English 323-01 Elizabeth
Chiseri-Strater
Tue/Thur 9:30-10:50 McIver
144 334-5263
“Let me say it again: you must not come lightly
to the blank page.”
Stephen King
CREATIVE
NONFICTION
Creative nonfiction is a
writing course focused on a genre of literature made up of subgenres such as
the personal essay, memoir, reportage, and expressive writing whose borders
with other genres are fluid and malleable.
This translates into suggesting that creative nonfiction allows for
great innovation in voice and form to shape a “fourth” literary genre. This also translates into saying that if you
love to write and read, this course will be really really fun for you.
The purpose of the course
is to allow you to explore and experiment with many forms of creative
nonfiction prose writing: the essays in its many garbs and disguises. We’ll begin the class with a short-segmented
essay and move into whatever form interests each writer as she puts together a
portfolio of three to four final pieces of writing. In addition to compiling twenty pages of essay writing, you will
also write a short essay about yourself as a writer who has both read and
written within this genre.
Rituals and Rules:
The course will be
conducted primarily as a workshop where participants share, respond to, and
support each other’s work in progress.
The course is organized so that every writer’s work will receive written
and oral feedback in workshop format so that every participant will be writing
weekly in response to his peers’ writing.
And, because writing and reading are so intricately connected, we will
also read a wide range of creative nonfiction together. Or, as Toni Morrison more elegantly puts it:
“Writing and reading are not all that distinct for a writer. Both exercises require being alert and ready
for unaccountable beauty, for the intricateness of simple elegance of the
writer’s imagination, for the world that imagination evokes.”
You are expected to come
to class on time, engage fully in the reading and writing in the course and to
complete all the assignments. Poor
attendance, tardiness, lack of participation or failure to do the course work
will result in a substantially lower grade.
“ When you write, you lay
out a line of words. The line of word’s
is a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path for you to
follow... You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully. You go where the
path leads.” Annie Dillard
LEARNING
GOALS
By the end of this course
you should be able to:
Write
clearly, coherently and effectively within a variety of essay genres.
Understand
different audiences and adapt writing accordingly.
Incorporate
the feedback from you peers and instructor into your writing.
Edit
your work so that it conforms to standard usage.
Organize
your text so that it reads fluently.
Read
and respond widely within the essay genre.
Texts:
King, Stephen, On Writing:
A Memoir of the Craft. Scribner edition.
Root, Robert and Michael
Steinberg, editors. The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative
Nonfiction. Second edition.
Reading Responses:
You are asked to keep a
writer’s notebook where you respond to our weekly readings from King’s book and
from The Fourth Genre. These responses
need not be either formal or long but should provide you with some ideas,
passages, or images for our discussions of the readings. These responses may be either typed or
handwritten but should be ready before our class discussions on Tuesdays. I will occasionally take up your responses
and will review the writer’s notebook both at mid-term and the end of the
course when you will submit some of them in your portfolio.
Writing Workshops:
You are asked to respond
to your peers’ essays weekly in the
form of a letter. These responses should be thoughtful, thorough, and
constructive. Each week you will give
your signed written responses to the writer who will use them to revise their
work. If for some reason you are not in
class on Tuesday, it is your responsibility to get the drafts to read before
coming to Thursdays class.
Paper Deadlines:
We will begin by reading
and writing the “segmented” essay.
After that experiment, you will chose to work in whatever subgenre of
creative nonfiction that interests you.
The essay deadlines are clearly marked on the syllabus** Since your essays form the center of our
weekly workshops, the deadlines are strict. The last paper you write will be
about your own writing process as it has been shaped by the course.
“ An essayist stands in for the rest of us, telling us what he
feels and thinks and cares about, what he’s seen and learned from childhood
on...” Edward Hoagland o
Portfolios and Evaluation:
Your midterm and final
evaluation will be based on your polished, revised collection of essays written
for this course. In addition to your
essays, you will also include from five to ten reading responses from your
notebook, several commentaries you have written to your peers and a letter introducing and describing your
portfolio. Your class participation,
attendance, general enthusiasm and commitment as well as your ability to
complete all the course requirements will be reflected in your final grade.
Dates Topic Reading Writing
8/20 Introductions Artifact
exchange
8/22 Segmented
essays Nye(135)Griffin(66) Notebook responses
8/27 Writers
on writing King (68) Notebook
responses
8/29 Writers
on writing King(137) Self as Writer**
9/3 Memoir Blew(19)
Blew(232) Notebook response
9/5 Writers
on writing King(208) Segmented
essay**
9/10 Personal
essay Conroy(49)
Lopate(105) Notebook responses
9/12 Writing
Workshop Student essays Responses to peer writers
9/17 Essays on
relationships Lott(113),Chavez(30) Notebook response
9/19 Writing
Workshop Student essays Responses to peers
9/24 Essays on
relationships Toth(209)
Willard(216) Notebooks responses
9/26 Writing
Workshop King(complete) Essay due**
10/1 Essays
on place Lamay(100)
Stanton(417) Notebook responses
10/3 Writing
Workshop Stanton(425) Student essays
Response to peers
10/8 Nature
essays Dillard(54)
Hogan(87) Notebook responses
10/10 Writing Workshop Gilb(62)
Student essays Mid-term Portfolios
due
today in class **
All
writing for mid-term portfolios must be revised.
10/15 FALL
BREAK, NO CLASS
10/17 Writers
on the Essay Dillard(236) Essay due**
10/22 Essays on
culture Cliff(37)
Norris(130) Notebook responses
10/24 Writing
Workshop Hampl(259) Responses to peers
10/29 Essays on
culture Cofer(42)Iyer(90) Notebook responses
10/31 Writing
Workshop Schwartz(338) Responses to peers
11/5 Writers
on the essay Pearson(316) Essay due**
11/7 Writing
Workshop Student essays Responses to peers
11/12 Writing
about work Selzer(173)Pope(403) Notebook responses
11/14 Writing
Workshop Selzer(334) Response to peers
11/19 Writers
on writing Faery(246) Bring responses to
writers writing to class**
11/21 Writer’s
Histories Review essays on writing Essay
due on self as writer**
11/26/11/28 NO
CLASSES Thanksgiving/ NCTE conference
“The essay...is a great
meadow of style and personal manner, freed from the need for defense except
that provided by an individual intelligence and sparkle. We consent to watch a mind at work, without
agreement often, but only for pleasure”
Elizabeth
Hardwick
12/3 Revision Workshop
12/5 Last Class
There will be no exam in
this course but we will use our exam time to read from our portfolios.
NOTES/ REVISIONS/CHANGES