English 223.001—Introduction to Creative Nonfiction

T/TH 11:00-12:15

Fall 2004

Greg Martin

Texts 

  1. This Boy’s Life  by Tobias Wolff

  2. Girl, Interrupted  by Susanna Kaysen

  3. E-reserve site for English 223:  http://ereserves.unm.edu/courseindex.asp

  4. Course website:   www.unm.edu/~gmartin

Overview

In this course, the first in the Creative Nonfiction sequence of the UNM Creative Writing Major, we will explore creative nonfiction in two of its many forms:  The Personal Essay and the book-length Memoir.  We will also write about our own lives and experiences and memories, our own quirks of personality and strange notions, attempting to give them shape and structure and design.  Because this class is a creative nonfiction class, we will explore the boundary between truth and invention.  The class should help you to begin building an understanding of prose craft and technique, and we will focus on the development of the "habit" of art, emphasizing process more than product, emphasizing exploration, risk taking, and pushing yourself to write in ways that you could not write before.  In the beginning weeks of class, we will focus on generating material, experimenting with different craft techniques, creating the messy “stuff” out of which all good writing comes.  Throughout the semester, we will also focus on the ways that good writing is collaborative and that responding constructively to another’s work is an equally important skill, and as much an act of the imagination.  One primary goal is to encourage you to write what is urgent and essential to who you are – to make your essays personal, to help you develop your writing persona, the character who is you, telling a story.  In order to write well, we must read well, and read as writers, and so this class will combine the discussion of published authors with formal and informal workshopping.  Finally, I hope to debunk the myth of the artist.  We all can participate in the making of art.

Course Requirements

Six Craft Exercises:  Brief (550 words) exercises aimed at developing different craft techniques.  (See Handout on Website)

Two Essays:  8-12 page essays, which evolve from the shorter generative exercises, taken through both a first draft and a middle draft.  (See Handout on Website)

Reading Responses:  1-2 page, typed, responses (300-400 words) for each of the courses’ required readings.   (See Handout on website) 

Peer Responses:  1 page typed, responses (approximately 250 words) for each of your peer’s drafts.   These peer responses are to be given to me, and to the author of the piece, on the day the work is discussed.  Please always bring two copies.   (See Handout on website) 

Final Portfolio: 

  1. A Revision of one of the two personal essay drafts.  (15-20 pages approximately)
  2. A typed Preface to the portfolio.  2-3 pages exploring the techniques used and influences in the revised essay, as well as exploration of your development as a writer over the semester. 
  3. Also include the early draft of this essay with my margin and end notes. 

Grading: 

1/4       =            Final Portfolio

1/4       =            Class Participation:  In Class Discussion, Attendance, Peer Responses

1/4       =            Reading Responses

1/4       =            Craft Exercises, Essay Drafts

So that you will have a sense of how you’re performing in the class throughout the semester, reading responses will be collected, graded, and returned to you at specific intervals according to this system:

Check Plus       =             Excellent.       Superior work.  Full Credit. 

Check              =            Good.              Full credit

Check minus    =            Marginal           ½ Credit 

0                      =            incomplete or not turned in

Generative Exercises will either receive full credit, or no credit (if they are not turned  in on time)  Essays #1 and #2 will receive letter grades for both first drafts and middle drafts, according to criteria on the Essay Handout on the website. 

Note on Attendance and Participation: 

I conduct an active writer-centered classroom.  Your attendance and participation is an integral part of this course.  More than three absences will automatically lower your final grade unless we have discussed the absences and agreed upon an alternative arrangement.  Absence is never an excuse for coming to the next class unprepared—it is your responsibility to find out what you missed, including handouts and/or changes in the syllabus.  Please note:  I consider consistent late arrivals and early departures as absences.  If you are in this consistent category, I’ll let you know (I’ll give fair warning).

Important Note:  No late assignments are accepted without prior arrangement.

1.      Creative Work should be typed, double-spaced, numbered, with one inch margins, on one side of the page, with no cover pages, and stapled. A single spaced heading on the top left should include:  your name, the course number and section, my name, the date, the title.

2.      Correct grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling are expected.  A piece flawed by pervasive proofreading or mechanical errors will be graded down. 

Accommodation

Students who have special needs that may affect their ability to benefit fully from the class, please see me as soon as possible so I can arrange appropriate accommodation.