| ENGLISH 338: CREATIVE WRITING Professor Anna Leahy / Fall 2000 / 2:00-3:20 TTh / JGM 105 MWSC / LAS / EFLJ COURSE SYLLABUS Creating Fiction by Checkoway (CF on the schedule) Your final grade is based on the following three components: A C-range grade represents acceptable, college-level work; merely completing all work does not guarantee at least a C unless the work is also reflective of college-level writing and response. A- and B-range grades are earned by work above the standard, whereas D-range and failing grades are reserved for substandard work. Though imaginative writing can push the constraints of traditional assumptions about language, grammatical errors are generally unacceptable. While some students initially worry that evaluation of creative work is entirely subjective, your writing in this course is evaluated according to somewhat standard, academic criteria, including originality, active engagement with language, effectiveness, evidence of thoughtful revision, and so on. In addition to whatever personal investment one already has in one’s own writing, the course encourages each writer to see creative writing as a serious, academic pursuit in which one creates texts for readers. Also, workshopping and other course activities encourage establishing appropriate approaches to reading and judging imaginative writing as serious writers. Because of the course’s emphasis on linking reading, thoughtful discussion, and writing, revision becomes a very important component of the course and offers students the opportunity to move well beyond their first impulses and comfortable tendencies. The critical component of the Final Portfolio also offers students a venue in which to articulate some of their judgments, as writers, about their own writing. As with other kinds of writing, well-read, well-informed readers can make valuable and supported judgments about what is written and how it is written. Thus, evaluating and grading creative work becomes an extension of informed judgments in an academic writing community. All assigned work must be completed before the class meeting for which it is due and must be available to be turned in at the beginning of the class meeting. Late participation work is not accepted and lowers your participation grade; not all written exercises/responses are collected, but many are. All drafts of creative work must be turned in on time and, when necessary, with the appropriate number of copies; any late rough draft of a fiction or creative nonfiction piece lowers your final course grade by one-third of a letter for each day late and receives no written or workshop comments; lack of enough copies is treated the same as lateness. A late Mid-Term Portfolio is unacceptable, except in the most dire and documented circumstances (such as hospitalization or a death in the family), and lowers your final course grade by one full letter for each day late. A late Final Portfolio will result in an F for the course. Arriving late, leaving early, or being absent lowers your participation grade. For any absence during workshopping sessions (any time you see the word “workshopping” on your schedule) or any absence beyond four, your final course grade is lowered by one-third of a letter. The student is solely responsible for work missed. While some guided collaboration is encouraged in this course, plagiarism is not tolerated and will result in a zero for the assignment, including the portfolio, for any individuals involved. A zero is calculated as less than an F and will make it mathematically difficult for a student to pass the course. Refer to your student handbook or to the instructor for more information. Out-of-class written work must be typed (double-spaced), unless designated otherwise in class. All word/page limits are strict so that all students attempt common tasks. Written work that does not meet these minimal guidelines will not be accepted. I hold regularly scheduled group and individual conferences and encourage additional conferences as needed. Missing a conference is treated as an absence. Many students find one-on-one discussion an important component of growth as a creative writer because it offers individual attention from the instructor, encourages active involvement from the student, and can create a time for immediate clarification or brainstorming. Though I provide some written responses to some of your written work, I can provide additional response in conference conversations. While some conferencing is required in this course, you should determine the extent to which you want conferences to be a part of your writing process. Students with disabilities that inhibit work in this course should notify me in writing within the first two weeks of this semester so that accommodations can be considered. No food or beverages (other than water) are allowed in carpeted areas of JGM. Other relevant policies are covered in your student handbook. While I do not check up on your work beyond listed assignments, I expect you to spend time on creative writing every day; in addition to the course assignments, you should try to read a piece of creative prose of your own choosing and to write for at least thirty minutes every day. In the end, any kind of accumulated engagement in the writing process often pays off in the work you include in the Final Portfolio. To an even greater extent than in many other courses, reaping benefits from a creative writing course depends upon individual enthusiasm and engagement. While you should feel no obligation to work on the college’s literary journal, The Mochila Review, you might consider becoming involved at some level in order to see what writers beyond this class are producing and to see how creative writing makes its way to publication. Though I serve as the faculty editor for the journal, the activities will be completely separate from this course, and you will receive no special consideration or extra credit for participation on the journal’s staff. The opportunity to work on the journal is open all all MWSC students but may be of particular interest or relevance to creative writers. SCHEDULE: THE FIRST INSTALLMENT Tuesday, August 22 Thursday, August 24 Tuesday, August 29 Thursday, August 31 Tuesday, September 5 Thursday, September 7 Tuesday, September 12 Thursday, September 14 |
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