Monday, December 14

Turning in your portfolios + getting your grades

I have returned your revised essays 3/4 so you should have all you need to finish your portfolios. If you didn't turn in revisions for Essay 3/4 - I will give you comments with your portfolio.

I have portfolios from about 6 of you - and the rest of you will turn in your work at the Diner on Thursday.

Grades-
I will read through your portfolios as soon as possible - and send you a gradesheet with comments. The gradesheet will list all comments on work, points, and your grade. Hopefully I will have your grades to you by Saturday or Sunday.

Look over your gradesheet - and get back to me if you have questions or comments. If I don't hear from you by Tuesday, I will assume that you are OK with your grade, and I will post it on Keanwise.

At the Diner (University Diner on North Avenue at @:00 pm on Thursday) - we will share work, read favorites, eat and talk. You are a great class - I really got a lot out of this course. Thank you for your good writing.

December 10

Monday you will work on your porfolios. I will bring a computer you can burn your CDs on if you need to. Your classmates and I will be available for feedback or support on anything you are working on.

You posted Blog 24 with the feedback for the course (thank you).

I will do my best to read through revised Essay 3/4 and have your grades/comments returned by Monday.

We will meet at the University Diner (just to the right of the Kean Parking Lot, on North Avenue) on Thursday - and have a farewell class. You are invited to bring anything you are working on to read. We will eat and read and talk.

Have a great weekend, and see you Monday.

December 8

Most of you gave presentations on the publication venues - we have one group left

The gentlemen at the back of the room will give their presentation on Thursday. You will then do some writing to reflect on the course and think about your future as a writer - and if there is any time left you will work on your portfolios. I will bring a computer to burn CDs for anyone who will need that kind of assistance.

The calendar has you turning in your final portfolio on Monday (the Diner Day). If that seems like it is not going to give you enough time - we can have a pizza-in-the-conference room along with burning CDs final class. We can talk about this on Thursday.

For Thursday: Post Revised Essay 3/4 on your Blog

November 30

In class today we talked about revision - and you did some writing to dig in to some of the thinking/re-thinking work you need to do to sharpen your focus + development.

You also had some time to work on your presentations.

For Thursday:
In your text book, read the section on Revision (Chapter 17, 83 - 96).

Blog 21 Choose one of the writing prompts from Theils "suggestions for rewriting" (at the end of the sections) - and do the writing on your blog.

Also - just to keep us all on the same page, I have posted the calendar for the rest of the term.

Th Dec 3
Work on revising either Essay 3 or 4; in-class conferences on your work; work on your presentation on a publication venue
Go over format for turning in your portfolio (CD)
Blog 22: Post handout for presentation on publication venus

M Dec 7
Presentations on publication venues
Blog 23: Post revised Essay 3 or 4
Choose what you will read for the final reading/last class

Dec 10
Writing journal: your plans as a writer
Practice reading your piece
Blog 24: Reflections on the course

Dec 14
Last class - turn in your portfolio - read your work

November 23 & Happy Thanksgiving

Below I have listed your presentation groups + your choices of publications for the assignment analyzing publication venues.

Elliott -
Joe T.- JMWW
Rebecca - Word Riot
Tim - Thoreau's Rooster
Benny - Literal Latte


Nicole - Upstreet
Cara - Blackbird
Julie - Collision
Allison - Silk Road
Brittany - Crazy Horse



Kim - SubLit
Lauren - Drunken Boat
Maureen -
Jaimesue -
Kelly - The Teacher's Voice



Deji - Nidus
Joe F. MidAmerican Review
Stephen-Fourth River
Alex - Big Ugly Review
Nic - Literary Mama

For those of you who were not in class, choose a publication (not already taken) from the internet or from the link-list on this blog (below). Your assignment is to present an analysis of the publication venue (this does not necessarily need to be the publication you end up submitting your work to). The assignemnt sheet is also posted below (Rhetorical Analysis of Publication Venues).

I will look over Essay 4 over the break and send you some written feedback.

For Monday, Blog 20: post a discussion of which essay you will revise for your "final" for essay 3/4. Write a specific statement of your focus/ the point you will develop & how you will revise it. Go into some detail with respectd to the plan for revision => the more writing you do here the more focused your revisions can be.

On Monday, Nov. 30, we will have a writing workshop. We will start out with you doing some work on your revision for Essay 3/4 - and then move to open work on the project of your choice.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

November 16

In class today you worked with a writing partner to resolve any remaining issues surrounding writing Essay 4.

As announced at the beginning of class - we are up to date (with the exception of Nicole + Jaimesue - and I hope to send feedback for those essays by Wednesday) on feedback, and on Monday - when you turn in Essay 4, we will be ready to start work on preparing your final portfolio and submitting your work.

There is no class on Thursday, November 19.

For Monday
Blog 19: Draft essay 4
In class you will get started on finding publication venues for your work, and on developing a presentation to tell classmates about a particular publication that seems as if it would be a good match for your work.



Have a good weekend and see you next week.

November 12

In class you looked at your descriptions of places, and we talked about how describing a place can "tell a story" or "make a point" indirectly - like in McPhee's writing. We then looked at some narrative paintings. Most of our discussion was on interpreting what was going on - when I didn't get lost in the pleasure of exploring the paintings - I tried to remember to bring attention back to the features of the paintings that operated in our interpretations. For example in the first painting that we looked at, the way the woman (nurse) was dressed along with the trash can and the physical set up of the room said "doctor's office" but the picture on the wall, the magazine, the remote + the CD suggested a connection to pornography. Taken together - these clues identified the man at the center of the picture as a sperm donor. In all cases, the titles of the paintings were suggestive.

The point in this exercise was to think about: how descriptions of images, actions, placement, and all the other observable features of a situation might tell your story/convey your feelings & interpretations.

In our discussion your interpretations mentioned:
colors, numbers, size, texture, direction of movement, facial expressions, clothing, lighting, connections between what was there & other situations, actions, what the characters were looking at, what seemed to be at the center, (and I am sure you remember more). Your observations of these features drove your interpretations.

Before writing your blog, do some freewriting, talking, reflecting to identify a subject. If your are hazy about exactly what you want to say, do some more invention writing until you figure out your focus, your focus may be a questions. So deciding to write about your brother is not a focus; deciding to write about sibling rivalry between brothers, about shared your shared identity; about closeness between brothers, etc - is a focus.

Blog 19: Write down your main focus + the points you want to explore in your 4th draft. (I know this is different from what I said in class, but I thought it over and I think it will give you a better basis for feedback this way). Then:
list some scenes, activities, background "facts", places, things, settings, characters that you can describe as a way to open up + present your take on the concept you are exploring. After you make the list - do some writing to develop material what you think of as the 4 or 5 most important or "best" items on your list. At this point, don't worry about how they fit together, but make sure each description/piece of writing makes a particular point for your overall focus.

You can think of this as planning the "picture" you want to present to your reader to interpret. IF you dig into this writing - you should be in good shape to write Draft 4.

In class you will workshop your pre-drafts, so that you can finish them for the next class.

Important reminder: There will be no class on Thursday, November 19.

Have fun and see you in class Monday.

Narrative painting

http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/002168.php

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/upload/2007/05/hong.jpeg

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/upload/2007/05/hong.jpeg

November 9

In class today we did a close reading of John McPhee's "Search for Marvin Gardens"; we paid particular attention to how he used movement among descriptions of playing Monopoly, walking around Atlantic City, and presenting the "facts" of Atlantic City's history to develop and reflect on his focus.

You signed up either for a f2f conference or for written feedback.

The conference schedule is as follows:
Tuesday Nov 10
3:00 Julie Jackson

Wednesday, Nov 11
10:00 am Joe Tingle
11:00 am Kelly Quinn
12:00 pm Benito Nieves

Thursday Nov 12
12:30 Nicole DeLuccia
12:00 Tim Lowe
1:30 Stephen Mesa

Monday
3:15 Nic Garripoli

Written feedback
Brittany Piano, Rebecca Wood, DJ Akinyemi; Joe Fernandes, Cara Liveto, Kim Castro

For Thursday:
Blog 18: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 where you use description to make a point/reflect on a realization (like McPhee). Do not state your reflection directly.


In class on Thursday we will begin by looking at the blog entries - and then do some more work on using description to "embody" ideas.
Great class today. McPhee's essay is not always an easy read for students - and you talked about it with some sophistication. Thanks for the good participation.

November 5

In class today you worked on your draft for Essay 3. Be sure both to comment on the pre-drafts for writers in your group, and to post a short blog entry (in class) where you write about what you plan to do to develop/move forward with/finish your essay.

For Monday, finish draft Essay 3.
Read: John McPhee, "The Search for Marvin Gardens."

Blog 17: Draft Essay 3

No - you are not losing your mind (if you looked at this earlier) - I have revised what is due for Monday. Finishing your essay is enough, and will count as Blog 17.

The original post listed what follows as Blog 17, but I am going to revise that for Blog 18. You have enough to do. If you have already done this blog - you are ahead, if not, you have some time to catch up. Sorry for any confusion.

(this will be Blog 18, due for Thursday): 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.

November 2

This week is going to be primarily devoted to workshopping and writing.

Today you started out by reading your clasmates essays (by group) and offering some comments to receive/reflect on what you wrote.

Groups were:
Rebecca Wood, Allison Cherry, Benny Nieves, Brittany Piano

Tim Lowe, Julie jackson, nic Garripoli, Alex Cade

Cara Oliveto, maureen Peterson, Joe Tingle, kim Castro

Stephen Mesa, Elliot fant, Joe fernandex, Lauren Buttacavole

Nicole DeLuccia, Deji Akinyemi, Kelly Quinn, Jaimesue Salva

After you read some of your classmates' work, you then did some reflecting on your own. Specifically, you wrote me an email where you stated:
- how/whether your essay met the requirements of the assignment
- what you focused on during your revision
- how/whether you addressed what we talked about in your conference
- what you would like to do some more work on
- what grade you think you piece should receive.

Blog 16: The assignment is to post:
1. your proposed focus + the object, place, or person you will write about to develop that focus
2. the specific descriptions or information you will present to develop your focus
3. what each description shows about your focus
4. a specific request for feedback

The more writing you do here the further along you are with your draft. This post will be the "pre-draft" that you will discuss workshop with classmates on Thursday.

October 29

Today you looked at the assignment sheet for Project 3&4, and we talked over the differences in writing for this part of the course, and what you have done so far. The biggest difference is that for these drafts you need to experiment with segmented essays, and your writing will turn from using your experience as evidence, to using observation, description, references to "facts" and so on to develop the "evidence" for your reflection.

We discussed the essays by Lott & Cofer, and looked at how they developed their reflections using references to images (photographs, home movies). Lott moved primarily between describing the images and reflecting; Cofer moved among her reflections/experiences and descriptions of the film. She used creative ways to open up the evidence of the film (she "dreamed" that the people in the movie actually talked to her). So as you can see - there are lots of possibilities.

Over the weekend - work on revising either draft 1 or 2. This will be your first "finished" essay. Post it to your blog for Monday (Blog 15).

In class we will spend some time responding to your posted essays, and do some more writing/exploring to move forward with your next draft.

Good class today - and have a happy Halloween!

October 26

We discussed Stanton's essay "Laundry" as a way to get some ideas about what is expected for essays 3&4. The assignment sheet is posted at the bottom of this page - above the syllabus, calender + assignment sheet for Essays 1& 2. We will discuss the specifics in class on Thursday. As you read through - you will notice that this assignment requires you to write a segmented essay. You will also notice that the essays we are reading as "example" are broken into segments. In class, we will discuss how the reader's participation in figuring out relationships between the segments contributes to the essays' meanings.

In class discussion of Stanton we noted how her essay included detailed description & "reporting" concerning the object in her essay, and that she used this discussion as a vehicle for telling a more "human" story about her understanding of "the way the world is." You also did some writing to look for patterns in your relationships to "things."

In class Thursday you will continue to brainstorm, write into your ideas for essays 3 & 4.

Read: Cofer, "Silent Dancing," 154; Lott, "Brothers"
Blog 14: 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 ; bring several photos to class.

Conferences

Wednesday October 21
11:00 DJ; 11:20 Benny; 11:40 Joe T; 1:20 Rebecca

Monday, October 26
10:00 Cara; 1020 Lauren; 11:00 Kelly; 3:15 Nic; 3:25 Tim

Tuesday, October 27
2:00 Joe F.; 2:20 Maureen; 3:00 Julie; 3:40 Nicole

Wednesday, October 28
2:00 Kim

Thursday, October 30
1:15 Brittany

If you haven't signed up for a conference - I will pass around the sign up sheet again on Monday.

October 19

You practiced your readings for tomorrow's National Day of Writing presentations: from what I heard you were great!

Before you got together to read to each other in groups, I went back over where the class will be going in the next couple of weeks.

First - if you haven't turned in your draft essay (new topic, second essay) as an attachment, send it to the ENG3017@gmail.com address asap.

In class I passed around the sign up sheet for a conference on the second essay. In this conference we will talk over which essay you want to revise for your "final" essay (for a grade), and what you want to do to revise it. The final essay for 1/2 will be due on November 2.

For Monday, October 26, you have two sets of assignments Since we will not be meeting as a class on Thursday - we talked through them both today. we will have sort of a double-class next Monday to catch up.
Read what Thiel writes about revising. pp 88-96.
Blog 12:write a narrative (rambling planning document) to describe how you decided which essay to revise - and how you will revise it.

Also read: Stanton (link at the bottom of this page) and review Kincaid, "Biography of a Dress"
Blog 13: look in your closet, a drawer, your purse or wallet, your pockets or backpack (if you are really into this you can look in boxes where you've put away things from your past) - then write the story of one or two thinks you find.

In class on Monday - we will talk briefly about revising, and dig into brainstorming for your next assignemt (Essay 3&4): an object/place focused CNF essay.

Break a leg at the reading!

October 15

In class today we talked about commenting on classmates' blogs - and then you did some commenting on the first drafts.

We then finalized the schedule for the reading on October 20 (see last post). It will be in the Carriage house - over by Liberty Hall (across Morris Ave) _ hopefully I will have more specific directions on Monday.

We then talked about how to do a workshop on a partial draft. The writer begins by giving an overview of his/her idea and the stories s/he wants to use to support it. listeners should recive the idea + offer associations + connections - ask questions - say what /she is interested in. In some sense it is a group brainstorming session - where you have a chance to gauge the interest + connections to your focus for your next draft. You then had a workshop.

For Monday:
Blog 11: Draft 2

Come to class prepared to rehearse your reading for October 20. You will get a chance for a "dress rehearsal" - to figure out if you will run into any hitches. We will then discuss how it went - and you will have a second try if you need one.

You will also sign up for your second conference - and we will talk about the revising process.

Have a great weekend - and good writing!

Reading Schedule October 20

Schedule for CNF reading on October 20
1:30 Joe
1:40 Kelly


3:22 Kim
3:30 Maureen
3:37 Joe T
3:45 Lauren
3:52 Allison
4:00 Julie
4:07 Benny
4:15 Tim
4:22 elliot


5:52 Nicole

October 8

We talked about truth, lies, "embellishment" and how and whether the accurate representation of experience matters in creative nonfiction. Your discussion explored the kinds of misrepresentations that are possible - self-aggrandizing (creating a false character for oneself), tarnishing & distorting others' reputations (as with the police accused of brutality); "stealing" the pain of people with real problems or tragedy (claims about the extent of his addiction; the train-wreck story); being a false authority (speaking as an authority on recovery - when it is not clear he was an addict); lying about lying (not acknowledging what was true & what wasn't when directly confronted) - and more.

We considered how readers' expectations are set up by genre - and talked briefly about the changing conventions for those relationships throughout the history of fiction and nonfiction. This was a great discussion and I am still thinking about it.

At the end of class, I gave you about 3 minutes to write a list of issues/experiences you would never write about . Naturally we did not share these lists. I encourage you to go back to that list - and add to it and re-think it.

There will be no class on Monday (Happy Columbus Day)so I will see you on Thursday.
For next class you will be working on your 2nd draft essay. This is a new start. Dig into another idea and see what you come up with.

Blog 10: Post a focus (some ideas for what your essay is about/what you will be reflecting on) + a set of related stories that you can use to open up this reflection. This post will serve as a partial draft for your second essay (due on your blog Monday Oct 19). Remember that this needs to be a PUBLIC story - one you can post - and that you might choose to send out for publication. The more writing you have here - the more feedback you can get. In class Thursday you will do some workshopping/writing to develop Essay 2.

I will be giving you some feedback on Blogs 4-9 over this weekend (really).

Have a great weekend!

October 5: groups for commenting on drafts + what we did in class

I will post the conference schedule tomorrow - Blogger was down so I couldn't post it after class - and I left the list at my office.

the groups for commenting on each other's blogs are:
DJ Akinyemi, Allison Cherry, Tim Lowe, Brittany Piano

Elliot Fant, Nicole Deluccia, Stephen Mesa, & Kelly Quinn

Kim Castro, Julie Jackson, Maureen Peterson and Rebecca Wood
Lauren Buttacavole, Joe Fernandes, Benny Nieves, and Jaimesue Salva

Alex Cade, Nick Garripoli, Car Oliveto, and Joe Tingle

You signed up for conferences - and for reading times (I will post that tomorrow as well)and you then looked through your writing journals for patters. Some of you noticed that you wrote about material you didn't know what you thought about - while others observed that you wrote mostly about material you had resovled; some of you noticed particular topics that came up again and again - or that you focused on traumatic material, material from a particular time period in your life. These patterns can give you some insight in to what is on your mind - as well as to how your mind works - and they can help you find a focus for your next essay.

We breezed through Gutkind's essay - noting his points at the end where he lists do's and don't's for CNF writers. He states that every writer has to write to her or his own conscience - but as the assignment for Thursday makes clear - readers (and publishers) also have ideas about where those boundaries should be set.

For Thursday:
Read the Smoking gun expose of A Million Little Pieces
and the story of Oprah's backlash

Blog 9: What went well in your first essay? What do you need to work on (take a look at the suggestions for revision, (p. 95-96 in your text). What are you going to try to do differently in your next essay? Do some freewriting, associative freewriting (use your journal) clustering/outlining, listing - whatever works best for you to find your focus for essay 2.

In class we will talk some more about author's obligations to readers - and do some more brainstorming for your second essay.

October 1

Today we talked about truth, creative nonfiction & fiction - with a focus on the different kinds of truths writers tell within the two genres. We will be thinking in some more detail about expectations for CNF writers with respect to truth as you develop your next draft.

We then spent some time talking about O'Brien's "How to tell a true war story." It seems there is more than one way to tell the truth, that truth connects to experience, and some truths can be resistant to being put in words. There was much more to say - and hopefully I will get to read some of what you though about O'Brien on your blogs.

For Monday:
Blog 8: Post your draft for essay 1. Also - email your draft to me as an attachment. On the copy you send to me, write at the top: 1) your focus (the idea/focus/reflections you want your reader to come away with; 2) how your stories set up/connect to that focus; 3) what kind of feedback you want from me during your conference.

Read: Gutkind, "The creative nonfiction police" (in your textbook).

In class you will sign up for conferences on your drafts, do some more talking about truth, and get started on some ideas for your second shot at a creative nonfiction essay.

Have a good weekend.

Slang

in case you ran into any words in "How to tell a true war story" that didn't quite make sense - check out http://www.vietvet.org/glossary.htm

Monday, Septermber 28

Today you did some writing about the big emotions in your past - events that evoked intense (often conflicted or confusing) feelings. Within the different experiences you raised we connected to more abstract topics including :
who is responsible for our emotions;
how feelings can sometimes be experienced most intensely on behalf of someone else;
how sometimes it takes us a while to feel what we are "supposed" to be feeling;
how different emotions are connected so that one emotion leads to another;
how our understanding or interpretation of emotional experiences changes over time;
and a few that I forgot.

As usual your writing and reflecting was honest and important. You are doing fine work for this course.

We then turned to freewriting to open up a topic for your first paper - and I didn't give you enough time. If you have trouble freewriting and hate doing it - this is could be a sign that you might benefit from it. It only takes 10 minutes and should result in a page of writing. Think of it as a race between your hand and your mind and the object to get good enough so that your mind always wins (meaning you never stop writing). It works to "turn off your editor" so you get a chance to play around with ideas that your internal editor would block before you even really thought about them. So do a freewrite - at least 10 minutes wort - for homework, in your journal.

We finished class by briefly looking over the sample essays in terms of the assignment sheet. In general - these are very high level works, so the "reflection " part is embedded in the story in very artful ways (repeated phrases or metaphors, in the form or segmenting, in essay's movement back and forth in time, and so on). Your essay will probably be more direct - where you say straight out what you are thinking about - like Alexie or Orwell or Didion. For your first draft - make sure you have some reflections in mind - but focus on getting the stories down.

For Thursday:
Read:"How to tell a true war story" by Tim O'Brien.
Blog 7: What is the "truth" in this story? What does O'Brien believe about truth?

September 24

We talked over plans for the National Day of Writing, October 20. The tentative plan is for you to prepare something to read (about 5 minutes worth) at Kean University East Campus, during College Hour. For those of you who can't make it then, we may also schedule time in the evening. This is an opportunity for you to make your debut as a writer - and will be in placer of class on October 22. More information to follow later.

You looked over your first assignment (posted at the bottom of this page). You will write two drafts, both of which you will workshop and write some comments about how you would revise; then you will revise one essay for a grade.

For Monday:
Write: Get started on your draft!
Blog 6: Look through the readings so far. Which essay looks like a good pattern for you to use as a model for moving between your concept and your experience. Will using this model allow you to write to the requirements of the assignment (will it give you a focus on concept?) How will you expand on /revise the model? What parts of it do you want to keep the same? Any other comments?

Good class today - and have a great weekend!

September 21

You got feedback on your first set of Blogs. It was a pleasure to read your responses to the readings. If you have questions about the grades - stop by my office or send me an email.

We spent some time talking about transformative experiences - events that changed you - and these included many excellent possibilities for essays: compelling experiences coupled with your reflections on how to make meaning out of those experiences.

We talked about segmented essays - both through looking at how Schwartz used the 6 section & the relationships between those sections to make one of the important points in her essay. We followed up with a list of possible organizational structures for essays, and I am hoping, as you write your essays, you will do some experimenting with some of these forms.

For class Thursday:
Read: Alive by Laurie Lynn Drummond (linked at the bottom of this page) and "Westbury Place" in your book.
Blog 5: What is the main focus of "Alive", and of "Westbury Place"? What kind of structure does each essay use to build the dramitic impact for that point?

In class we will spend some more time talking about structure/organization - and we will go over the assignment sheet for your first essay.

See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 17

We talked about smells, tastes, the feeling of touch & how these senses connect us to memories and associations that sometimes are more about words than feelings. Research in psychology has suggested that memories of events and extended periods of time can be bundled into associations with these dark senses - and a smell or a taste can evoke those memories whole - complete with all the complex feelings that don't quite have words. We spent a lot of time on fire and smoke, body smells, the smells associated with seasons and weather (rain, the air), places (the ocean or a camp site), and things (coper and blood, soup and The Price is Right).

As we talked about these senses - we speculated about the ideas they might evoke: how their interpretations/meanings change (as in Allison's story about body odors); how they tell our secrets (as in the air freshener and sex story); how they reveal things that are real and there - but which we which we might not consciously pay attention to or perceive -or that we can't name or explain (as when Alex knows he's home by the smell of the air, or Maureen's knowing that spring is here even when there are no plants and birds to testify); or what they tell us about a person's life (smoking, drinking, illness, sexual activity). Then their are bodily reactions - to vinegar, smoke, or snails - smells that make us sick not entirely because of their physical reality - but because of our associations to them => as if imagined reality is more forceful than mater itself.

You have lots of material for reflection here!

We then talked briefly about Montaigne - both as an example of the emergence of essays as a literary genre, and as a "modern" voice (like CNF). You observed that it is in the first person, that he is serious in his questioning, that he reflects and tells (though the examples are not primarily from his own experience - but rather from texts as in academic essays). We also noticed that he was intent on communicating the truth (this essay reads rather more like an argument than most contemporary CNF) rather than his or a truth.

For Orwell, it seemed as if he'd read Lott's essay. We paid attention to how he managed the movement from the story (the compelling experience that drives the writing) to his reflection.

On Monday we will think about form in some more depth.
Read: Schwartz
Blog 4: What is the overall focus of this essay? What is the focus of each section? How does Schwartz use the gaps between the sections (or really - I guess the question is what connections were you as the reader set up to make between sections)?

Have a great weekend, and see you on Monday.

Monday, September 14

You wrote in your writing journals about scars. In addition to recollecting and describing the experiences assoicated with your scars, we talked about the scars themselves as writing on your body - as witnesses to an event from your past. We also talke about scars as a way to see/feel your self from within two different time/places (like Kincaid). As you told your stories, we developed discussions about how you might connect to an idea - to some reflection on what it is to be human. Hopefully this discussion set you up with some connections to Lott's essay and a definition of creative nonfiction.

In our discussion of Lott, we reflected both on the definition of creative nonfiction his essay developed - and on the form of his essay. We noticed that he set his essay up by telling the reader what to expect (and leaving what the essay would actually "say" at least partially in question); we also noticed that he used a "refrain" - a repeated re-telling (but always with a little different content) as a way to bring coherence and focus to his writing. I heartily encouraged you to pay attention to the forms in the readings - and to experiment with the forms you think will work for you.

Within Lott's definition - I emphasized that for this course, creative nonfiction will include both a detailed, vividly rendered story about experience AND a reflection on what that experience means in larger terms than simply what happened. Think about the implications in Kincaid's story, or in Beard's. These stories are not just about the event, they are also about an idea.

For Thursday:
Read: Montaigne, That men should not judge; and Orwell, Shooting the elepant. Both links are at the bottom of this page, by author's last name.

Blog 3: How are th essays by Montaigne + Orwell different from / the same as the more contemporary essays you have read? What elements mark the voice in the more recent works as "contemporary"?

I will be grading Blogs 1, 2 & 3 over the weekend and giving you some feedback.

See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 10

Today you got started on your writing journals. You wrote stories, feelings, associations about your earliest memories, and then we sort of randomly shared thoughts and ideas with those experiences. In some ways - that is the essence of what creative nonfiction is: a personal experience that is then opened up or explored in terms of a focus on an idea or thought. Thanks for your good contributions to this discussion. It sounds like you have some good material to work with.

We then (without quite enough time) talked about the different ways writers use writing: to persuade, to inform, to tell stories, to create imaginary worlds and "truths"; to explore new possibilities with their readers; to think (or figure out what they think); and to represent / create the different selves they step into as they live and grow. You then looked at the three essays with a mind toward deciding what these authors did. Our object was to then see if we could find what the 3 essays have in common - so we can keep building on our definition of creative nonfiction - but we ran out of time. And that's OK - we will pick up this discussion on Monday after you have read Lott and Kincaid's essays.

For Monday:
Read: Lott: "Toward a definition of creative nonfiction," 270; Kincaid, "Biography of a Dress," 209
Blog 2 : What does Kinkaid's essay add to ideas of creative nonfiction that are not so strong in the essays by Didion, Beard & Alexie? How did Lott's discussion of creative nonfiction add to your ideas about how to define CNF?

FYI I do not comment on student blogs online - rather I will be sending you an email with feedback. I will send you an email with comments for Blogs 1 & 2 after the second post is due (Monday).

Have a great weekend and thanks for the good class.

September 3 - first class

Today you introduced your selves, set up your blogs and established an email for the course, and then we sort of randomly talked through the syllabus and the took a look at the calendar. I realize it is a lot of information all at once, but hopefully - through keeping things posted here and being in touch - it will all fall into place.

For Thursday, September 10:
Read: Joan Didion "On keeping a notebook" =>click the link for a pdf - if you don't have adobe reader on your computer- you can get a free download for the software to open this document at http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

Alexie, "Superman & me" p. 128 in your book,

and Beard, "Out there."

And read about keeping a journal in your text book, p. 7.

Write: Blog 1: your definition of creative non fiction.

And don't forget to bring your spiral notebook to class - we are going to get started on some writing to help you think about/ discover idea/experiences you would like to write about.

Also, I will set up links to your blogs on the course blog. After I have the link list set up - start working on making links to your classmates blogs. To create a blog list, sign into your blog account and view your blog, click "customize" (up in the right hand corner), click "add a gadget" - scroll down and click the + listed next to "blog list" - then follow the directions. If you get stuck, we can work on it in class Thursday.

In class next Thursday, we will use the "evidence" you have collected from reading three creative non-fiction essays to put together some ideas about what creative nonfiction writers do. You will also do some discovery writing in your writing journals.

I think we have a great group and I am looking forward to reading your work.

Welcome to ENG 3017

This will be our home site for your creative nonfiction course. We will use this site confirm assignments, store assignment sheets, post draft writing, and comment on one another's work.

Today you will get started on getting to know one another and setting up your blogs.