ENGL 2060
Introduction to Creative Writing
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
TR 9:30-10:45
Hum 205
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: TTh 3:30-4:30; W 10-12 and 12-3
Course Description
This class will provide an introduction to the writing of fiction and poetry. Students will explore their creative potential while studying craft—the strategies and techniques that give form to imagination. Readings in poetry and short fiction will strengthen your familiarity with the contemporary literary landscape and encourage you to situate your own emerging voice among those of other writers. Workshops will allow you to benefit from intense discussions of your own work and that of other students. We will emphasize revision; by the end of the semester you will have produced a polished portfolio of your best work.
Course Texts
The Poet’s Companion, ed. Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.
What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter.
The Best American Poetry 2008. Ed. Charles Wright and David Lehman.
The Best American Short Stories 2008. Ed. Rushdie, Pitlor.
Requirements:
There will be frequent writing assignments, both formal and informal, leading to a final portfolio of revised work. Due dates for formal assignments are listed on the syllabus.
You will write two short (2-3 page) analyses, one on a poem you select from the anthology and one on a story you choose from the anthology. Details on these assignments will follow in the near future.
In preparation for formal workshops, you’ll write responses to the work of your classmates. Guidelines will follow.
Writing journal. This is not a personal journal, but a creative one. We’ll discuss this distinction in class and outline how to approach this. You’ll be expected to write in your journal at least twice a week for 20 minutes at a time.
You’ll also have to keep up with the assigned reading. If I sense that this isn’t happening, I reserve the right to quiz you—but I’d rather not!
Grade Breakdown:
20% -- Participation (includes participation in discussions, workshops, in-class writing, responses). If quizzes become necessary, they will count here.
20% --short critical essays
10% -- Journal
10% -- Drafts of Poems and Stories
40% -- Portfolios (20% Poetry; 20% Fiction)
Poems and short stories will be marked on a check system as you write them. Checks should serve as progress markers, and do not equal grades in that checks are not static like grades: you have a chance to improve your checks with each revision, and you may revise as many times as you like. Only checks on final, portfolio drafts translate directly into grades. If you are ever uncertain about where you stand in the class, or have a question about the grading system, please feel free to come discuss your grade with me.
Minus: Technically incomplete (did not meet requirements of assignment)
CheckMinus: Technically complete, but minimally so: clearly undeveloped
Check: Meets requirements of assignment, shows understanding of basic concepts
CheckPlus: Well developed, successful execution on multiple levels, effort is obvious
Plus: Superior; usually reserved for revisions
Policies
◊Please come to class on time. If you are late three times it will count as an absence. Please turn off cell phones and other potential sources of electronic disturbance before you enter class and remove them from your desk or your person. If such a device does go off during class, I will mark you late.
◊Your active presence is essential to the success of the class. In-class exercises cannot be made up regardless of the reason for your absence unless we have made arrangements in advance. You may not turn assignments in late. If you miss more than three classes, your grade will suffer. There is no such thing as an excused absence. I assume that illness or other pressing circumstances may legitimately cause you to miss three classes in the course of the semester; I don’t need to know your reasons. Beyond that, however, absences will lower your final grade by half a letter grade each. If you do miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and arrange to obtain relevant readings or assignments. If you miss 6 classes, you will not pass. (If you have truly extraordinary circumstances documented by the university, you should look into obtaining a hardship withdrawal.)
◊ Student Writing: Everything you turn in as a formal assignment MUST be typewritten in a standard font. You are responsible for accessing stories and poems to be workshopped, which I will post on my webpage. You should print them out and read them well in advance of class—more than once, if possible. You should come to class with your copy of the student work marked up (critiqued), ready to provide helpful commentary for the writer, in addition to writing any formal responses I assign. Keep your journal in a separate notebook (or, ideally, a handsome book you’ll enjoy writing in & feel connected to) that you can turn in—don’t combine it with your class notebook. Date your entries—you should have 2 entries a week for the entire semester. These may be either creative or reflective. I will provide detailed guidelines. Keep ALL of your written work in a folder for your portfolio.
◊ I check my email regularly; this is always a good way to contact me. University policy dictates that we correspond via your westga email account rather than any email accounts you might have. Make sure to use your My Westga account when you write to me.
◊I expect you to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, and intellectual maturity in the classroom, to take your own work and that of the other students seriously. We will critique everyone’s writing at some point during the semester. When making suggestions or critiques, remember that the comments should be helpful. I would never want you to hold back any sincere criticism that you wish to make; workshops won’t be effective if everyone is overly cautious in their comments. But remember your purpose in making any critiques: to lend help to your classmates. And don’t be afraid to emphasize what you LIKE about someone’s work as well. The success of this class absolutely depends upon this.
◊If you have special needs of which I should be aware, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss satisfactory arrangements.
Academic Honesty:
Presenting the language or ideas of someone else as your own constitutes plagiarism--whether your source is a friend, a relative, or a critic; whether the uncredited material is a phrase, a paragraph, or an entire paper; whether it is a formal or an informal assignment. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class, and may have consequences at the university level. If you are ever concerned about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me. You may also see the English Department website for more details.
http://www.westga.edu/%7Eengdept/Plagiarism/index.html
This policy is not negotiable. If you cheat, you will fail the class.
This schedule of readings is designed to be flexible, and I reserve the right to make changes as the semester goes on, should it seem like a good idea….I’ll announce specific reading assignments in the anthologies as we go along.
Schedule
Jan 8 Intro
Part I:Poetry
Jan 13 Poet’s Companion (PC), 19-29 (Writing and Knowing) “Electrocuting an Elephant,”
Ciaran Berry, p. 12.
Jan 15 PC, 30-38 (The Family). Draft "I don't know" poem; read "Rock Polisher" by Chris Forhan in your anthology (p. 34-35). FFor your first fo0rmal assignment, (Poem #1) write a poem based either on the "Rock Polisher" exercise we did in class . I won’t impose a specific form on your poem, but do pay attention to the form and shape of the poems we have read so far and strive for a similarly understated, natural, unforced language. I’d like your poems to be at least 16 lines long.(Due next Thurs.)
Jan 20 PC, 56-73 (The Shadow and Witnessing).
Jan 22 PC 74- 81 (Poetry of Place). Poem #1 due.
Jan 27 PC 85-93 (Images). Poems tba. Bring to class a draft of your place poem from Thursday's exercise. In your anthology, read "Threshing" by Louise Gluck and "Every Night" by Debra Nystrom.
Jan 29 PC 94-103 (Simile and Metaphor). For Tues., keep revising your place poem, incorporating more figurative language as discussed in class and in the reading.
Feb 3 Poem #2 due (revised place poem. Include earlier drafts). PC 104-114 (The Music of the Line).
Feb 5 PC 115-128 (Voice and Style).
Select one poem from the anthology--be prepared to discuss it with the class in terms of voice and/or style. (Read the chapter first.) Make sure you're keeping up with your journals! I'll be checking them soon.
Feb 10 PC, 129-137 (Dreams and Experiments)
Feb 12 Poems: “National Security,” James Tate (130); “Hexagon: On Truth,” Dave Snyder (119). Keep working on persona poem. If you didn't write it in the first person initially, makes sure you do it now. The idea, remember, is to try to inhabit someone else, however unlikely; to enter their mind, adopt their voice....
Feb 17 Bring draft of the dream-poems you began in Thursday's class. (For those of you who weren't there, that's p. 35, writing exercise #2). Informal workshop.
Feb 19 Poem #3 due.
Workshop Instructions, response guidelines
Feb 24 Workshop #1, group 1. Rachel, Britta, Grant
Feb 26 Workshop #1, group 2. Lauren., Brittany, Victoria
Mar 2—Last day to withdraw with a W
Mar 3 Workshop #1, group 3. Chris, Fontez, Brian, Stephanie
Mar 5 Workshop #1, group 4. Courtney, Devan, Colin
Part 2: Fiction
Mar 10 Beginnings, What If. Read "Happy Endings," by Margaret Atwood.
Mar 12 Read T.C Boyle's "Admiral," in the fiction anthology, and the rest of the "Beginnings" section in What If.
Spring Break
Mar 24 Read “Characterization” in What If (35-58) Do the “name your characters” exercise on p 42. Choose one of these characters and write the beginning of a story about them—at least half a page or so—keeping in mind what we’ve said/read about starting stories. Keep up your journals. Also read A.M. Homes, “May We Be Forgiven.”
Mar 26 Perspective and Point of View, What If ; Brockmeier, "The Year of Silence." Scene involving character due.
Mar 31. Story #1 due: 5 pages based on the character sketches & scenes you did last week (though you are free to depart as dramatically as you like from your original ideas.) Discuss dialogue section in What If. Dialogue exercises.
Apr 2 Dialogue scene due. (2 page scene involving 2 characters, each with a distinctive voice. They may know each other or they may be strangers: up to you. There should be a subtext, an undercurrent: we should be able to glean more from the dialogue than the hearers are actually intended to. One of the characters is being deceptive on some level: there’s something he or she isn’t saying. (Or this could be true of both characters.) We can tell, but the addressee cannot.
"Puppy," George Saunders (260); "Bible," Tobias Wolff (312).
Apr 7 Stories tba. Analytical essay due.
Also: Sketch out 2 story ideas: one involving a story that alternates (like “Puppy”) between two characters, another involving a story that alternates (like “Bible”) between something dramatic happening in the present and the central characters memories of something apparently unrelated.
Apr 9 Story #2 due. Choose one of the structures from last week's exercise: either a story that alternates between two characters/perspectives (like "Puppy") or a story that alternates meaningfully between the present and the past (like "Bible"). Be prepared to continue discussing "Bible." Sign up for workshops.
RESPONSES: Everyone is expected to compose a --page (double-spaced), detailed, constructive response to each story we discuss. Your responses are due ON the day of the discussion. YOU MUST bring 2 copies of each. You will also be expected to PRINT each story and bring it with you. If you are unable to print at home, make sure you arrange to print on campus or elsewhere.
Meanwhile, you should be working on revisions of all of your official pieces for the semester. You may submit revisions at any time.
Apr 14 Workshop. Chris, Colin, Fontez. MAKE SURE YOU EMAIL ME YOUR REVISED STORIES BY NOON ON SUNDAY.
Apr 16 Workshop. Grant, Brittany, Lauren.
Apr 21 Workshop. Rachel, Brittany...
Apr 23 Workshop. Victoria, Devan, Stephanie.
Apr 28 Last day of class. Courtney. Britta.
Mon. May 4 Portfolios due. Your portfolio should be neatly organized in a folder. On the right, include your most recent, polished versions of Poems 1,2 and 3 and Stories 1 and 2. On the left, please include all earlier drafts of the five formal assignments in addition to any informal assignments you would like me to take into consideration. Please include, as well, the best email address at which I can reach so that I can get in touch quickly and efficiently about which piece to include in the class anthology, of which you will need to send me an electronic copy.
Course Goals
Program Goals