TORDA'S SPRING 2021 TEACHING
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assignments ENGL227 Introduction
​to creative nonfiction workshop: Reader's Notes

Need to be in touch with me? 
LEE TORDA
310 Tillinghast Hall
Bridgewater State University
508.531.2436
ltorda@bridgew.edu
www.leetorda.com
Fall 2016 Office Hours:
M/W 11:30-12:30
T 11:00-12:00
and by appointment.
Need to make an appointment? Click here: https://goo.gl/3CqLfo
Overview. One thing that concerns me about readers/writers new to the genre of nonfiction is that they just don’t get what makes creative nonfiction both creative and nonfiction. This is compounded by a general thinking that, because it’s not fiction, because the writing is based on something that actually happened, writers think they know everything they need to know about how nonfiction is put together. But what this idea ignores is the creative part of creative nonfiction. The only way to understand this genre is to study it the same way you study any other genre of literature—novels, poetry, drama.
 
New writers to the genre (and not so new) need to deconstruct essays they read in terms of characters, plot, pacing, metaphor, imagery, theme—just like a fiction writer—in order to learn their craft, or the stylistic practice of this particular art, as a writer. To do this, we will certainly talk about the essays we read, but we will do more than that. We will study them deeply. That is the function of Reader’s Notes in this class.
 
Details. Every class, you will be responsible for roughly one single-spaced page, typed, of reading notes. If you really need to write more than one page, OK, but don’t just write more than one page because you think it will impress me. Brevity impresses me just as much, and then I still have time to clean my bathroom. I like a clean bathroom. A lot.
 
In general, I will ask you to do three things: 1) to identify the significant themes of the reading; 2) to identify the ways the writer gets you the reader to understand those themes; 3) what that tells you about what makes this genre work.  The part about identifying themes shouldn’t present you with too much trouble since this is the standard work of the English major. The second part might seem more challenging—and will be, particularly at the beginning of the semester—because you might not have thought that much about how a nonfiction writer makes you understand his or her point before this. The third part will be wide-ranging and always changing. Your obligation in this assignment is not to be right  it is to be thoughtful. That is all that I am asking.
 
Be aware that, besides me, at least some of your classmates will read most if not all of your reading journals. They will be active documents in our class--getting written on by you and by others. These pages are informal in that I will not be looking at them mainly for punctuation, style, or grammar. I am looking for an articulation of ideas--of yours and the authors.
 

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  • Home
  • ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio
    • ENGL 489 AUTHOR BIOS
    • ENGL 489 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 489 SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE
    • ENGL 489 PORTFOLIOS
    • ENGL 489 WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 ICRN (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 RETHINK/REVISE (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 Interview with An Author (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (ASSIGNMENTS)
  • ENGL 301 Writing & Teaching
    • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATES
    • ENGL301 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL301 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS DAY
    • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
    • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment) >
      • ENGL 301 LT WRITING AND STUFF
    • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment)
  • ENGL344 YA LIT
    • ENGL 344 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL344 CLASS UPDATE
    • ENGL 344 SPRING 2021 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL344 YA LIT SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE IN ENGL101
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment: Flash Memoir YA Edit
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment PECHA KUCHA
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL101 Writing Rhetorically >
      • 101 SYLLABUS
      • BOOK CLUB >
        • How to do virtual BOOK CLUB
        • BOOK CLUB OPTIONS
      • PARTNER INTERVIEW MINI-PAPER
      • 101READER'S NOTES
      • THE BIG DEAL: Archival Ethnography of Bridgewater State
      • THE BIG TALK: Alumni Interview Project
      • THE BIG IDEA: WE ARE BRIDGEWATER: FINAL PROJECT & PRESENTATION
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • 226 Writing & Writing Studies
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY >
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage