assignments ENGL227 Introduction
to creative nonfiction workshop: Reader's Notes
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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.
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.