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SyllabusEn 276G—The Art of Life Writing Ellie Kutz Spring 2006 Office: W-6-29 11:30 T/Th Office Phone: 617-287-6722 W-1-062 Email: Eleanor.Kutz@umb.edu Office hours: Tues/Thurs 10:30-11:30; Thursday 2:30-3:30 and by appointment.
Course description: In this course we will explore the non-fiction genres in which people write creatively about their own experience, about the experiences of others, and about the world around them. Typical creative-non-fiction genres include autobiography and memoir, travel writing, research-based personal essays, and, more recently, blogs and websites. We’ll read examples of writing in these genres, write critical essays about them, and write our own creative non-fiction.
As an intermediate seminar, this course is intended to develop your skills as a critical and analytical reader and writer. It will involve several formal essays, in addition to informal writing, and one of those essays will be suitable for submission as part of a portfolio to fulfill the Writing Proficiency Requirement.
The course is designed
In the course, we’ll apply relevant concepts and ways of conceptualizing creative non-fiction as distinguished from fiction and from other non-fiction writing such as newspaper reporting or academic writing be divided into four units: Writing about the self and past experience: the memoir Writing about one’s experience of the world: places, travel, events, activities, people, current experience Writing the researched creative essay Writing for different media: blogs, websites, and oral performance.
We will have a website for this class, at www.litandwriting.umb.edu . I’ll post course assignments and materials to this site, and you will be able to post your writing and respond to other students’ writings. Some links to reading and listening materials and information about some of the writers whose work we’ll read will appear on the resources page of this website. The website will be password protected so that only members of this section will be able to read any writing that you post.
Readings
Our readings will be varied, drawing from a collection of creative nonfiction, from an assortment of memoirs, writings about place, travel, events, and other current experience, writing about topics that require research (yet nevertheless are written from a personal, subjective perspective). We will read one novel that encompasses a little of each of these. Our “readings” will include listenings, to excerpts from National Public Radio’s This American Life.
Bookstore: Lee Gutkind, ed. In Fact. The Best of Creative Nonfiction. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005 Andrew Pham, Catfish and Mandala. New York: Picador, 2000. (On order.)
Optional: Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard, eds. Writing Creative Nonfiction. Cincinnati: Story Press, 2001. (This book includes essays of advice by published creative nonfiction writers, for those who want to pursue such writing in a serious way.)
On electronic reserve (Password: author) Tommi Avocolli, “He Defies You Still: Memoirs of a Sissy” (ER) Dave Eggers, from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (ER) Philip Gerard, “Telling a True Story,” from Creative Nonfiction. Researching and Crafting Stories from Real Life, Long Grove, IL: Wave Press, 1996. Patricia Hample, “Memory and Imagination” from The Fourth Genre. R. Root and M. Steinberg, eds. New York: Longman, 2005.
bell hooks, “Talking Back” (ER) Mike Rose, “I Just Wanna Be Average.” From Lives on the Boundary. (ER) Edie Shillue, “Good Craic” Leslie Marmon Silko, “Aunt Susie’s Story” from The Storyteller (ER) Selection from Baghdad Burning: A Girl Blog from Iraq.
Links on Website: Eleanor Kutz, Exploring Literacy, Chapter 3, Memoir includes “Karen’s Memoir” “This American Life,” National Public Radio Program by Ira Glass. Episodes: Music Lessons, vignettes by David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, Annie Lamott Notes on Camp Babysitting Other episodes of your choice
Handouts: Patricia Hample, selection from “Memory and Imagination” from The Fourth Genre Adam Gopnick, “The People on the Bus,” from The Fourth Genre
Additional readings will be determined based on the class’s interests and suggestions.
Writing
This course will involve both critical and creative writing, with some writing for most class meetings (and sometimes in our class meetings. In general, we’ll do informal critical responses to readings for one class each week and informal creative pieces for the other. You’ll receive credit for completing informal pieces, but these won’t be graded. There will be formal graded papers, involving drafts and revisions, for each unit. The first two will involve a creative piece, framed by critical discussion about the writer’s craft. The third will be a researched creative essay. The final one will involve a presentation through different media (a blog, a website, oral presentation as on the radio or in live performance), most likely drawing on your earlier work in the course.
Instructional Approach and Expectations
Assignments and other materials related to the course will be posted to the online class website. The site will be password protected, and you’ll receive instructions for accessing it in the first week of class.
For each unit, I’ll ask you to post your writings, and respond to the writings of other students. More detailed guidelines for both informal writing responses and larger papers will be posted on this site.
Because this course builds incrementally on each prior week’s work and requires continuing application of the concepts being learned, it will be important for you to attend regularly, contribute to the website postings and discussion, and keep up with the work day-to-day.
Evaluation of Student Performance
The evaluation of your performance for this course will be based on your posting of weekly informal analyses, responses, and contributions to discussion (20%) your unit 1 project (15%) your unit 2 project (20%) your unit 3 project (25%) your unit 4 projects (20%)
We’ll work out specific elements of and expectations for these parts of your work together, generating common understandings that will serve as guidelines both for your work and for the assessment of that work.
OVERVIEW of SCHEDULE
The course will be divided into four units.
Unit 1—Writing about the self and past experience: the memoir Weeks 1-4
The first unit will focus on how writers have used the memoir (and the longer autobiography) to explore aspects of their past experience—reseeing that experience from a present perspective, and drawing larger meanings from it. We will read a number of memoirs, we’ll consider their common elements (what makes a memoir) as well as the variation in form that different writers have used in crafting their unique representations of their experiences. In this unit, you’ll do some critical writing about the memoirs we read, some informal writing about your own past experience, and your own memoir. Our readings will include memoirs on Electronic Reserves, selections from This American Life, and portions of Catfish and Mandala.
Unit 2—Writing about the world: places, travel, events, activities, current experience Weeks 5-7
The second unit will focus on how writers of creative nonfiction write about the world around them, about places they visit in their daily lives or through travel, about events that take place, about activities they participate in. The emphasis will be on current or recent experience, rather than reseeing the past from a somewhat distant perspective. In this unit, you will again do some critical writing about the pieces we read, some informal writing about topics in your own present experience/topics of interest to you, and your own personal essay about one of these topics. Our readings will include selections about these topics on Electronic Reserves, selections from This American Life, and further portions of Catfish and Mandala.
Unit 3—Writing the researched creative essay Weeks 8-11
The third unit will focus on researching and writing an essay on a topic of interest to you, where the writing will continue to reflect your subjective perspective, even as it is combined with the facts you discover from your research. For this unit, you may add research to one of your earlier creative pieces, or you may choose an entirely new topic. Your writing will include some critical writing about the pieces we read, some informal “research memos” as you discover information and find a perspective on your topic, and another portion of Catfish and Mandala. The essay for this unit is intended to be appropriate for submission for the Portfolio Option of the Writing Proficiency Requirement.
Unit 4—Writing for different media: blogs, websites, and oral performance/radio Weeks 12-15
The fourth unit will focus on the ways in which writers have been using a variety of media to explore aspects of their experience of the world and to reflect on different topics from a personal perspective. For this unit, you will read blogs (including selections from Baghdad Burning) and make contributions to one (or start your own), do some critical examination of several websites, and consider the specific requirements of writing for oral performance. You will choose to write a final piece, or adapt a piece of your earlier writing, for one of these media.
A detailed schedule for each unit will be posted on the website in advance.
INFORMATION ABOUT INTERMEDIATE SEMINARS Intermediate Seminars offer students with 30 or more credits the opportunity to work on essential university capabilities in small-sized courses that are often thematic or problem-oriented and interdisciplinary in nature. Designed in part to help students prepare for the Writing Proficiency Requirement, Intermediate Seminars put special emphasis on critical reading, thinking, and writing. They focus on other essential capabilities as appropriate to the course and might therefore include attention to library research and information technology, collaborative learning, oral presentation, and academic self-assessment. Students who practiced reading, writing, and critical thinking in a First Year Seminar at UMass Boston will practice them at a more advanced level in the Intermediate Seminar.
Only ONE Intermediate Seminar may be taken for credit. If you have taken another G200-level course in any department at UMB, you cannot receive credit for this one.
Prerequisites: English 101, English 102, First Year Seminar (or waiver), and 30 credits. The First Year Seminar is automatically waived for students who enter UMB with 30 or more transfer credits. Because these are intensive reading and writing courses, some students may find it helpful to enroll in CRW 221 to further develop their skills with college-level writing before taking an Intermediate Seminar. Discuss your situation with the instructor if you have any questions about these prerequisites or your readiness for the work in this course.
The Writing Proficiency Requirement: Students from the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Science and Mathematics, and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences complete the University’s Writing Proficiency Requirement through the Writing Proficiency Evaluation (WPE). The Writing Proficiency Requirement is not the same as the writing placement test you may have taken when you entered UMass Boston. The WPE can be met through either an examination or a take-home essay submitted along with a portfolio of papers written for UMB courses. See the WPR website (www.umb.edu/academics/wpr) for more details about the exam and portfolio options and dates. Students who have not already satisfied the WPR should arrange to take the exam or submit a portfolio shortly after completing this course.
Support services for Intermediate Seminar students: The Academic Support Office offers both individual tutoring and drop-in workshops for students who need help with the critical reading, thinking and writing skills necessary for success in General Education courses such as this one. More information on their programs is available online at www.academicsupport.umb.edu/rwsscenter.html, or at their Campus Center office (CC1-1300). The Ross Center for Disability Services (CC2-2010) provides accommodations and educational resources for students with demonstrated needs, as outlined on their website (www.rosscenter.umb.edu). Should you be eligible for these services, you should contact the Ross Center right away so that their staff can help you identify appropriate accommodations in this and other courses. Finally, if it appears that you might not pass this Intermediate Seminar and if the instructor cannot figure out how to support your success in the course, the instructor might inform the Director of the Student Referral Program in the University Advising Center. This strictly confidential program is part of an early warning system designed to help students address personal and academic difficulties that may interfere with their progress in the University.
Assessment of these courses: In addition to course evaluation forms that are routinely administered at the end of each course at UMass Boston, Intermediate Seminar students are asked to complete a self-assessment questionnaire addressing their progress as critical thinkers and writers. Each term an assessment committee will look at randomly chosen student writing from a small sample of Intermediate Seminars. Please save all your writing in this course so that, if you are chosen, you will have your work available. The purpose of this evaluation is to improve the program and to improve particular courses as necessary, not to evaluate individual students. You may remove your name from your papers if you prefer to submit them anonymously.
Student plagiarism and classroom behavior: Students are expected to abide by the University’s Code of Student Conduct in all their classes at UMass Boston (www.umb.edu/student_affairs/programs/judicial/csc.html). Plagiarism is a particularly serious violation, as outlined in the Academic Honesty section of the code (section VI), and will not be tolerated. Offensive and insulting behavior undermines the sense of community that the Intermediate Seminars strive to build. Class discussion and group projects can be productive only in a climate of respect for the opinions and beliefs of all. A healthy exchange about issues may include disagreement about ideas, but it must not demean the character or background of the individuals holding those ideas.
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