English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism / LAS / Missouri Western State College

INSTRUCTOR: Professor Anna Leahy

OFFICE: JGM 309-H / 271-4316

OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday 3:30-5:00, Wednesday 1:00-3:00, Thursday 3:30-5:00

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

English 338: Creative Writing serves as an exploration of imaginative writing. This semester, the course focuses on poetry writing, whereas the fall course focused on prose writing. The course employs a variety of strategies, including workshopping, to help generate and revise individual poems and to help form a community of writers. Through a relatively rigorous course, each student is able to explore different categories, approaches, and techniques by completing a critical project as a creative writer and by drafting and revising several pieces of original poetry. The main goals for students in this course are as follows:

• to form a supportive and critical community of poetry writers

• to learn ways to read poetry as creative writers

• to develop ways to talk about and write about poetry as creative writers

• to write a variety of original, imaginative poetry pieces

• to move beyond what your already know

• to make active, informed choices about writing and revising

• to recognize strengths and possibilities as creative writers.

In addition, students have individual goals and should actively work to bring individual goals and course goals together to become stronger, more interesting writers. The instructor in a creative writing course is an expert guide and evaluator; however, the individual student must negotiate the territory.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:

Nine Gates by Jane Hirshfield

The Sounds of Poetry by Robert Pinsky

The Best American Poetry edited by Dove and Lehman

Heaven-and Earth House by Mary Swander

Additional readings will be available on reserve at the library or in handouts.

GRADING:

Course grades will be based upon the following components:

Participation (various in-class activities) – 25%

Mid-Term Portfolio – 25%

Final Portfolio – 50%

All three components must be completed. More than four absences (for whatever reasons) constitutes failure to complete the Participation component. Mid-Term and Final Portfolios will not be accepted late and must include all required parts.

Note that a "C" represents average, college-level work and that merely doing assigned work does not guarantee a "C." Grades of "A" or "B" represent work above the basic, minimum expectations for a 300-level course and, in a creative writing course, most often indicate both exceptional talent, active engagement, and exceptional exploration and diligence, particularly in revision. Grades of "D" or "F" indicate an inability to complete minimally acceptable work or an inability to complete exercises, drafts, or reading on time. Additional criteria for both portfolios will be included in handouts.

OTHER POLICIES:

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 writing process 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 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.

As part of this course, you are required to attend a reading by writer Mary Swander on Wednesday, April 4 at 4pm. Please adjust your schedule accordingly. Mary Swander may also visit our class the following day. You will read her book Heaven-and Earth House in preparation for her visit to campus.

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. All out-of-class writing must be typed, unless otherwise indicated in class or on the schedule. Late participation work is not accepted and lowers your participation grade; not all written exercises/responses are collected, but many are. Any late draft of a poem lowers your final course grade by a full letter and receives no written or workshop comments; lack of enough copies is treated the same as lateness.

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.

I sometimes hold group or 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 poetry 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.

For Thursday: Read "Poetry and the Mind of Concentration" (Hirshfield) and TBA (Best American).

For Tuesday: Read "The Question of Originality" (Hirshfield) and TBA (Best American). Write a single-spaced, one-page statement about originality (what the concept means to you as a beginning creative writer, how ideas and language can be judged to be original, what is original about you, etc.).

In class: Discussion of originality. Writing exercises. Concepts of collaboration.

For Thursday: Read "Theory" and "Accent and Duration" (Pinsky) and TBA (Best American).