English 101----Introduction to Creative Writing

Class: MWF  9-9:50 a.m.    Location: Buck 1

Instructor: James Plath      Office: English House 104               Hours: MWF 10-11 a.m. & by appt.

Phone: 556-3352                 URL: http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath    Email: jplath@iwu.edu

Text: Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft Third Edition, ed. by Janet Burroway, plus handouts

Course Objectives: 

The main goal of this course is for students to learn the characteristics and various techniques of four genres—creative nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and teleplays—and to write in each genre (four creative nonfiction essays, five poems, two short stories, one teleplay). Writers must be readers, and each week students will be expected to read and discuss a wide body of literature, including handouts as well as assignments from the course textbook. Obviously, an entire course could be devoted to each genre, and so this introduction will necessarily seem like a "sampler." But another goal of the course is to help students discover which of the genres they gravitate towards.

Course Requirements:

• Attendance is mandatory. More than three unexcused absences affects grade.
• All writing assignments MUST be completed for students to receive a grade for the course. Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Written assignments will be penalized one grade for every class period they are late.
• All prose must be typed, double-spaced, with standard margins and in standard format, preferably in 12 pt. Times New Roman. Poems should be single-spaced. I will not accept electronic copies, and please STAPLE your papers and indicate which assignment it is.
  
• Two individual conferences required, but more are recommended.

Grades will be determined on the following basis:

Creative Assignments---------------------------------------------------------------------50%

Written Responses to Literature---------------------------------------------------------25%

Class participation (attendance, revision attempts, activities,  discussion)--------25%

Tentative Schedule:

Jan 9—Introduction/Creative Inventory

Creative Nonfiction

Jan 11—Observation! Read the "Creative Nonfiction" section in our text (pp230-41) and Dillard's excerpt "Heaven and Earth in Jest" (pp25-26); come ready to discuss, with ideas for an observational essay of your own.

Jan 14—Due: draft of 2-4 page observational essay; in-class peer review.

Jan 16—Due: final draft of 2-4 page observational essay; read Dybek's "Thread" (pp101-05) and Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" (pp61-67) and come with ideas for a confessional essay of your own; creative exercises.

Jan 18—Due:  draft of 3-5 page confessional essay; in-class peer review and exercises.

Jan 21—Due: final draft of 3-5 page confessional essay; read Didion's "At the Dam" and handout. 

Jan 23—Due: draft of 3-5 page essay on "place"; in-class peer review.

Jan 25—Due, final draft of 3-5 pp essay on "place"; in-class creative exercises.

Jan 29—Read Pemberton's "Do He Have Your Number, Mr. Jeffrey?" (pp242-50) and come with ideas for a "job" essay.

Jan 30—Due: draft of 3-5 pp essay on a "job" you had; in-class peer review.

Feb 1—Due: final draft of "job" essay; read the "Poetry" section in our text (pp295-310).

Poetry

Feb 4—Read Oles' "Stonecarver" (pp119-20); in-class generative exercise: observational "hand poem"; in-class feedback.

Feb 6—Due: draft of observational "hand poem"; read Trowbridge's "Kong Looks Back on His Tryout with the Bears" and be prepared to discuss.

Feb 8—Due: draft of persona poem.  Read Ginsberg's "To Aunt Rose" and be prepared to discuss.

Feb 11—Due: draft of dramatic monologue or "to" poem; in-class peer review and readings.

Feb 13—Read: Alexie's "At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School"; ekphrastic poetry.

Feb 15—NO CLASS: individual conferences--bring drafts of poems, including ekphrastic poem

Feb 18—Read Voight's "Short Story" (pp186-87), Kumin's "Woodchucks" (pp187-88) and Lee's "The Hammock" (pp188-89).

Feb 20—Due: "story" poem based on personal experience; read Komunyakaa's "Facing It."

Feb 22—Due: draft of lyric/meditative poem mode. Read: Kowit's "Grammar Lesson" and Plath's "Stillborn" (pp312-13).

Feb 25—Due: draft of formal verse; in-class peer review.

Fiction

Feb 27—Read: Barthelme's "The School" (pp151-53); in-class exercises, focusing on voice and point of view.

Mar 1—Read McGuane's "Cowboy"; in-class discussion and exercises, focusing on dialogue.

Mar 4—Taking inventory: stockpiling elements for your story (in-class discussion/exercise).

Mar 6—Read: Munro's "Prue"; in-class discussion and exercises, focusing on character.

Mar 8—Due: one complete short story (4-12 pp.); peer review.

SPRING BREAK--Week of Mar 11, 13, 15--No Class

Mar 18—Setting/atmosphere. In-class exercises.

Mar 20—Read Wolff's "Powder"

Mar 22—What's in your Yoknapatawpha? Creating a fictional world.

Mar 25—Read Marquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World"; discussion of imagination and "facts".

Mar 27—NO CLASS: individual conferences—bring both stories.

Mar 29—Due: second complete short story (4-12 pp.); peer review.

Plays/Teleplays

Apr 1—Introduction: The one-act play and half-hour sitcom

Apr 3—Dramatic/comedic structure (cont.); in-class discussion/exercise.

Apr 5—In-class viewing of The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode "Who's in Charge?" with accompanying teleplay.

Apr 8—Discussion of MTM episode (bring teleplay to class).

Apr 10—Read O'Neill's "What I Came For" (pp 349-54) and Golamco's "Heartbreaker" (189-94).

Apr 12—Continued discussion of drama and the one-act structure; in-class exercises.

Apr 15—Class presentations on your one-act or sitcom project

Apr 17—Due: one sitcom or one-act scene or extensive exchange; in-class peer review.

Apr 19—Portfolios and literary magazines.

Apr 22—Due: one-act play or original sitcom teleplay for an existing TV series.

FINAL EXAM: Friday, Apr 26, 1:15-3:15 p.m. (during which time we will meet to present our most recent work at a group reading and, given the time, have donuts or something)