Grades + picking up writing journals

I sent grades to your email accounts and if I don't hear from you by Monday - to correct my math or contest my assessment - I will post your final grades to Keanwise on December 22. I have placed your writing journals in my mailbox in CAS 301E. That room is generally unlocked so you should be able to pick up your work any time the building is open.

As a class, you were truly outstanding, and I am expecting that a significant number of you will have some luck with publishing one or more of your essays. If you are accepted => let me know! Even if you are not going for the "published essay = A grade option" and even if your publication is much later, I'd like to keep up with your writing and see how you are doing.

Working with you this term was a great pleasure. I looked forward to our class, and I came away from our classes and conferences with much to think about. Thank you for letting me be an incident along the way in your writing life. I wish you each the best, and keep in touch! I will answer every email you send me.

Last class and turning in portfolios

In class on Wednesday you wrote some reflections on the course. To those of you who answered all those questions and sent them to me - thank you for your feedback. I have lots to think about and you gave me some sound ideas for "tweaking" the presentation of this course. Really though, I think what made this course so successful was in a large part due to the openness and interest you brought into the room. I will always remember this course as a remarkable experience - I wept over your papers, came close to tears in our conferences - and was awed by how well you used your writing to move through the material that prompted all those emotions in me. Thank you. And who knows - maybe I will write an essay about it!

Turning in your work
I will be reading through the last blogs this weekend and on Monday I will be in my office from 9:30 - 3:30 to work with you to burn your portfolio CDs or anything else you want to work on. Unless you have made a different arrangement with me, your portfolio is due by 3:30 on Monday.

Grades
The points for writing were listed on the syllabus as:
Writing projects
Drafts + revised personal essay = 150 points
Drafts + revised essay on place/object or person = 150 points
Drafts for reflective essay on writing = 100 points
Portfolio (includes finished writing for two essays + reflective piece)=200 points

As you know, you did not write the reflective essay, so I am revising the scoring as follows:
Drafts + revised personal essay = 150 points
Drafts + revised essay on place/object or person = 150 points
Final revised essay + publication venue selection = 150 points
Portfolio (overall assessment of presentation of materials, quality of writing, completeness + organization for portfolio contents)= 150 points

The process for giving credit for the blog and participation will remain the same.

As soon as I finish looking through your portfolios, I will send you a grade sheet. Anyone whose CD was blank or who was missing a major assignment will then have the opportunity to re-submit. I will submit your grades (as listed on the gradesheets) on Keanwise 48-hours after I send you the grade sheets. That way, if I hear from individuals with missing material - or if I added something up wrong or left something out - I can re-calculate the grade before submitting it on Keanwise. After grades are submitted on Keanwise - that's the grade you get unless you choose to appeal.

You did some wonderful writing this term, and I am looking forward to reading your final revisions.

Wednesday, December 10

Reflective prompts

1. What are your plans as a writer (how do you expect to use writing in your future)?


2. Describe any changes in your writing style


3. Describe any changes in your writing process


4. Describe any changes in your attitude toward/interest in/understanding of writing in general, and CNF in particular.



5. What have you learned about yourself as a writer?


6. What features of your writing do you feel are most important for you to work on?

Monday, December 8

You finished your presentations and we went over the protocol for turning in your portfolio. I passed around a CD for the template; this template will be available on Wednesday for anyone who needs it. You spent the rest of the class working on the essay of your choice.

I am still working on reading your essays and writing back to you with feedback for your presentations. I hope to have everything finished before class on Wednesday.

In class Wednesday, I will return your revised essay 3/4 and you will do some reflective writing on the course. After you receive the graded copy for Essay 3/4, you will have all the work you need to finish your portfolio.

All that is scheduled for class Monday is for you to turn in your portfolio. You may turn in your portfolio any time before Monday by leaving the CD in my mailbox (in CAS 301E).

I will send your grades for the portfolio, its contents and the course by email. Check your email on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to make sure I received your work and everything was included (sometimes the CD was blank or broken, and you may need to re-submit your work). If you don't hear from my by Wednesday - everything on your CD was OK and you will be receiving your grade by the end of the week.

If you have any questions/concerns - be in touch.

Wednesday, December 3

You gave your presentations on publication venues today. Those of you who did not get to present today will go through your talks on Monday. Thanks for your good work. It looks to me like you have done an excellent job of finding the right place for your work. All of you who gave your presentations should have a grade with some short comments in your email.

On Monday, after we finish up the presentations, we will have an open workshop. You can work on your putting your portfolio together (I will give a brief demonstration) of what it will look like on a CD) or you can finish up your revisions to Essay 3/4, which will be due at the end of the class.

I forgot to pass around the sign up sheet for conferences on Essay 4/ revising for Essay 3/4 (sorry). I have talked to many of you in class already but if you did not get a chance to talk - and you want to - there should be some time for some quick conferencing in class. ALso I will be in my office from 11:30 until 2 - so you can drop by (Angel is stopping by at 11:30). For those of you who would like to conference on revising your final essay -REMIND ME TO PASS AROUND A SIGN UP SHEET.

The Blog is to post your revised essay; you can post Monday after class rather than before - since the essay won't be due until class is over. Also - you are not required to do the "reflective essay" post - since we cancelled that.

Have a good weekend.

Monday, December 1

You worked on your presentations on publication venues. We reviewed the assignment sheet and outlined what you would need to include in your presentation.

Name of the publication venue (link to web site / address etc)

Bullet-point brief overview of the features of the publication venue to include:
- audience
- purpose
- subject matter
- political / cultural orientation
- patterns in style, voice, form, modes of writing for the pieces they publish

You also need to provide an overview of the publishing requirements including:
- submission dates
- length
- manuscript form
Although it is not on the assignment sheet - you might also mention whether or not the publication is open to "emerging" writers.

In your discussion you should: show your classmates the publications site, describe several essays representative of the kinds of work this journal accepts, point out how your essay is similar and different and discuss why you think it fits with this venue.

At this point you can open the discussion up to questions - so that your classmates can consider whether or not they might want to send their work to this journal. We will get through as many presentations as we can; there may be some spill-over to Monday.


We will discuss "Zion" and "Writing Zion" next Wednesday, when we take up reflective writing.

Monday, November 24

Today's discussion was about revising and writing about writing. Even if revising is not part of your composing process - as you begin to send your work out to different publication venues, it becomes increasingly important to have an effective process for revisions. Sometimes the first venue you submit to may not accept your work - and you will need to re-cast your essay so that it is a better fit for a different venue. Or you might get a new idea - that opens up your essay and makes it a more resonant, more compelling work. The suggestions in Thiel are a wonderful place to start - but the real discoveries you make about revising will be through your own experimentation with re-thinking, re-arranging and re-constituting your work.

The reading/blog assignment for Monday should take you deeper into the contemplation of your revising process.

Read: Stanton, “Zion,” and “On Writing ‘Zion’,”
I will distribute Stanton's essays via email by this evening (11/25).
Blog 20: How did your relationship to your material affect your composing process? Describe / compare the composing processes you used as you revised one of your essays.

On Monday you will have an open workshop to work on your presentation. I will also be available for conferences on the essay of your choice.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 19

Today we worked on creating a list of links (now posted here) for publication venues.
You spent the rest of class working on either your presentations or on your draft for essay 4.

For Monday:
Read: Thiel, "Creating Scenes: A Revision Narrative," 88-94. (reading the Atwood piece is now optional).

Blog 19: Post draft essay 4 (if nothing will get you in trouble with the law)
Send completed draft Essay 4 as an attachment. ENG3017@gmail.com

In class on Monday we will discuss revising + writing about writing.

Monday, November 17

At the beginning of class you did some writing about your draft for essay 3. you identified your story, your concept and the vehicle for telling your story (description of a person/place/object etc). You then wrote a little about what you think you need to work on, and how you plan to go about revising (working on whatever you need to work on). After class - take a look at your essay and mark it up - do some thinking about how/what you want to revise - and bring your notes/a marked up copy to your conference. I passed around the sign-up sheet for confernces - if you don't have a time - or if you need to change your time, send me an email.

We also talked about what to include in your portfolio (handout posted on this site).

The rest of class was devoted to work on essay 4. Some of you brainstormed your ideas with the class, and you spent the rest of class providing feedback to one another's blogs.

For Wednesday:
Do some writing on Essay 4 and come to class with questions/requests for help so you are ready to do the rest of your writing over the weekend (Draft Essay 4 due on Monday, Nov. 24).

Blog 18: Reflections on comments from classmates regarding Essay 4= more writing for Essay 4.

Also, in class we will do some more talking about publication venues. Come to class with at least one possibile venue for the essay you hope to send out. We will spend some group time getting started on the publication venue project (to make sure you know what you are looking for) and the rest of class will be devoted to work on essay 4.

Groups for Publication Venue Assignment:

Jose, Angela, Nicole, Liz, Tim

Meghan, Angel, Lauren, Sue, Shannon, Camille

Edgar, Diana, Jennifer, Matt, Dan Jenna

Wednesday, November 12

Today you did some journal writing to help with finding a focus/concept - and we looked at the requirements for the publication venue assignment (now posted on the site). You are going to work in your blog-commenting groups. Each member of the group needs to give a presentation on a DIFFERENT venue,but you will have each other as resources for ideas and support.

We spent the remaining time in class conferencing + working on your drafts for essay 3 + following up on any questions about feedback on the final for Essay 1/2.

For class Monday, finish Draft 3 + post your idea writing/messy draft for Essay 4 on your blog. For the Essay 4 post - make sure to include particular requests for feedback or help. Send your Draft 3 to the ENG3017 address as an attachment. In class you will brainstorm with one another for essay 4 and set up conferences with me to talk over the Essay 3 drafts (just like we did for Essay 1 & 2).

In class Monday we will also take a look at the portolio requirements (the portfolio chec)so you can get started on collecting/reflecting on your work (if you are they type who likes to get things done ahead of time).

Good class today and have a great weekend.

Monday, November 10

You did some descriptive writing to use place as part of story-telling - and we looked at how John McPhee did the same. His piece uses description that moves back and forth from the game of Monopoly to Atlantic City - the place that the game is was based on - to develop a complex discussion of economics (how strategies of play/development -quick-kill vs games that go on for days - connect to outcomes )and the place of the middle class. We got most of the way through this discussion - but as usual I didn't leave quite enough time.

We took a look at the new calendar (posted) and will go over the revised requirements for the portfolo (also posted) in class on Monday, Nov 17.

For Wednesday: work on your Draft for Essay 3 (no blog assignment!)

In class on Wednesday you can work on either Essay 3 or brainstorm a topic for Essay 4. Also, I will go over the requirements for the presentation on finding publication venues for your work.

The due date for Essay 3 is now Monday, Nov 17.

Wednesday, November 5

Today you checked out what your classmates are writing about and did some thinking about how you are going to turn your ideas into an essay. You all sound like you are writing into some good ideas - and I am looking forward to another set of exciting drafts.

For Monday:
Finish Draft 3 => date extended, now due Nov 12.

Blog 15: list some places that have been important in your life - if possible - go to one of them and write in your writing journal about what you see => use this writing to create a blog entry. [For those of you who cannot go to a place from your past - you may use the alternatives discussed in class.]

Read: McPhee “The Search for Marvin Gardens” (check your email)

In class we will take a close look at how John McPhee develops his discussion of playing Monopoly and Atlantic City as a way to make his point. As you read - watch how he develops his concept.

Great class today and I will see you on Monday.

Monday, Novermber 3

We spent a great amount of time and attention on description as story telling.

For class Wednesday:

Blog 14: post what ever writing you have so far for your essay. You might write into an idea/focus and then brainstorm the objects/places/personal descriptions you would use to develop that focus; or you might go the other way and write a series of descriptions of related objects, or the same object at different points in time (etc) and then do some brainstorming about what focus works for that writing. In any case - your post should pose but a focus for your essay - and the "vehicle" for your story (the objects, places, persons you will describe to develop/explore your focus).

In class on Wednesday we will take a minute to see where you are in gathering the materials for your portfolio, and you will spend the rest of the class working on Essay 3.

Wednesday, October 29

In class today we did some brainstorming/catch up with your writing journal for Essay 3/4. You talked about the writing you did for Blog 11 where you looked into a closer, into a drawer, etc; you made a list of objects with dates to see if the series of objects you were connected to worked together to make a story, and you write a detailed, representational description of a photograph. These exercises were both to help you get started on descriptive writing about objects - and to give you practice seeing stories/ideas in things (as opposed to in your experiences).

The essays you have been reading - Stanton, Kincaid, Cofer + Lott use "things" to provide a ground for the ideas they develop. This is the heart of your second set of essays => to develop an exploration of a concept through writing about an object, place or person (yes, I realize it says place, object & person on your calendar - I don't know what I was thinking).

For Blog 13: describe the character of someone you know in terms of clothing. Write into the details. Only describe what you can see and use your description to tell as much as you can about who this person is. We will read these descriptions in class and wee how much your description lets us know about vocation, age, gender, interests, and so on.

To read for Monday: Review Cofer and Lott, read Nye. We will talk over the structure of these essays and think about how the "things" in the essay shaped the structure and content.

Do some more thinking about what you might write about for Essay 3. Good class today - and see you on Monday.

Monday, October 27

You read Stanton and reviewed Kincaid and hopefully those readings are giving you a more clear idea about Essays 3 & 4.

Your Blog for today was:
Blog 11: look in your closet, a drawer, your purse or wallet, your pockets or backback (if you are really into this you can look in boxes where you've put away things from your past)- write the stories of one or two of the things you find there.

and your blog for Wednesday is
Blog 12: Write about a photograph; this does not need to be a complete piece, just write, maybe ask some questions about what was going on, or what happened before or since to the people in the photo - or to the place or things.

These exercises should also help you write into a useful place for this assignment.

For Wednesday: bring several photos to class

You will do some in-class work with these.

Also - do the writing about objects listed for in-class today (which we didn't do as a group) and we will pick up on it on Wednesday. That is - in your writing journal => List objects that are important to you; put dates beside them (for when they came into your life), name any people they are associated with; list any experiences they are associated with - then read through and see if there are any patterns in what connects you to things.

Readings for Wednesday are Cofer, "Silent Dancing," 154; Lott, "Brothers" Sorry for the gloss on the Lott piece - maybe a little more than you asked for. These are two more examples of using "things" as a center of your essay.

The revised/final draft for essay 1 &2 will definitely be due Nov 6. See you on Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 22

Today you thought about titles for the piece you will revise for the Essay 1&2 assignment. Your title is your foot in the door - it is the first impression you make on the reader. Spend some time on it. Your reader reads the essay in light of the feelings/ideas you set up in your title.

You also took a look at the assignment sheet for Essay 3&4. These essays will be very much like essay 1&2 only they have less of a focus on your personal experience and more of a focus on a place, object or person. You then spent the rest of the class opening up some ideas around what and how you might revise your essay.

For your blog Monday you are going to start using objects to develop ideas for writing. Also - you are going to look at some examples of writing that uses "things" as a starting point.

We decided you would see how far you get with revising Essay 1/2 - and we will make a decision about when you want to turn your essays in.

Have a good weekend and see you on Monday.

Monday, October 20

Son now you have written TWO drafts for this course. Good work! you spent the first part of class thinking/writing about which of the two essays you want to revise. You thought about your essay's rhetorical (audience,purpose, form + overall impression) about the strengths of the essay itself, and about the practicalities of actually revising it. And then you picked one of your two drafts. You then characterized the essay you hope to revise in terms of audience, focus, form, tone, length, style => the kinds of features that editors use to decide whether a piece is right for their journal. Keep this writing so you can come back to it when we do the project on finding a venue for one of your polished essays.

You then spent the rest of class workshopping your essays in groups of two or three. I passed around a sign-up sheet - and so we can talk through your plans for revision.

Good class today.

On Wednesday we will do some specific writing/talking about revising. read Thiel, 88-96 on revising.

For Blog 10: write about how you decided which essay you wanted to revise - and why.

Wednesday, October 15

You spoent the first half of class commenting on your classmates' blogs. Your task was to support the writer in finding his/her concept, iudentifying the story (the best scenes, characterizations and events) to represent the aspects of that concept they mean to develop, and to figure out the connections between the story and the concept. I encouraged you to ask questions - to identify material you were interested in and to offer information/references/ ideas that you think the writer might be able to use. If you are having trouble identifying the focus - ask what it is - and make some hypotheses.

During the second half of class you took a quick look through the comments - and did a short bit of writing to pull things togetyher - and to make any requests for comments from me that you have in mind. And as usual, we talked.

Post your draft for personal essay 2 on your blog for Monday, and we will do some writing to decide which essay you want to revise.

have a great weekend!

Wednesday, October 8

Thanks for the great drafts! Every single one of you took on a strong topic - and you have good material you can use as a basis for a polished essay. Some of you might want to work on creating more detailed stories, some of you might work on cutting back on some detail - most of you could strengthen your essay by doing some thinking (freewriting, focusing) on the "concept" you are writing about. What thoughts do you want your reader to take from your essay? How can you circle deeper into your subject? If you ask -"so what" of your essay - what do you come up with? This assignment requires a focus on ideas or concepts - like Orwell's assessment of colonialism, Danticat's contemplation of the processes through which we become aware - and begin to judge.

In class we continued our discussion of "truth" and it seems we circled back to Lott's reflections on writers' responsibilities. And since there are no "creative nonfiction police" it is going to be a personal decision for each of you.

No class on Monday (have a good break). For Wednesday:

Blog 8: post the experience and the reflection for your 2nd essay + whatever writing you have and would like feedback on That second part is important - in a way it gives your classmates permission to write back to you - to offer comments. So put it out there.

Other than that - do some writing into your second essay. I have had conferences with most of you and we have talked about how to write more strongly into the requirements of the assignment - and you might take some of that with you as you start on your second draft. In class on Wednesday you will give some feedback to your classmates - and work on your drafts. The second draft will be due the following Monday (October 20).

Monday, October 6

So writing the truth just gets more complicated. In class we discussed the kinds of liberties journalists and creative nonfiction writers are tempted to take with truth - rounding the corners (creating scenes + dialog); compressing time or collapsing dialog, creating composite characters - even inventing testimony or support for the point they are making. Then - in addition to these temptations - there are issues that are not exactly about truth - but about ethics - who does the story belong to? what gives the author the right to write it? what kinds of stories shouldn't be told - and when might you get in legal trouble (even if your revelation is true?) We didn't seem to come to agreement on these issues - and Angel even made it more complicated by suggesting that artistic concerns - whether or not a piece contributes something of lasting value or importance - should also weigh in with the ethical concerns. AND (as if there isn't enough to think about) after class - Liz pointed out that because there are many taboo topics in our culture - writing personal experiences with mental illness, domestic violence, rape, criminal activites => experiences associated with shame, blame or both - provides family, friends as well as the central actors in parallel experiences with the language and validation that they may not be able to find in another place. Writers tell us stories about - help us think about - areas of human behavior that we are too ashamed or too confused to talk about with "real" people. They can help relieve the sense of isolation and alienation of individuals who are "outside" what the culture says is "normal". So that is a counterpoint to the ethical reasons for not telling a story that might make the "characters" in the story uncomfortable or embarassed.

So I think it is safe to say that this is a complicated decision - and that individual writers will go by their individual lights.

You have signed up for conferences on your first essay (and discussion of the topic for your next essay). I will return your essay with feedback during your conference.

For Wednesday - read the two articles about the James Frey debacle - and post to your blog about your experience writing your first essay (see the prompt posted on the calendar).

Also - in addition to posting your essay on your blog -send me a copy at the address for this course: ENG3017@gmail.com.

Good discussion today. I have lots to think about. See you Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 1

In class today we started our contemplation of "truth" and creative nonfiction. We used O'Brien's "How to tell a true war story" as a way to get into the topic. His writing opened up the idea that it is possible, sometimes even necessary, to tell stories that are not true in order to represent the truth. His story also illustrates how emotional and factual "truth" can often be in conflict - or even mutually exclusive.

I will be reading through your blogs in the next few days and providing feedback on Blogs 4- 7.

Assignments for Monday: Read Lee Gutkind's "Creative Nonfiction Police" in your textbook, and post your draft for Essay 1 on your blog. For your blog, follow the numbers as listed in the calendar (even though this is the second Blog 6 . . .); I figure it would be more confusing to re-number all the subsequent entries. For in-class journal writing you will be working on identifying "themes" from the images and concepts you identified in the analysis of your journal entries we did on Sept. 29.

Monday, September 29

You did some writing into your emotions today for your writing journal. Most of the prompts you have been writing into this term are connect in some way to patterns psychologists have identified as in some way related to how we categorize memories. Smells, personal associations, bodily sensations/traumas, emotions and so on are all part of the "old brain's" methods for organizing/recollecting experience so it is available to us at the point of need. After we discussed the readings - you began to analyze some of your entries to your journals. In these exercises you took a look at which processes for "remembering" or "connecting to" your memories/experiences worked best for you. You counted which kinds of prompts got the most ideas, and you did some reading to assess which prompts gave you the "best" material. Then you began to look for patterns: you looked for repeating images/language and topics, and if we'd had time you would have looked for repeats in particular stories and concepts. Hopefully this writing gave you some new ways to look at your journal. From your comments, it sounded like some of you were able to use these techniques to see patterns/ideas in your journal entries that might have gone unnoticed with a less analytic reading.

Keep working on writing into a topic for your draft for your personal essay. If anyone is stuck - or wants to talk through some ideas, bring your writing so far to my office for a conference.

For the next week or so we are going to be thinking about "truth" and we are going to start with the O'Brien piece. Hopefully you all have a copy by now. For your Blog - write about what you see as the "truth" in this story. What kind of truth is it? Is it a valuable truth? How can you tell it is true? And is it creative nonfiction or just fiction?

See you Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 24

In class we talked about "Alive" and "Westbury Place" and paid attention to how both of these essays derived their power from making there readers feel as if they were "there." With Drummond we felt the fear, peered over our own shoulders, and went back to the places and times when we were afraid. With Danticat we were inside a reflective process, remembering, noticing again (her experience and ours - as Matt pointed out) and seeing our experiences - present and past- differently.

You then looked at the criteria for your first writing project - and we talked about the overall plan for your work for this term. As you can see as you look through the calendar - you develop your writing through a series of drafts and you will be sharing these drafts (and revising them) through your blog and classroom workshops. The first draft for this project is due October 6.

For your Blog 6, I've asked you to go back through the CNF essays you've read so far (starting with "Out There," "On Keeping a Notebook," and "Superman & me" up through "Decent" & "Crossing the Border") and rank them according to how they meet the criteria for this assignment. The purpose of this writing is for you to do some thinking about form and focus - what your essay will need to look like in order to meet the particular rhetorical demands of this assignment. Check the calendar for the specific demands of this post. I will not be writing back to you about your blogs this weekend. My next response to blogs will be for posts 4- 7. And yes - I have a loop in the numbers for the blogs. It seems no matter how carefully I proofread I always mess up the blog numbering. . .

In class Monday, 9/29, you will spend some dedicated time finding your subject(s) through going back through your journal. You will work on techniques for "mining" a journal and hopefully it will be useful for you even if you've already picked a focus for the present essay (I am assuming you will be writing other essays - and maybe something you discover in your journal will work for a later project).

The readings for Monday are "Decent" (posted) and Thiel's "Crossing the border" (in your book).

I really enjoyed the family stories. There is something tremendously important about the "culture" we create as families - through telling about our shared experiences. Reflecting on these stories will tell you something about yourself - but writing about them can help all of use make a little more sense of who we are and how we share who we are with others.

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday.

Monday, Sept. 22

We talked about segmented essays - though really most of your time was spent planning ideas for how YOU might write a segmented essay. For those of you who would like to look at more than one example of a segmented essay, or who would like to read more about how and why writers choose to write them - I am leaving a copy of Fourth Genre in my mailbox in 301E, and you can pick it up, take it home overnight, etc to read through some examples (segmented essays are listed on xii, and Root's essay on segmented essays is on p. 404). I wanted you to do some brainstorming, planning, thinking about how *you* might write a segmented essay before overloading you with models so you wouldn't get "boxed in" in your thinking. From the brainstorming you were doing it sounds like this is going fairly well for you.

If you look ahead in the calendar - you see that on Wednesday I will finally give a presentation on what is expected for your first essay. I wanted you to have lots of ideas - lots of writing - in your notebooks before you begin to plan any of the essays you are actually going to write. On Wednesday we will look over the assignment sheet for Essay 1 - and you will get started on writing some CNF.

For class, read Danticat, "Westbury Court" - in your textbook, and "Alive" by Laurie Lynn Drummond (link on your web site). In class on Wednesday - and in your blog - do some thinking about focus => what the essay is about. Your essay needs to relate an experience - tell a story - depict events - AND it needs to convey an idea. Your essay needs to be ABOUT something, and that something needs to come through as embodied in the story you tell and the reflective writing that surrounds that story.
Both the Danticat + Drummond have strong narrative lines - but they are also both "about" an idea. In your Blog - write about what that idea is - and how the story/reflecting in these two pieces set up and convey that idea. Describe how the story's structure contributes to getting that point across.

Good class today. I am getting really eager to read some of your writing in the form of an essay!

Wednesday, September 19

I didn't update this right after class - and then I forgot . . . it is always OK to send me an email to remind me.

IN class you wrote listed sensory impressions that connected to memories - smells, physical sensations, tastes - the dark senses, and after we shared some of our evocative experiences, you did a little writing to map out some ideas, experiences you could connect to that sensory memory.

The rest of class was devoted to discussion of Montaigne and Orwell. We listed the features we have identified as belonging to CNF and rated the two readings - to get an idea for how close a fit they were for the current definition. Montaigne did not use features of "fiction" nor did he develop as much reflective exploration of self or recurring, circling ever deeper questioning as we expect in CNF - however - for an essay written more than 400 years ago - the sensibility was remarkably modern. Orwell was a closer fit, but again was less self conscious and more direct and less literary (though he was clearly working with a central metaphor) than some of the other CNF essays we have read. It seems readers came to these texts - especially Montaigne - with different expectations - expectations that reflected their time.

Monday we will be talking/writing about segmented essays and we will use Mimi Schwartz' "My Father Always Said" as an example. For those of you who do not have a copy, there are copies available in my mailbox in 301E. For Blog 4, work through the questions on the calendar: "What is the overall focus of this essay? What is the focus of each section? How does Schwartz use the gaps between sections?" I am looking for you to start thinking about how putting two "sections" next to each other works to make a larger meaning.

I will be reading your blogs over the weekend - and will send you an email, probably Sunday, with my response for posts 2 & 3. See you Monday.

Thinking some more about what we mean by CNF

Your journal prompt was about scars, disease, and broken bones - traumas that you carry with you in your body. You made a list and did some thinking about what you might say about how such experiences shape your lives or open your minds or relate to larger patterns in "the way things are."

The rest of the class was devoted to discussing Lott and Kincaid. Our discussion of Lott examined his essay's tone, content, and structure. You may find this analytic process useful when you begin to look for publication venues for your writing. Scoping out a journal's preferences in terms of subject material, tone and form will help you choose the right place for your essays. Often - getting your work published is more about finding the right venue than about the quality of your work. We approached discussion of Kincaid a little more holistically, but in the end we again considered content, structure and tone - though we added on some reflections about her "vehicle" - the method/material she used to "carry" the main focus of her essay. We noted that the central ideas in her essay were conveyed through presenting a more or less chronological series of memory snapshots (to supplement the central snapshot of herself in the yellow dress) and that these images were sensory rich. We also noted that Didion's central ideas were conveyed through returning to "snapshots" of writing from her journal, that Beard's were conveyed through a storyline, and that Lott's relied heavily on examples from other writers' writing. So now you have four different models for presenting your ideas. In this class - copying is OK, even expected - so long as you do it with a twist.

For Wednesday, read the Montaigne and Orwell essays (the links should be here). These essays were written before creative nonfiction was invented - or at least before it was named. So if CNF is the child of these essays - do some written thinking in your blog about what it inherited from its parents, and what it generated on its own.

Figuring out what makes nonfiction creative

Today in class you got started on some exploratory writing in your journals. You wrote into some of your childhood memories and started to think about how you might use those memories to develop a creative nonfiction essay. We also talked some about particular features of creative nonfiction texts - how the authors used character, scenes, narrative, themes/symbols, reflective analysis, and so on. You then looked at the three sample texts that you read for homework and took a close look at how the authors "built" their essays. From my talk with your groups - it sounds to me like you are beginning to talk like writers => digging into the structure and figuring out how the essays "work".

For Monday, read Brett Lott's essay on defining creative nonfiction, and Jamaica Kincaid's "Biography of a dress." In your blog, continue to write into your understanding of what creative nonfiction is and how it works. Note and analyze any new features that you find in Kincaid and Lott. I read and commented on blogs posted before class. Take the comments as feedback and I will send you a number score and an explanation of how I assigned it in an email. FYI scores for first blogs were on the generous side. As we get into the course I will be looking for you to write into the prompts more deeply.

Good class today and I will see you Monday!

First Day of Class and what to do for Wednesday

We got off to a good start - you've all got a blog set up and are working on putting in the links to classmates blogs (I've got a start on that and will finish up tomorrow). I suggest that you edit the blog titles so that they all list the owner's name.

The readings for Wednesday (as listed on the calendar) will set you up with some "evidence" for the writers of those pieces think creative nonfiction is - and after reading their essays do some more thinking about what CNF is and how it works (how it connects to readers) finish your first post.

Be sure to read about keeping a writing journal and to bring a writing journal to class. In class - we will talk a little about how you want to use your journals, and then you are going to get started with some writing to generate material for your essays.

If you have questions or concerns - of if the technology is feeling intimidating - send me an email and we will work things out. I am looking forward to reading your work!

Addresses for your blogs

Jennifer http://thetruthstates.blogspot.com/

Dan http://sirlusciousleftfoot.blogspot.com/

Shannon http://dunkindonutslover.blogspot.com/

Matt dempseym73.blogspot.com

Suzanne http://woozie300.blogspot.com/

Camille http://camillejoyadalla.blogspot.com/

Liz http://lizdamnit.blogspot.com/

Edgar http://edgardinzey.blogspot.com

Diana http://d-mitchell.blogspot.com/

Jose http://return2sender-josemaria.blogspot.com/

Nicole http://nicmacs.blogspot.com

Angel http://superblogissuper.blogspot.com/

Lauren http://www.laurenjw.blogspot.com/

Shamira http://shamiranonfiction.blogspot.com/

Jenna http://www.jennacwnf.blogspot.com/

Angela http://angelacreativenonfiction.blogspot.com/

What is creative nonfiction anyway?

Welcome to ENG 3017: Creative Nonfiction. In this class you will read, read about, and most importantly, you will write creative nonfiction. If you don't exactly know what creative nonfiction is - that's just fine - since the first part of the term will be spent exploring exactly what writers mean and readers expect with respect to that term.

Meanwhile - set up your blog, check out the syllabus, and look through the readings in your text book - and we will get started!