ENGLISH 70A and 70B:

INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING
Instructor: Susan Schulter
Phone: (408) 741-2613.
Email: susan_schulter@westvalley.edu

English 70 introduces you to the techniques and processes involved in writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The prerequisite for this course is English 1A, and recommended preparation for 70B is 70 A. Overall aims in this course are as follows:

1. Agree upon thorough, working definitions for the terms fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as develop a vocabulary, criteria, and workshop style appropriate to discussing each of these forms.

2. Learn to know when your own writing is communicating effectively to readers, as well as when others are writing effectively to you.

3. Improve your ability to read your own and others' writing, with an ear for the shape and sound of that writing, for its aesthetic qualities.

4. Learn how to revise your writing effectively.

5. Learn to edit your writing effectively.

6. Produce your own creative essays, stories and poems.

7. Learn how to prepare and submit a manuscript for publication.

COURSE TEXTS

1. Writing Fiction: A Guide To Narrative Craft (Janet Burroway) Fourth Edition

2. The Discovery of Poetry (Frances Mayes) Third Edition.

3. The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers On creative Nonfiction (Robert L. Root Jr.)

The three texts that I have chosen for our course are primarily here to stimulate your writing. Your work is our most important text: without it, our course becomes one in creative reading rather than one in creative writing. You will frequently be asked to post your work in progress on line, and allow your classmates to read and respond to it. This is a form of publication called the workshop approach, and I regard it as the most essential work you can do in this class. We will collectively produce an end-of-semester anthology based upon manuscripts that we have workshopped in class. Additionally, we will each submit one manuscript to either a writing contest, or to a professional publication.

GRADING & COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Ten writing exercises drawn from the Burroway, Root, and Mayes texts, worth 10 points each for a total of 100 points.

2. Participate in the workshop process at least three times during the semester. Each participation activity counts for 25 points, for a total of 75points. There are two ways of participating in the workshop activity. One way is to post a copy of a manuscript upon which you are working and allow your classmates to critique it. The other way is by writing an evaluation comment about someone else’s manuscript. This is the one assignment category in the class in which it is possible to earn extra points. The more frequently you respond to classmates’ work, and the more often you submit your own work, the more points you can potentially earn.

3. Submit three (3) completed and revised five-page manuscripts to me for a letter grade. Ideally, you will have workshopped these manuscripts in class. Each manuscript can earn for you a maximum of 100 points, for a total of 300 points. One of these manuscripts will be due in mid September, one in October, and one in November. (See the course calendar for exact dates). One manuscript must be a sheaf of poems, another must be a short story, and the third must be a work of creative nonfiction such as an interview, article, social commentary piece, or memoir. Should you decide to mix and match these forms, -combine poetry and fiction within the same manuscript- please discuss this with me in an email. I am entirely comfortable with such recombinations, but we ought to chat together about them.

4. A critique of a poetry reading, fiction reading, or other language-oriented live performance. (25 points)

5. A critique of a publication that purports to serve writers. The source can be paper or electronic. (25 points)

6. At least seven postings in which you respond to discussion questions posed by me, your classmates, or the authors of our texts regarding the fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction that we are reading. (70 points)

7. Contribute a manuscript to the class anthology. (30 points). This anthology piece will be due in December.
Maximum number of points possible: 625.
562-625 is an A. 500-561 is a B. 437-499 is a C. 375-436 is a D. 374 and below is an F.