Course Requirements

Weekly INFORMAL responses to the assigned readings: Usually a notebook or journal entry. These are meant to be spontaneous, unedited responses, NOT expository essays or drafts for papers. Length from 3 to 7 pages each week. Fragments, lists, incomplete thoughts are fine in the service of noting your reactions and thoughts. The responses are open-ended and can be in whatever form you choose – they are meant to encourage interaction with the poems and also serve as a record of your reading.

For each week, I will provide a set of discussion questions to answer; it is NOT necessary to answer each and every question but to use these questions as guides for your own response. If you have other things to write that seem more useful or interesting to you: go ahead! A good way to fulfill this requirement is to keep a journal or notebook to record responses, comments, and opinions of texts, lectures, class discussion, poetics, observations on your own writing, and poetry readings. The journal is an open form in which you can feel free to record your impressions in an informal manner. Use these responses to document what you are reading – both assigned and unassigned reading; and also any literary events, especially poetry or fiction readings, that you attend (I'll suggest several readings over the semester).

Creative Writing Assignments: Each week you will be expected to write 2-3 pages of poetry, fiction, or cross-genre. I will post weekly writing experiments for you to attempt. You may decide to pass on any given week's experiment, opting to invent or follow an experiment of your own, but keep in mind that half of your final portfolio entires must demonstrate work produced through the experiment suggestions.

Workshopping/Class Participation: An integral part of this course is your participation in a reading and writing community that is respectful and helpful to the other writers in the class. Each week, you will be responsible for bringing to class your course readings and notebook/journal writing to help faciliate your participation in class discussion. Twice a semester, you can expect to have your writing workshopped in the class. Tuesdays will generally be reserved for student presentations and round-table discussion of texts, while Thursdays will be mostly devoted to workshopping four students’ work, with time for general commentary afterwards. It is imperative that you turn in a copy of your work (2-3 pages) the Thurs. before your scheduled workshop so that I can make copies for the class. During others’ writing workshops, you will be responsible for assessing, writing about, and discussing your peer’s work by focusing on your first impressions/reactions, formal aspects of the work, how ideas and/or meaning is communicated, and observations pertaining to genre and style, maintaining a positive and constructive criticism at all times. We’re aiming to be investigators here, not editors. Peer workshop responses should be typed-up before class and single-spaced, single page in length, which you will print-out & bring to the Thurs. workshop. You can expect the same consideration in return.

Assessment of your participation in this community will include completion of all writing assignments and reading responses, active participation in creative writing workshops, and maintaining a respectful demeanor. Creative workshops, the backbone of this course, demand unerring attendance to function fully, as they are the most effective way to receive feedback on your writing and strengthen your own skills and vocabulary as a responsive reader.

Presentation: Once a semester, you will lead a 10min presentation and discussion based on the text we are reading that week. You will present on a Tuesday the week of either the first or second workshopping of your work.

Blogging: Each member of the class will create and maintain a blog where your weekly (3-7p) notebook responses will be typed-up and posted, in addition to your writing experiments (2-3p) and any revisions. As much as possible, all work for the class should be posted on your personal blog. You will also be required to post weekly a small and modest selection of your personal blog writing onto the class blog, about a page of writing. Over the semester I expect that everyone will post to the class blog BOTH creative and response work regularly. Please have all blog work posted no later than Wednesdays at Noon.

Each member of the class will also be put into a 4-person Blog Group. Every other Wednesday each member will be required to read and comment online on one piece from each of the other four members. That means each member must clearly designate in the Post title (ie. “New Poem – for Blog Group”) the piece of writing they would like feedback on that week. This bi-weekly requirement will serve as an online extension of our in-class workshopping practice.

Final Portfolio: By the semester’s end, you will be expected to turn in a final portfolio containing all the creative writing you have written and compiled. A focus in poetry requires 15 pages of poetry, 5-10 pages of fiction, and 5 pages of polished and extended ideas taken from your notes/journal. A focus in fiction requires 15-20 pages of fiction, 5 poems, and 5 pages of polished notes. At least 10 pieces, for either focus, must be based off the blog experiment suggestions. The final portfolio will be emailed to me.