English 240 Syllabus

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Course Description

This course provides you an opportunity to explore your interest in literary creativity by writing original short fiction, poetry, play or screenplay, or magazine article(s).  Writers will gain understanding of each literary type, have the opportunity to create in each area, and be afforded the chance to have their work critiqued in a workshop setting.  This course may be taken for a maximum of 6 units.

 

Objectives:  

By the end of this course you should:  be conversant with each of the genres; have created original works in at least one of the genres; be able to analyze and critique your own work, the work of other students, and published; know how to submit work for publication or production.

Writing Assignments

You’ll be doing two kinds of writing:  creative and critical.  As for the creative, you’ll write three pieces of original creative work.  Two will be submitted to the workshop, and the third, either a rewrite or something new, will be submitted for your final.  You can write all short stories, or all drama, or all poetry, or all creative nonfiction, or any combination of the three.  As for your critical writing, for each piece of original work submitted to the workshop, you’ll write a critique.  All told, you’ll write a minimum of 8000 words (about 32 type-written pages.)

Course Structure

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Assignments

The course is divided into four parts:  short fiction, play and screenplay, poetry, and creative nonfiction.  After a brief introduction to each of the genres, the class time will be devoted primarily to critiquing your writing in the workshop.  The aim of the workshop is threefold:  first, to provide you, the writer, with a quick and intelligent response to your work; second, to avail to you, the critic, the chance to ply and hone your own tools of literary analysis so tat you may bring them to bear on your own work; and, third, to expose you to a great variety of subjects and writing styles.

The workshop

You are responsible for providing a photocopy of your work for each member of the class, including the instructor.  All work must be typed.  Short fiction should be double-spaced with a minimum of one-inch margins all around.  Poetry:  one poem per page.  Plays and screenplays must abide by their respective formats.  Creative nonfiction needs to abide by the MLA format.

The critique

For each work discussed in class, including work from the text, you are to compose a critique:  one half to a full page in length, typed, single spaced.  The critique should include the following:

1.      a brief statement as to what you think the point or theme of the work is;

2.      an explanation of the work’s chief weakness(es) – e.g., the use of cliché, an awkward shift in point of view; the absence of anything eventful;

3.      and an explanation of the work’s chief strength(s) – e.g., fresh use of language, compelling plot, credible characters.

Texts

Required:

Burroway, Janet.  Imaginative Writing:  The Elements of Craft.  New York:  Longman, 2007.

 Recommended for fiction writers

Burroway, Janet.  Writing Fiction:  A Guide to Narrative Craft.  New York:  Longman, 2007.

 Recommended for poets

Boisseau, Michelle and Robert Wallace.  Writing Poetry.  6^th ed.  New York:  Longman, 2003.

Behn, Robert.  The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach.  New York:  Collins, 1993.

 Recommended for screenwriters

Whitcomb, Cynthia.  The Writer's Guide to Writing Your Screenplay: How to Write Great Screenplays for Movies and Television.  New York:  Watson-Guptill, 2002.

Hague, Michael.  Writing Screenplays That Sell.  New York:  Collins, 1991.

 Recommended for the essayists

Roorbach, Bill.  The Art of Truth.  New York:  Oxford University Press USA, 2000.

Requirements:

This course consists of three units:  the short story, poetry, and drama.  There will be a midterm, which will cover short fiction, and a final, which will cover poetry and drama.  Also, you will write three analytic papers outside of class, each one considering two pieces of literature, comparing and contrasting what you consider important features of both.  If you so choose, one of the three papers can be a creative work of your own – a short story, or a collection of a minimum of three poems, or a scene from a play.  All papers are to be typed and should abide by formal, M.L.A. manuscript conventions.  A late paper will fall one grade for each class missed, and no work will be accepted after the last day of the semester.  In addition, you will develop a Response Journal – a collection of written responses, each from a half to two pages long – to readings from the text and, if you like, to a live production of a play and a poetry reading.

Grades: 

 Late Papers and Absences

The success of this class depends largely on the quality of your participation in the workshop, your turning in your work on the date you sign up for, and your writing critiques for your colleagues.  A late piece of work cannot be accepted, for it diminishes the time allotted for discussing other works.  Bear in mind that material critiqued in the workshop is considered “work in progress,” and, although you will want to show only your best, most finished work, you wouldn’t be submitting the piece if it were indeed done.  Also note that an absence means that you not only fail to turn in one set of critiques, but that you fail to pick up the next set of work as well.  Any more than three absences and you’ll be dropped from the course.

 

Plagiarism:  

In every writing course, plagiarism is a serious concern for both teachers and students, and the practice is as welcome in a writing class as kidnapping is in a class on childbirth. See your Cerritos College Catalogue for a discussion of academic honesty.