Undergraduate Courses
E412 A,B,C Creative Writing Workshop A. Fiction
A. FictionPrerequisite: E311A with grade of B or better
This course meets for group discussion of student fiction. These discussions deal with every aspect of fiction, from theory to craft, from original conception to the smallest details of prose style, and they allow students to receive diverse criticism of their fiction, as well as give them a chance to test their tastes and critical theories against their peers' and to discuss their emotional and critical reactions to fiction. Students also meet individually with the instructor. To benefit fully from the course, students should have already written fiction and have a critical technical vocabulary sophisticated enough to talk seriously about it. The course does not focus on any particular type of fiction, except to stress serious literary fiction. Genre fiction is not worked on. This course usually requires one story or chapter of a novel per credit hour, two revisions, exercises, and reading assignments.
B. Poetry
Prerequisite: E311B with a grade of B or better
This course meets for class discussion of student poetry. Though no particular kind of poetry is required, specific assignments are sometimes made. Instead, it is assumed that students who sign up for their class are writing regularly and will have no trouble handing in one poem per week (for 3 credit hours). It is also assumed that they have either taken E311B or can produce a portfolio of a dozen or so poems of sufficient promise in the judgment of the instructor to merit special permission to enter the class. Class discussion of poems will range from technical matters to rhyme and meter and lining to informal reactions. The emphasis will be on helpfulness --- on ways to revise a poem, to improve rhythm, clarify meaning, sharpen images, & c. Students may also meet with the instructor for additional discussion of their poems. Finally, a book of contemporary poetry, either an anthology or a book of poems by one poet, may be required and discussed, often in conjunction with the visit of the poet to campus or the community and as preparation for a special class meeting with him or her.
C. Creative Nonfiction
Prerequisite: E311A or C with a grade of B or better
Like its E412 counterparts in fiction and poetry, E412C is primarily a workshop that encourages students to strive for literary quality. Through classroom and individual critiques, class discussion of outstanding contemporary works of nonfiction, and student writing and other assignments, students will consider a wide array of imaginative story-telling techniques such as plotting, scene construction, characterization, and the use of metaphor, symbol, and idiosyncratic point of view, tone, voice and style. There will be fewer assigned writing topics than in 311C; as much as possible, students will be encouraged to choose their own topics and methods of approach. Students will writer about 30 pages of nonfiction, not counting rewrites. Though the class will be primarily a workshop, specific topics for classroom discussion will probably be best determined by student needs as revealed by trends in student manuscripts.
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