Final project: Creative Nonfiction
1500 words minimum; 3000 words maximum
Double spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font
Any research sources cited, use MLA or APA format
Using techniques of storytelling, description, and meditation/reflection, one of the following:
1. Your own autobiography/memoir focusing on people, places, things, adventures, tragedies, comedies, philosophies, visions, and anything else you find rich and interesting and maybe even intense and dramatic and scary in your life experience. Our in-class writing will help provide raw material for you to shape into this piece. In this project, you also can include related photographs, segments of poetry or lyric prose, audio or video accompaniments, drawings, maps, diagrams, and any number of other relevant and interesting objects that come from your life archive.
2. Or your own exploration of something you really love, something that has been an obsession, a main interest, a fascination, so that you will absolutely love and get into writing about it and this project will be a pleasure to create. Again, we will write some in-class material for this; and again, other media/materials can be included with your text. This one can also pull in material from research. For example, right now I'm obsessed with fountains (don't ask me why, but maybe writing will help me to find out) and via internet and talking to people and so on, I have discovered all sorts of great material that I can write about.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Secret Histories: Creative Nonfiction: The Outsider
Secret Histories: The Outsider
We're defining the "outsider" as any person viewed as outside the group, the norm, the "right" people, and so on. This may be someone from childhood days, someone in your family, some neighbor or fellow worker or fellow student--anybody who was marked as "different" or "not right" or "not normal" or "odd" or "strange"(Yes, it also can be a self-portrait of you in an outsider phase).
In-class writing:
Write a nonfiction (true, real-life) story about an outsider in your life.
1. 15 minutes: the person's house, car, bike, any and all objects/things that he/she uses.
2. 15 minutes: the person's behavior, things he/she typically does.
3. 10 minutes: what the person looks like--clothes, appearance, etc.
4. 15 minutes: what happened one particular time with the person--a little anecdote or story.
We're defining the "outsider" as any person viewed as outside the group, the norm, the "right" people, and so on. This may be someone from childhood days, someone in your family, some neighbor or fellow worker or fellow student--anybody who was marked as "different" or "not right" or "not normal" or "odd" or "strange"(Yes, it also can be a self-portrait of you in an outsider phase).
In-class writing:
Write a nonfiction (true, real-life) story about an outsider in your life.
1. 15 minutes: the person's house, car, bike, any and all objects/things that he/she uses.
2. 15 minutes: the person's behavior, things he/she typically does.
3. 10 minutes: what the person looks like--clothes, appearance, etc.
4. 15 minutes: what happened one particular time with the person--a little anecdote or story.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Midterm due 3/20, 11:59 P.M.; send in a word.doc file to gmajer@stevenson.edu
Midterm Assignment due 3/23/14, 11:59 P.M; send in a word.doc file to gmajer@stevenson.edu
1. Revised version of Creature poem.
2. Finished version of story, minimum 1500 words.
SECOND PHASE
Expand the story to 1500 words minimum, including the following:
1. Rising story arc from opening conflict/dramatic question through 3-5 stages and then reaching
2. story crisis/climax where conflict/dramatic question reaches high point and is resolved
3. concluding with 1-2 paragraphs of story resolution where the protagonist recognizes the changed situation (in relation to opening point of conflict/dramatic question).
EXAMPLE:
OPENING CONFLICT/DRAMATIC QUESTION (About .5-1 page long; you set up characters and setting and ground situation.)
The high-school guy must deal with 3 enemies/friends in order to save his younger sister from a bad crowd she's fallen in with. Dramatic question: will the brother succeed or fail in the quest?
RISING ACTION (About 1 page each for 1 and 2; about 1.5 page for 3)
What happened with enemy 1.
What happened with enemy 2.
What happened with friend/enemy 3, the toughest because he/she was both.
STORY CRISIS/CLIMAX (About 1 page; this can use suspense--don't settle the conflict too fast. Give this part maximum sensory and motion/action detail with a sense of the ambient setting. You also can use reversals--one side almost wins, but then the other comes back stronger, and they go back and forth a couple of times before the decisive turn.)
The brother succeeds or fails in saving his younger sister.
STORY RECOGNITION/REALIZATION (About .5 page; short and sweet)
The brother recognizes that he has won and saved his sister, but he also has lost a friendship in the process.
1. Revised version of Creature poem.
2. Finished version of story, minimum 1500 words.
SECOND PHASE
Expand the story to 1500 words minimum, including the following:
1. Rising story arc from opening conflict/dramatic question through 3-5 stages and then reaching
2. story crisis/climax where conflict/dramatic question reaches high point and is resolved
3. concluding with 1-2 paragraphs of story resolution where the protagonist recognizes the changed situation (in relation to opening point of conflict/dramatic question).
EXAMPLE:
OPENING CONFLICT/DRAMATIC QUESTION (About .5-1 page long; you set up characters and setting and ground situation.)
The high-school guy must deal with 3 enemies/friends in order to save his younger sister from a bad crowd she's fallen in with. Dramatic question: will the brother succeed or fail in the quest?
RISING ACTION (About 1 page each for 1 and 2; about 1.5 page for 3)
What happened with enemy 1.
What happened with enemy 2.
What happened with friend/enemy 3, the toughest because he/she was both.
STORY CRISIS/CLIMAX (About 1 page; this can use suspense--don't settle the conflict too fast. Give this part maximum sensory and motion/action detail with a sense of the ambient setting. You also can use reversals--one side almost wins, but then the other comes back stronger, and they go back and forth a couple of times before the decisive turn.)
The brother succeeds or fails in saving his younger sister.
STORY RECOGNITION/REALIZATION (About .5 page; short and sweet)
The brother recognizes that he has won and saved his sister, but he also has lost a friendship in the process.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Grading Rubric for Midterm assignments
English 224 Rubric for Creative Writing Assignments
Skill
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A
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B
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C
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D
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F
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Solving a creative-writing problem using creative and critical thinking .
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Inventive and insightful handling of assignment stipulations and constraints.
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Intelligent and resourceful handling of assignment stipulations and constraints.
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Assignment stipulations and constraints are used to articulate the creative text but handling is lacking in rigor of creative design and concept.
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Assignment stipulations and constraints are only partially addressed or are unevenly developed.
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Assignment stipulations and constraints are not addressed or are addressed inaccurately.
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Effective use of resources of literary voice and rhetoric.
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Inventive use of technical elements such as imagery, voice, character, and structure in a way that is integral to the creative text’s design and meaning.
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Intelligent and resourceful deployment of technical elements such as imagery, voice, character, and structure in a way that clearly supports and articulates the creative text’s design and meaning.
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Technical elements are deployed but their fit with overall design and meaning is unclear or unevenly developed.
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Technical elements are deployed only partially and sometimes inaccurately; overall design and meaning are unclear.
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Technical elements are inaccurately or incorrectly used; a sense of overall design and meaning is lacking.
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Sentence Structures and Prose Rhythm
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Wide variety of sentence structures; dynamic range.
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Some variety of sentence structure; some dynamic range.
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Fairly utilitarian sentence structures; occasional variety and range; SS errors are usually present.
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Little control of sentence structures; SS errors are considerable.
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No control of sentence structure; SS errors are pervasive.
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Diction
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Shows great sensitivity to connotation, tone, linguistic registers; deft, precise vocabulary.
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Shows some sensitivity to connotation, tone,
linguistic registers; effective vocabulary.
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Shows occasional sensitivity to connotation, tone, linguistic registers; serviceable vocabulary.
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Shows little sensitivity to connotation, tone, linguistic registers; errors in word choice or register are considerable.
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Shows little sensitivity to connotation, tone, linguistic registers; errors in word choice or register are pervasive.
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Grammar, Mechanics, and Format
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Few grammatical errors (perhaps 1 total).
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Some grammatical errors (perhaps 1/page)
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Numerous grammatical errors (perhaps 2-3 /page). Writing distracts from content.
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Numerous grammatical errors (perhaps 4/page); writing style seriously impedes meaning.
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A great many grammatical errors undermine piece’s readability.
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