
Grading
Your course grade will be based on your written work and your
attendance and participation in class. I will not grade any
individual piece of work, but will go over the portfolio you have
accumulated by the end of the semester. The grading policy is meant to
reward both risk taking and revision. “Revision” does not mean retyping
or fixing errors, but rather a substantial reworking of a piece --
going further into it, shifting it in a significant way. For
serious writers, the real work (and pleasure) of writing is in
revision, in seeing new possibilities as they continue to work with a
piece. Here's how the grading scale works:
A: All assignments are in and completed on time. You have used
the exercises to challenge yourself in your writing, and have done more
with them than was required. You have used the comments you've
heard from the class and the professor to substantially revise most of
your exercises and longer pieces. Grammatical or mechanical
problems in your finished work are rare. When you've received
readings or other students' work in advance, you've read it and arrived
in class ready to comment. When student work is read aloud in
class, you've listened carefully and have provided helpful
comments. You have been an effective leader of discussions. You
supplied Dr. Garvey with your current working email address at the
beginning of the semester and made sure to check email at least twice a
week.
B: All assignments are in and completed on time. You have used
the exercises to challenge yourself in your writing. You have
used the comments you've heard from the class and the professor to
substantially revise at least 3 exercises or longer pieces.
Grammatical or mechanical problems in finished work are not so
overwhelming as to be distracting. When you've received readings
or other students' work in advance, you've read it and arrived in class
ready to comment. When student work is read aloud in class,
you've listened carefully and have provided helpful comments. You
supplied Dr. Garvey with your current working email address at the
beginning of the semester and made sure to check email at least twice a
week.
C: Most assignments are in, but up to 25% are late, or 15% are
missing. You have done the exercises at a minimal level, sticking
to the letter of the requirements. You have used the comments
you've heard from the class and the professor to revise at least 2
exercises or longer pieces. There is a distracting quantity of
writing or mechanical problems in work you've submitted as finished.
When you've received readings or other students' work in advance of
class, you've read it in advance. When student work is read aloud
in class, you've listened and have provided comments. You supplied Dr.
Garvey with your current working email address at the beginning of the
semester, and checked email once a week.
D: Over 30% of your assignments are late or 25% of your assignments are
missing. You have done the exercises in a perfunctory
fashion. You have used the comments you've heard from the class
and the professor to do minimal rewriting. Writing or mechanical
problems in work you've submitted as finished are distracting and may
make it difficult to understand what is being said. When you've
received readings or other students' work in advance, you haven't read
it in advance. When student work is read aloud in class, your
comments have reflected inattention or disrespect to your fellow
students. You did not supply your email address or supplied one that
did not receive mail, or that you did not check.
F: Over 50% of your assignments are missing or late. You have
done the exercises in a perfunctory fashion. Writing or
mechanical problems in work you've submitted as finished are
distracting and may make it difficult to understand what is being
said. You have not used the comments you've heard from the class
or the professor to revise or rewrite. When you've received
readings or other students' work in advance, you haven't read it in
advance. When student work is read aloud in class, your comments
or lack of them have reflected inattention or disrespect to your fellow
students. F is also the grade for plagiarism, that is, submitting
the work of others as though it is your own. Plagiarism can also
include self-plagiarism: submitting work written for other classes
without acknowledging that you are doing so. You did not supply
your email address or supplied one that did not receive mail, or that
you did not check.
The University has a strict policy on plagiarism and academic integrity
in general, which you can find at http://www.njcu.edu/dept/senate/integritypolicy.htm
(In brief, plagiarism – submitting other people’s work as your own
– will be punished by a failing grade for the assignment and/or for the
course.)
As you'll notice from the grading scale, much of the work of the class
depends on your being present and available. If you miss more
than two weeks of class, it is unlikely that you'll do well, whether or
not you have a good excuse for being out. Whenever you are absent
or late for any reason, excused or not, you are responsible for any
work you miss, including in-class writing assignments. You must find
out what you've missed by checking with other students. If the
first person you ask says there was no writing in class on the day you
missed and no work assigned, call someone else: you are responsible for
making up whatever you miss. Be sure to get the actual
assignment; don’t try to guess at what it was by listening to
what your classmates produced using it. If you have work due
during a class for which you will be absent, come to see me or call me
ahead of time. Only if you talk with me about the problem is
there a chance that I'll be lenient.
Required books, available in the college Bookstore:
Margaret Love-Denman and Barbara Shoup,
Story Matters
Marjane Satrapi,
Embroideries
You will receive other readings in the form of handouts.
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