English 423.001—Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Emulation and Revision
T/TH 11:00-12:15
Spring 2007
Greg Martin
Office: Humanities 257
Office Hours: T 2:00 – 3:30 and by appointment
Phone: 277-6145
E-mail: gmartin@unm.edu
E-reserve site for English 423: http://ereserves.unm.edu/courseindex.asp password: study423
Course website: www.unm.edu/~gmartin
This is a writing workshop focused on emulation and revision. The first goal of this course is to encourage you to find models for the kind of writing you want to do--to emulate other essayists and their essays, not only in voice and sensibility, but also in genre and craft. The second goal of the course is to push you to invest and re-invest in the same piece over sixteen weeks, so that it becomes increasingly complex, resonant, and satisfying. Yet another goal of the course is to break down what Jane Smiley calls “evasion strategies.” Many undergraduate creative writers are highly skilled at turning out flawed, inspiration-driven first drafts. Your task is to eventually produce a draft so compelling that your peers (or anyone) would read your essay even if they didn't have to for a class. Your task is to make them forget that they're reading for a class; your task is to immerse them so deeply that they forget they're reading.
Most often in a creative writing workshop, craft (plot, characterization, persona, etc) receives primary emphasis, and there are good reasons for this. But less often is discipline, itself, emphasized. The problem with too much emphasis on craft is that it may lead the apprentice writer to believe that their most important writing problems are craft problems. They aren't. Craft knowledge has nothing to do with tenacity or stubbornness or resolve. One might argue that the inner discipline it takes to endure and produce as an artist is itself a kind of craft knowledge. This class is designed to help cultivate your inner discipline.
Three Personal Essay Drafts: Each of these essay drafts will be workshopped in class, according to a schedule we will devise together. Essay drafts may be anywhere from 8 to 25 pages (no exceptions).
Because we will be workshopping the same essay three times, you are encouraged to begin thinking, from the moment you leave the first day's class, of a subject that is urgent enough for you to sustain working on and re-working (and re-working) over 16 weeks. Think hard about this, and feel free to email me or talk to me after or before class, or come to office hours, to talk about what you want to submit to the first workshop.
NOTE: An essay draft not submitted on time will not be accepted or workshopped and will automatically lower your final grade for the course by one letter grade.
Reading Responses: Typed responses for each of the course's required readings. (See the Calendar for more specifics.)
Peer Responses: 1-2 page typed, responses for each of your peer’s drafts turned in for workshop. 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)
The Treadmill Journal: 10 hours per week. This is a daily journal of your writing schedule and goals. (see handout) Also on e-reserve.
Final Portfolio: 20-25 pages
Some Thoughts on Grading:
Individual essay drafts submitted to workshop will not be graded, as this can be fatal to the creative process. I want you to take risks. Tobias Wolff (author of THIS BOY'S LIFE) calls this "hanging it all on the line":
"The personal essay demands that we jump in with both feet, yelling for all we’re worth. It doesn’t reward authorial discretion, self-effacement, the arts that conceal art. Nor does it reward any of the civic virtues: tact; polish; reasonableness; noble, throatcatching sentiment; correct posture. There are, to be sure, many such writers, and they do very well for themselves, but I have to say they make me see red. I want to reach in and shake them by the jowls until their wisdom and smoothness and certainty crack wide open. All this parading on the high road has nothing to do with the real possibility of the personal essay, which is to catch oneself in the act of being human. That means a willingness to surrender for a time our pose of unshakable rectitude, and to admit that we are, despite our best intentions, subject to all manner of doubt and weakness and foolish wanting. It requires a self-awareness without self-importance, moral rigor without priggishness, and the courage to hang it all on the line. It’s a hard thing to do."
For each draft, I will write a narrative evaluation describing the strengths of your draft, and I will also raise questions for revision, point out places of over-simplification, suggest areas in need of development and possible ways to make the next draft more resonant and satisfying.
While individual drafts are not graded, your portfolio will be graded, and since the portfolio is the culmination of the entire semester's writing work, that grade will be based on how substantially your work has been revised over the course of the semester.
Creative writing is notoriously difficult to evaluate with letter grades, and it can be difficult for students to receive letter grades on their creative writing. For most of the semester we will be using a non-letter grading system: you will simply receive comments reflecting my appreciation and constructive criticism of your writing. When I do give a letter grade for the final portfolio, I will apply criteria for the craft of writing essays that we will be discussing, and developing, at some length, all semester in class.
In joining the class, you are placing trust in my experience as a teacher and writer to evaluate your writing fairly and constructively. One of my goals as a teacher is to justify that trust by explaining clearly my reasons for a particular evaluation and by being available for conferences at any time during--or after--the semester. If at any time, you think it would be helpful to receive a letter grade on a particular draft, we can schedule a conference to discuss a grade and your progress in the class.
10% = Treadmill Journal
Attendance and Participation:
I conduct an active writer-centered classroom. Your attendance and participation is an integral part of this course. Students may miss two classes without penalty. A third absence will lower your final grade a full letter grade. A fourth absence will lower your grade an additional letter grade. I consider five absences grounds for administratively dropping you from the course. Absences can be excused only for documented, serious situations (debilitating illness or urgent family emergency) or for direct conflict with an official event scheduled by a UNM organization (music performance, athletic competition). Illnesses not requiring a doctor's care might cause you to stay home from class, but they don't count as debilitating illness; keep your two "free" absences in reserve for these situations. You should contact me as soon as possible if you must miss class for a legitimate, verifiable excuse, ideally prior to the class you miss, and never later than the following class meeting. 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. Consistent late arrivals disrupt the class. Three late arrivals equals one absence.
Coming to class without the readings assigned for the day's discussion or workshop is not acceptable. If you come to class without the readings or workshop materials more than once, I will deduct a half a letter grade from your final grade. My expectation is that these readings will be full of pencil notes and marginalia--your questions and insights that help you come to class best prepared to learn.
Important Note: No late assignments are accepted.
You have been charged a $20 fee towards photocopying using the department's copiers. Your draft should be given to the department secretary at least 48 hours before you need to distribute work for class.
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 not receive full credit.