ENGLISH 442/542:
ADVANCED NONFICTION WRITING fall
2009
Instructor: Richard Terrill
Phone: 5500
Office: AH 212C
Hours: T 2-3, W 1-3, Th 11-12 and by appt.
Email: richard.terrill@mnsu.edu
COURSE OBJECTIVE
To become acquainted with the variety of writing that can be called
creative nonfiction, and to practice the craft of writing and revising in the
genre.
PREREQUISITE
To enroll, undergraduate students must have successfully completed English
342: Nonfiction Writing or English 340: Form and Technique in Prose, or have the
consent of the instructor based on a nonfiction writing sample.
I’ll be running the class much as I do the graduate workshop.
If you’re not willing to do more work than in a typical undergrad MSU
creative writing course, I suggest you choose another offering.
TEXTS
Short Takes.
Judith Kitchen
A few essays to be available on line or in the box on my door for you to
photocopy.
CREATIVE NONFICTION: Some
definitions
According to the Associated Writing Programs, creative nonfiction is
"factual and literary writing that has the narrative, dramatic, meditative, and
lyrical elements of novels, plays, poetry, and memoirs."
Lee Gutkind (editor of
Creative Nonfiction) "believes the
best creative nonfiction is focused, conveys the larger meaning behind personal
experience, and has an informational quality or element of reportage," according
to Poets and Writers magazine.
CREATIVE NONFICTION: My description
Creative nonfiction is writing that combines the narrative techniques of
the fiction writer, the reportage of the journalist, and possibly the concern
for language of the poet. That is to
say, the writing offers some kind of
information, but its organization is primarily narrative rather than
expository; it is more concerned with telling a story than advancing an
argument. On the other hand, by its
tone and strategy it differentiates itself from fiction that just happens to be
true. Since the form is essentially
an essay, the writer will often comment
on the narrative in a way a fiction writer usually won't.
The writing will contain ideas that are usually stated and not just
implied.
By its style and structure, creative non-fiction identifies itself as work
that is intended to last, to be art; rather than to be topical or informative
only.
By creative nonfiction I mean profile (of a person), travel writing,
nature writing, some environmental, historical, or biographical writing, most
personal narrative, and some other kinds of writing about a person, a culture, a
place, or a thing. Creative
nonfiction often, but not always, uses the first person "I."
But it distinguishes itself from writing in a journal or a diary in that
it intends an audience, and usually is at least as much about "the world" as it
is about "the self." On at least one
level, it's about a culture, a place, a thing, or a person other than the
writer.
On the other hand, it's also safe to say that creative nonfiction can be
"about" almost anything. For
instance, surgeons, astronauts, El Salvador, your home town, a trip to the place
in which Anton Dvorak spent a summer in Iowa, coal miners in England, a plot of
woods in the suburbs, your family farm, people's feelings about work, American
pop culture in Asia, train travel, your mother, your grandfather.
By creative nonfiction I mean the nonfiction work of such writers as John
McPhee, Joan Didion, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Tracy Kidder, Al Young, Maxine
Hong Kingston, Ian Frazier, George Orwell, and a host of younger writers
CLASS REQUIREMENTS
To earn an "A" or "B" you should do all of the following:
1.
Turn in,
without missing any of your deadlines, at least 6000 words (undergrad) 9000
words (grad) of creative nonfiction (around 25/35 pages).
You shouldn't include material you've written or are writing for another
class unless there has been substantial revision (this material to be given less
than full credit toward the page count, depending on the degree of revision).
Submitting a piece
suggests that you've taken it as far as
you can on your own. No first drafts
please. It's also best if
you include the beginning, middle, and the ending of an article/essay/chapter
you’re submitting. (three of the four short assignments need not include a
polished ending, but do the best you can).
2.
We will
write four short assignments (minimum 2 pages, no maximum), and then two longer
essays (minimum 6 pages (undergrad),
10 pages (grad), no maximum). On or
before our exam period, December 8 at 10:15 a.m., you’ll turn revisions of some of your writing for a grade, totaling at
least 10 pages (ug)/15(g) pages.
This revision does not count toward the
required page count.
3.
Turn in to its author a helpful and
thorough critique of each piece that comes before the workshop on the day that
we discuss that piece. Critiques
should be completed before class begins.
These critiques, along with class participation, make up 49% of the basis
of your final grade (the rest of the grade being based on your writing)
4.
Turn in an
"Evaluation of Critiques" form for each of your workshop submissions
(due two weeks after your work is discussed).
5.
Don't miss
class. If you miss more than a week
of class for any reason, can you expect to earn an “A”?
If you miss more than two weeks, can you expect to pass?
6.
Participate
regularly in class discussion.
7. Complete all reading
assignments.
If you don't meet all of the above requirements, the appropriate grade is
"B" or lower. I will differentiate
between and "A" and a "B" based on the above criteria and the quality of your
writing. I won’t grade individual
submissions, but I will give you a mid term grade, and will let you know if
you’re not working up to the expectations of the class.
WRITERS: At the top of
each piece you're turning in to the workshop let us know: 1) if this is an essay
or article meant to be part of something larger, like a chapter in a book, or if
it’s a stand alone piece; 2) if you intend the piece for some specialized
audience (the assumption otherwise
is that you’re writing for a "general educated audience," the kind that might
read a literary journal); and 3) the word count.
Make sure your two
longer essays and your Brevity submission have a
beginning and an
ending.
Remember that our expectation is
that you’ve taken each submission as far as you can on your own before showing
it to the group.
Writers, of course, are
not allowed to speak during the group's critique unless a misprint or error is
causing problems, or they feel the group is beating a dead horse.
READERS:
You owe the writer a complete and thorough critique based on an
intelligent reading. Workshops ask
for your opinion, but it’s most helpful if your opinion is informed by close
reading of the text and by other creative nonfiction you’ve read.
We’re not in the
business of personal attacks (or glowing praise of the writer rather than the
writing), neither are you doing anyone a favor by saying simply "Thanks for
sharing" or "Gee, I liked/hated all of it."
You shouldn’t read a
colleague’s work looking for things to
change. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Instead, try to determine what this
writer is trying to do, and think of ways you can help
this writer write this piece
better. Not having done this, your opinion is of limited value.
SYLLABUS
8/27 Read Hurd 196, McPhee 347, Moore 283, and Kuusisto 28. At least one piece of writing you turn in this term (exercise #1 or another) must involve research such as the first three of these writers have done.
9/1 Read, Read Perillo 21, Ely 147 and Pancake 219.
9/3 Bring to class multiple copies of Assignment #1: a piece of creative nonfiction in which you share information with the reader, or call on an experience you’ve had that the reader has not (2 pages minimum, no maximum). Use the class readings as models, or go off in another direction. Read the introductory essay by Lopate (emailed to you and available in the box outside my door), as well as Klinkenborg 112, and “The Art of Reflection in Creative Nonfiction.”: www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Robert_Root/Reflection.htm.
9/8 Workshop Assignment #1.
9/10 Read Blew 44, Hiestand 254. and McClanahan 35.
9/15 Bring to class multiple copies of Assignment #2: a nonfiction piece in which you as the narrator reflect or comment on the narrative or on the information you’re presenting (2 pages minimum, no maximum). Read Brevity: Issue 30 May 2009. You can skip the craft essays and reviews. http://www.creativenonfiction.org/brevity.
9/18 Workshop Asssignment #2.
9/22
Bring to class multiple copies of Assignment #3: a 750 word Brevity
essay. Read Mackall 71, Dunn 137,
Zimmer 139, Balakian 264, Miner 307.
Read “This is What the Spaces Say” by Robert Root (email handout).
9/24 Workshop Assignment #3, Brevity.
9/29 Workshop Assignment #3, Brevity.
10/1 Read examples of oral history (hand out)
10/6 Read profiles (hand out)
10/8 Read Terrill “Neighbors” (english.colum.edu/southloop/archive/vol10/vol10.html and handouts. These are examples of what I call “Writing in Time Present.” One of your two longer essays should be based on some activity that you’ve taken up or subject you’ve investigated with the idea of writing about it, thus not memoir.
10/13 Bring to class Assignment #4: an oral history or profile.
10/15 Workshop Assignment #4.
10/20 workshop Assignment #4.
10/22 Read Roberts 107, Galvin 110, Bell 333, Wisenberg 337: further examples of fragmentation. The last two also incorporate material generated by research.
10/27-11/10 Workshop your first long essay. Minimum: 7 pages (ug), 10 pages (g). Please email me a copy of your finished essay a week before your workshop deadline .
11/12-12/1 Workshop your second longer essay. Minimum: 7 pages (ug), 10 pages (g). Please email me a copy of your finished essay a week before your workshop deadline .
12/3 class evaluations. Optional individual conferences on your revisions.
12/8 10:15 am.
portfolio due.
At least 10(ug)/15(g) pages—not
toward word count.