Course description taken from the
ACC Catalog:
ENGL 2308 CREATIVE WRITING
- Advanced Writing Workshop (3-3-0). Continuation of ENGL 2307 with emphasis on literary writing. Genres for
this class: poetry and prose. Prerequisites: ENGL 2307 or equivalent or instructor
approval.
Orientation
To fully understand this course you
must read carefully through the information in this section.
Familiarize yourself with where needed information is located.
This area contains the nuts and
bolts of the course:
Introduction
and Purpose
This is an advanced creative writing
class that focuses on poetry and prose. How do I define prose? Prose as it
pertains to the assignments of this class are short stories, short personal
essays, memoir, and short practice assignments using poetic language. In this
class you will write non-rhyming poems using free-verse style. You may also
write prose poem form. It is important that you do not send in writing on
topics other than those assigned, song lyrics or work you’ve done for other
classes. What you wrote last semester, last year or several years ago is not
what you will write today or tomorrow. Your daily evolution as a human being
changes how you perceive your world and as your perception changes, so will
your writing.
We will work with the memory a
lot for this course as we learn to write about what is personal in a public
arena. What we write is expected to have a definite beginning, middle and
end – writing with strong narrative that sets a sense of place or landscape.
Heavy editing is expected in this
course. In fact – that’s what this course is really about. I believe everyone
can write, but not everyone knows how to edit. Editing is what separates sophisticated
college level creative writing from the notion that creative writing is a
spontaneous outpouring of words on paper. As you learn to take your writing
through the editing process, you become a stronger writer capable of using
language and scene to enhance your communication to the reader. You will submit
an edited portfolio at the end of the semester as a final project. This work
is shared with the ACC student community through the literary journal. The
end of semester portfolio is your best work edited for the last time.
You will also be expected to read
for inspiration this semester; you will submit a written report on your reading
projects at the end of the semester.
Instructor's Syllabus
Advanced Creative
Writing – Poetry and Prose Fall 2006 ENGL 2308
Section #43496
Instructor Dorothy Ellis Barnett
Office Hours: When I am not in class teaching, I am in my office and am available Monday - Thursday until 3:00. You may stop by or call ahead to make an appointment. I will send you a word office hour attachment for your files.
Office: Attache Building Room 105, Rio Grande Phone: 223-3236 Email: dbarnett@austincc.edu (email will be our primary means of communication - please check your email daily)
I will email you each week with comments, encouragement, short writing assignments, readings around town.
Please remember that help is just
a phone call or email away. I will try to return all messages within 24 -
36 hours.
Required Textbooks:
You are expected to read at least
2 books in the primary genre you are submitting this semester.
Poetry
First a book of poems by one of
the following poets: Edward Hursch, Patiann Rodgers, Wendy Barker, Naomi Shihab
Nye, Reginald Gibbons, Rainer Maria Rilke, Gwendolyn Brooks, Garrett Hongo,
Li-Young Lee, Cynthia Mcdonald, Charles Simic, Charles Wright, and lastly,
William Carlos Williams, Claudia Rankine. Please buy your book the first or
second week of class. Once you have made your choice send me the names and
titles of your book in an email.
Do not use an anthology of many
poets – this requirement is to read one poet’s work so that you become familiar
with one poetic style and voice. As you study this poet, the style, tone and
voice will help you to establish your voice. If you would like other recommendations
call or email me and I will be happy to provide some.
A report on this poet’s work is
due with your portfolio at the end of the semester.
How to find books on the craft of
creative writing, if you feel that you need a basic craft book:
1. If you are in Austin, the Writers’ League of Texas has a very
large selection of creative writing books to sell and loan. They also give
a generous discount to members of their organization. They are at 1501 W.
5th or call them at 499-8914 with questions about writing books.
2. Go
to any of the large bookstores and spend some time in their creative writing
section. Pull up a chair and really read through the books until you find
one that “fits” you. Since no two books will be alike, these books will “speak”
to each of you in an individual way. Find one you like enough to read and
reread. Typically these books are by poets and prose writers and include their
philosophy of writing along with writing exercises to get the juices flowing.
Common Course Objectives and
Goals:
Methods of Instruction:
This course is an advanced workshop
and as such, I have the expectation that you do not need basic instruction
in beginning creative writing. If in the course of reading your work, I may
direct you with additional reading or writing assignments to bring your skills
up to the level of the class. As a workshop you will email me your assignments
and I will send out packets of student writing to each peer review group once
those have been established. This class also includes, reading assignments,
peer critiques, written reports, tests, and attendance at local poetry readings
or literary events.
It is suggested that you write each day. This can be on your assignments or you may keep a daily journal. I will not ask to see your daily writings, but if you fall behind, I may request that you write a morning page and send it to me. This daily writing keeps your juices flowing and establishes a writing routine that will see you through the semester in good standing. You will find that the blank page is not so bad if you face it each day. Don't make this hard on yourself - have fun with it.
Keep a small notepad with you and write down "orphan" images, thoughts,
or overheard snipits of conversation. These are very useful when you are writing
to help you get started or sometimes they can become the basis for a poem
or prose piece. It is important when working with memory and poetic images
that you write down those flashes that seem meaningless because they have
meaning or your memory wouldn't retain the image. Sit with them, think about
them, try to find the whole piece of that image. An example of an "orphan"
image that I have is this: what does the pinecone know about explosives. This
makes no sense until I tell you that I was walking across a campus this summer
on the day they found the terrorist planning to bomb planes flying out of
London; I was thinking about that when I looked down and saw a small beautiful
pinecone nestled in pine needles. As I continued to class, images of planes,
bombs, men who wanted to kill, and pinecones floated around in my mind. I
know someday I will use this image somewhere - a poem or an essay perhaps.
So keep your sensors out - pay attention to the world.
Poem Requirements:
Submit your poem on or before the
due date. Remember the computer will date it for you. Late work will effect
your grade.
You may send your poem as an attachment
or pasted into an email.
Please use this heading:
Name
Poem #
Assignment #
Claim your work! Give your poem
a title, remember a good title will sometimes pull the whole piece together
and give focus to an unclear image.
Appearance on the page is
important; don’t turn in messy work, check spelling, grammar and word use.
Do not center all the lines. Not knowing where to break the line is not
reason enough for centering. If you send in a poem with centered lines,
I will return your poem to you unedited.
Poem topics for this semester
– topics are open with the following exceptions:
Prose Requirements:
Submit your prose on or before the
due date. Remember the computer will date it for you. Late work will effect
your grade.
You may send your prose as an attachment
or pasted into an email.
Please use this heading:
Name
Prose # (Please include the type of prose - short story, personal essay, memoir)
Assignment #
Prose topics for this semester are your choice and the exceptions are the same as poetry. Your form: short story, personal essay, memoir, and poetry. Your work will be held to the same standard as the face to face advanced class. What does this mean? It means that you can expect my editing comments to you to be about how your writing followings the form that you've chosen. I don't want to spellcheck or grammar proof your writing for you. You are not sending in drafts to me and your classmates; you are sending in a piece of writing that's as finished as you can get it for right now. There's always editing to do - so I am not expecting perfection.
Plagiarism:
All work must be the writer’s
original product. Material copied from another source and submitted as the
writer’s own is plagiarism. The penalties range from failure on the assignment
to failure in the course, and/or expulsion from classes at ACC.
Attendance Policy:
Assignment deadlines are the
attendance policy for this class.
If you miss assignments, you will
fall behind. Expect to spend at least 5-8 hours outside of class on assignments,
reading or working on your writing. You may turn in only one assignment at
a time. I will only accept one late
assignment.
How we communicate
Generally we communicate through
email. Email your assignments in an attached Microsoft Word file to dbarnett@austincc.edu
The course work for this class is
intense.
I have the expectation that students
check email often for additional comments from me.
Call or email if you have questions.
I will email you weekly with new
information or to stay in touch.
Methods of Evaluation:
Poems:
Your poems will not be graded in the conventional sense, however I will provide feedback on them and you must edit them if needed in response to the feedback. To count towards your final grade, all poems must be edited and resubmitted at least once, either in your portfolio or anytime before hand. You can revise a poem a maximum of two times for instructor feedback.
Prose:
Your prose pieces will not be graded in the conventional sense, however I will provide feedback on them and you must edit them, if needed, in response to the feedback. To count towards your final grade, all prose must be edited and resubmitted at least once, either in your portfolio or anytime before hand.
Short Assignments:
These are short fun (I hope) writing assignments that will help you think about how you write. An example would be to take a short paragraph - your own or someone else's and look at the sentence structure and what it does to the images in the writing. You might look at the different energy in short senences and long sentences. These assignments will usually be a half page or 1 page in length.
I will send you your first short assignment and its due date on Wednesday.
Other Written Assignments:
To ensure quality work in this class, all reader’s responses, the writer’s report and short assignments will be graded on the following scale:
S+ Excellent
S Satisfactory—Sufficiently meets the requirements of the assignment
R Revise—fails
to meet the requirements of the assignment and must be revised within one
week and resubmitted. These assignments can only be revised once. To count
towards your final grade, all assignments must receive at least an “S.”
A Grade
5 mailings (handed in on time; you
may not hand in several at the end of the semester to “catch up”)
5 critiques of peer work
End of semester portfolio careful
revision of your work, with self-critique
Submission of your portfolio for
publication in The Rio Review
Report on your outside reading (1-2
pages, double-spaced)
Attendance at a literary event -
I will furnish you with a list of approved events - No slams.
B Grade
4 mailings (handed in on time; you
may not hand in several at the end of the semester to “catch up”)
4 critiques of peer work
5 short writing assignments
End of semester portfolio careful
revision of your work, with self-critique
Submission of your portfolio for
publication in The Rio Review
Attendance at a literary event
Report on your reading (1-2 pages, double-spaced)
C Grade
4 mailing (handed in on time; you
may not hand in several at the end of the semester to “catch up”)
4 critiques of reader’s response
poems
5 short writing assignments
End of semester portfolio careful
revision of your 6poems, with self-critique
Submission of your portfolio for
publication in The Rio Review
Attendance at an approved literary
festival
Report on your reading (1-2 pages, double-spaced)
If you are not working at least
on a “C grade” level by the last day to drop –November 27-Monday, you
will be required to drop. It is the student’s responsibility to fill out the
necessary paperwork. A grade of “F” is awarded if a student does not finish
the course and does not drop the course. I may drop students for lack of progress.
Incompletes are rarely given. If
there is a documented emergency as to why you cannot complete this class, an
incomplete may be given, but the highest grade awarded will be a “C.”
Your grade depends on several factors
- keep up with all assignments.
It is a firm policy of this class
that no more than one late assignment may be turned in during the last week to
submit work. This means that you man not “dump” a semester’s work. It is very
important to keep up with the assignment deadlines for this class. I will not
remind you that you have deadlines.
Reminder: email assignments to dbarnett@austincc.edu in an attached Microsoft Word file. Also make sure that I will recognize your email. If you are sending it from a different email address that you usually use, make sure to put your name in the title so I will know it is from you. I don’t open suspicious email.
Week 1 August 28 - September 4
Introduction to course - read through the online course material, buy your
books, decide what genre you will work in this semester.
Week 2 August 7 - 11
School closed Monday - September 4
Due Tuesday - 1 page to include in the class bios.
Week 3 September 4 - 8
Assignement 1 is due Thursday noon.
Week 4 September 11 - 15
Assignment 1 is returned Thursday noon.
Submit title of books you will read for this semester
Week 5 September 18 - 22
Free Week - work on writing, revising and editing.
Week 6 September 25 - 29
Assignment 2 is due on Thursday at noon.
Week 7 October 2 - 6
Assignment 2 is returned Thursday noon.
Week 8 October 9 - 13
Free Week - work on writing, revising and editing.
Week 9 October 16 - 20
Assignment 3 is due on Thursday at noon.
Week 10 October 23 - 27
Assignment 3is returned Thursday noon.
Week 11 October 30 - November 3
Free Week - work on writing, revising and editing.
Week 12 November 6 - 10
Assignment 4 is due on Thursday at noon.
Week 13 November 13 - 17
Assignment 4 is returned Thursday noon.
Week 14 November 20 - 24
Monday November 20th IS THE LAST DAY TO DROP THIS CLASS.
Assignment 5 is due on Thursday at noon. (Please note that this is not a free
week)
Week 15 November 27 - December 1
Assignment 5 is returned Thursday noon.
Portfolio Conferences by appointment (email, face to face, or by phone - your
choice)
Week 16 & 17 December 4 - 15
Edited Portfolios are due
December 15th is the last class day.
Departmental
Syllabus
The departmental syllabus is under review and is not available at this time.
Portfolio Explanation
The portfolio is an e-file of your
best work edited for one last time, your short assignments, and your reports.
You may also submit a hard copy to my office. The complete portfolio is submitted
to the Rio Review, the student literary journal at ACC as an example of your
writing as an ACC student.