CRN 91293

 

Required Text:

Root, Jr., Robert L. and Michael Steinberg, eds.  The Fourth Genre:  Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction.  4th ed.  New York:  Longman, 2005.

 

Catalog Description:

WR 316 - Advanced Prose Writing Credits: 4.00

 

Course Description: 

Advanced Prose Writing will provide instruction and practice in several forms of creative nonfiction in formal essay assignments, exercises, and book projects.  The course strives to foster an awareness of the writer's true subjects as well as writing style including voice, stance, and tone appropriate to both the subject matter and the target audience.  It also strives to foster the practice, craft, and application of figurative language and careful craft of sentence and paragraph structure, the interchange between abstraction, concretion, and imagery.

Please come into the course intending to do a prolific amount of reading, thinking, discussing, writing, and revising.  Good writers read other writers’ work.  This course's main focus is developing the creative prose writers so that they may continue their exploration of craft and feel confident in guiding others as they explore written creative expression.  

You will be sharing your work for critical review not only with me, but also with your peers in the class via weekly workshops.  All good writers live in glass houses, so expect comments from classmates and the instructor that are meant to be helpful but also critical, in the best sense of the term.  The class is designed to offer you critical feedback with the premise that the work you turn in for review is work in progress.  Criticism and revision are key components of the course.  At the end of the term, you are expected to turn in four essays that have undergone peer review and that you have revised accordingly.  If you are not satisfied with your peer review, it’s up to you to see the instructor for further comment.

Advanced Prose Writing is a third step in the creative prose writing sequence for Writing Majors and other potentially serious, inquisitive writers.  The course continues the study of a variety of forms in contemporary creative nonfiction.  Students should expect to do a considerable amount of reading, thinking, discussing, and writing.  Especially writing.  Typically, we will spend our class time either discussing our reading assignments or workshopping one another’s essays.  Keep in mind that you will be sharing your work for critical review not only with me and with your peers in class, but also with an audience outside of class.  Thus, you will come to realize that creative nonfiction, like music, drama, and fine arts, is ultimately a public matter.  You are required to prepare a manuscript for submission Oregon East.

 

Course Objectives and Requirements:

The course objectives in WR 316 are similar to those of the English/Writing Program.  Students in WR 316 will engage “in sophisticated analysis; clear, confident, and original writing; and [achieve a level of] tolerance for diversity, complexity, and ambiguity.”  Our specific goal is to expand your acquaintance with contemporary creative nonfiction and its aesthetic values, while at the same time giving you continued opportunities to explore your own writing in a contemporary idiom, with special attention to fluency, form, correctness, rhetorical effect, concreteness of memory, setting, theme, dialogue, exposition, tension, complexity, and voice.  It is assumed you know how to find subjects to write about (although our readings will be suggestive and you should keep a Writing Journal or Notebook) and that you know how to conduct yourself in a writing workshop:

 

Advanced Prose Workshop Outcomes

Students should be able to

By the end of the course, students will have read a good deal of creative nonfiction by established authors, as well as by their peers, and will have drafted and revised four essays of at least 1500 words each.  Finally, our objectives are all focused on raising your level of awareness of and sophistication in regard to reading and writing contemporary creative nonfiction.

 

Advanced Prose Assignments

The requirements for WR 316 include reading assignments and discussion, and some in-class exercises; attendance and participation; class preparation; attending an Ars Poetica reading and, if possible, a workshop with Christopher Buckley (10:00—12:00 pm, Wednesday, 4/19); a 500-word review Ars Poetica reading (Tuesday, 8:00 pm, 4/18); a 500-word review Ars Poetica workshop, if possible; portfolio of four essays (at least 1500 words each) of professionally revised and edited creative nonfiction; and a submission prepared for Oregon East.

 

The day of the final you will submit a portfolio containing your 6000 words of creative nonfiction—a writing autobiography and a three piece suit(e); the piece you may submit to Oregon East next Fall, with a cover letter; a 1,000-word review of a creative nonfiction collection (a review of Christopher Buckley’s Sleepwalk is recommended). The creative nonfiction in the portfolio will be worth 100 points (25 points for each effective revision of each of the four pieces); the submission sample 50 points; and the book review 50 points.  Coming to class prepared each day is worth 5 points per class; the drafts for workshopping are worth 25 points each.  In addition to these assignments, are the reviews of the Ars Poetica Reading and Workshop.

The work you turn in for your original creative nonfiction must be work composed and completed in WR 316 this quarter.  Prose from other classes or other venues will not be considered for evaluation.

 

Means of Assessment

Points for each separate requirement will be averaged together and that average will be the final grade.  Averages will not be rounded off, so an 89.9, for example, is a “B,” not an “A.”  I will not be awarding pluses (“+”) and minuses (“-“), no “B+,” “C-,” etc.:

Grading Scale for 100-point assignments and for the Final Course Grade:

100-90 = A

89-80 = B

79-70 = C

69-60 = D

59-0 = F

Grading Scale for 50-point assignments:

50-45 = A

44-40 = B

39-35 = C

34-30 = D

29-0 = F

Workshop writing is due in the first five minutes of class; assignments may not be turned in before class and writers must bring enough copies for the class; we will do half the class one day and half the other, during the workshop weeks. At the end of the quarter, all grades will be totaled and then averaged and that average will be the course grade.  If you are consistently scoring below your expectations, consult with me and arrange for a tutor at The Writing Lab.

Fine print:  Assigned work can be made up if you or your children are very sick, and IF you have my permission to hand in your work late.   Athletes must make arrangements with me to get their work in on time prior to travel to their sports events.   Almost no other excuses are accepted.   Be careful:  In the past students with D and F averages for coursework--due mostly from not turning it in or missing class--tried raising their grades by acing the rest of their assignments.  That didn’t work very well.  This course rewards consistency of effort.  One danger in this course is to not take attendance, the in-class exercises, class participation, seriously.  Keep in mind too many 0’s affects your grade dramatically.

It would be wise to review carefully and print out this syllabus and the course assignments and keep them handy. 

 

Writing 316 Syllabus

 

Be sure to review assignments at:

http://www.eou.edu/~dwolff/WR316Assignments.html

 

Addenda

Disclaimer: 

Class schedule, syllabus, and assignments may be altered during the course of the term as needed.

Statement on Academic Misconduct:

Eastern Oregon University places a high value upon the integrity of its student scholars.  Any student found guilty of an act of academic misconduct (including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, or theft of an examination or supplies) may be subject to having his or her grade reduced in the course in question, being placed on probation or suspended from the university, or being expelled from the university—or a combination of these.  (Please see the Students’ Academic Honesty Code at http://www.eou.edu/saffairs/handbook/honest.html

Accommodations for Disabilities:

If you have a documented disability or suspect that you have a learning problem and need reasonable accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Program in Loso Hall 234.  Telephone:  962-3081.

 

Final Comments: