10 INTRO TO CNF – ROBERT PECK – FALL 2017

Introduction to Creative Nonfiction: Writing When It Matters

Fall 2017

5-6:15pm Tuesdays & Thursdays

Instructor: Robert Peck

 Texts: There is one required text for the class—Hiroshima, by John Hersey. You can buy it at Prairie Lights Books on Dubuque Street downtown. Look for “Peck” in the textbooks section.

Packet: Our course packet is available via Zephyr Printing on the Ped Mall downtown. Please bring the course packet every day, even if we aren’t using it!

Notebooks: Please get two notebooks just for this class. Bring both every time.

A wise reader reads the book of genius not with his heart, not so much with his brain, but with his spine. It is there that occurs the telltale tingle… — Vladimir Nabokov

Modern times demand smart writers who know how to tell the truth, even when it hurts. The stakes in creative nonfiction—a field that combines the hard truth of journalism with the beauty of fiction and poetry—are always high. Writing well is difficult. It can be frightening. Yet it is never a task we may cast aside, for it’s on language, not brick or mortar, that our civilization is built.

In this course, we’ll push ourselves to be brave in the face of dangerous writing. We’ll learn to dissect it, pulling and squeezing at it until we turn out its innards, learning what drives it and why. Why—why does brilliant writing work so well? When we say a sentence is good, well made, beautiful, what do we really mean? And how can we harness this power for ourselves? It’s by examining works of genius, and trying our hand at coming up with them ourselves, that we can learn the tricks.

Our biggest objective in this class is to help each other understand the words we will read together. We will expose ourselves to a wide range of different topics and styles, and discuss what we notice in them. From there, we will define our own sensibilities through small and large creative projects of our own. We will “workshop” each other’s work, meaning that we will read it critically and talk through the work as a group, with an eye to helping the author make it even stronger still. By the end of the course, we will leave not only with a rock-solid grounding in writing and reading high stakes work, but with a collection of our own essays, large and small, that we may draw upon in the future and take pride in sharing with others.

Participation is such an important part of this class that we’ve all got to show up on time, every time. That said, I understand that life is tough to predict, and I’m usually happy to accommodate a few late arrivals, provided that you let me know as soon as you can that you’re going to run late. Even an email an hour before class is better than nothing! Surprise lateness and absences are the worst. If you’re consistently late, that’ll be a different story—your participation grade is important, and you should work to protect it!

I’m also happy to excuse one or two absences during the semester for most good reasons, provided you discuss it with me at least three days ahead of time. “Good reasons” is pretty broad; interviews, performances, club events, and other such functions were a big part of my time in college, and I want to work with you and help you enjoy them. Beyond a few absences, though, you should expect your participation grade to suffer.

The world is advancing, and classrooms must advance with it. On days when we aren’t discussing each other’s original work, I am happy to allow you to use laptops and phones in class to take notes and keep track of the discussion. Browsing social media (probably) isn’t keeping track of the discussion. If I find people becoming distracted too often by tech, I’ll have to nix this 🙁

On days when we are discussing each other’s original work in class, the use of laptops, phones and other tech won’t be allowed. As a technophile, I’m sorry to ban it, but it’s proven to be too much of a problem to risk on such important days. During our workshops, we come together to support one another and immerse ourselves in the work, tech free.

Each semester, students come to me asking me to read their work for non-school stuff, such as interviews and applications. I’m quite happy to do this! However, there are so many students in the class that it’s not feasible for me to read every document for every student.

As such, I’ve got a rule about it: I’ll read and help with one piece of writing (or speaking) work for a non-academic purpose per student, provided that you give me at least a week’s notice and come to my office hours to discuss it with me. I can’t read academic work for other classes, and I can’t talk about non-class stuff during class time or without sufficient notice! But I’d be delighted to help you revise.

Grading and Assignments

Grading breakdown: 100% of the total grade = 600 points

Participation: 40% of total grade (240 points)

Most of the grade in this class—nearly half—is based on your active participation. Participation in class is critical to our success! The participation grade not only covers active engagement and discussion during our class meetings, but also attendance to the small assignments that form a part of that active engagement:

• – Participation in each day of class: I expect that you will come to class each day prepared to join in active discussion of the day’s work and reading. If I feel that you’re coming to class unprepared too often, I’ll call a pop quiz. Don’t make me call a pop quiz! Come ready to talk. 3 points per class meeting x 30 days of class = 90 points total
• – The reading journal: I’ll ask you to dedicate one of the two notebooks for this class to a reading journal, in which you respond to and question the reading we do each week. 30 points for each of two checks = 60 points total
• – Markups of each other’s prompts: I’ll ask you to write comments in the margins of each other’s short prompt assignments prior to discussion. 30 points total
• – Workshop letters: Likewise, I’ll ask you to write workshop letters for each of your peer’s workshopped creative essays. 30 points total
• – Leading reading discussion: Once during the semester, I’ll ask each of you to pair up to prepare and lead discussion of our week’s readings. 45 points total

Prompts: 5% each (30 points) for 20% of total grade (120 points)

In the first half of the semester, I will pose six small, 500-1000 word prompts for you to complete. In total, you must complete four of these, worth five percent of your overall grade (30 points) each, with the following conditions:

• – Everybody is required to complete the first prompt.
• – Everybody is also required to complete one of the prompts and to submit for discussion among the group, and to conference with me about it afterwards. You’ll sign up for the prompt you plan to submit on the first day of class.
• – Of the remaining four prompts, you may pick two to complete, and two to skip.

Critical essay: 15% of total grade (90 points)

Around midterm, you will be assigned a critical essay of 1250-1500 words in length. That critical essay, including your attention to the pre-writing stages of the proposal and outline, will be worth 15 percent of your overall grade.

Creative essay: 25% of total grade (150 points)

Your final project for this class will be a creative project of at least 2,000 words in length. Each student will sign up to workshop a draft of their essay once, and will have a conference with me to discuss the draft as well. This final creative project, including the workshop and revision process, is worth 25 percent of your overall grade.

Assignment specifics 

Active and faithful participation in class during each of our meetings is the most important part of this class. But, of course, there are other requirements as well. You can see the details of those outlined in the following pages.

Formatting and submitting your work

Each assignment for this class is detailed in the following sections. Specific requirements for each assignment, including how and when to submit, are given in each assignment section. Deadlines for all work are also included in the calendar at the end of this syllabus. However, all formal work submitted for this class should meet the following formatting guidelines:

Header: Please include your name, the date, the class name, and the name of the assignment in the upper right corner of each formal assignment you turn in.

Title: Please give all prompts and essays submitted for this class a title, included    at the beginning of the piece.

Spacing: Please double space all work for this class.

Font: The font and margins you use are up to you. Please keep things legible!

As you read the assigned essays and chapters each week, please keep track of your reactions in a notebook. This notebook is your reading journal, and it is one of the most important parts of our class. I’ll collect your journal, along with a reflection letter about it, three times during the semester.

How often should you write? You should attempt to respond to each assigned reading: every essay, every article, every chapter of Hiroshima. The only things you don’t need to journal on are each other’s own original works, since you’ll be responding critically to those in other ways.

What should your reaction be? Your reactions to the reading can be nearly anything you like. Positive, negative, confused, questioning, gleeful, sardonic—I welcome it all, as long as you make the effort.

Examples of good tactics for reading reflection in the journal include thinking about why the author made specific choices of words or structure or details to use; about why the piece affected you the way it did; about what confused you or left you disappointed; and about how the piece can be compared to others we have read.

Examples of bad tactics for reading reflection include simple summaries, statements that the piece is good or bad without support, and stories or ideas unrelated to the reading at hand.

How is this graded? Twice during the semester (September 21, and October 26), I’ll collect your reading journal from you in class. Please come to class those days with your journal, as well as a 500-700 word reflection letter discussing how your approach to evaluating writing has changed as you’ve read so far in the semester. I’ll look it over and respond to it, and you’ll come by the Nonfiction office on the 4th floor of EPB that weekend to pick it back up. Each of those two checkins is worth 30 participation points, for 60 total.

Once during the semester, I’ll ask you to come prepared to lead discussion on our week’s readings. You’ll sign up for a date on the first day of class, and you’ll have a partner to help you.

What should I do to prepare? You should coordinate with your partner ahead of time and come up with a few concrete things: an introduction of each author (if we haven’t had one already), a few thoughts about the broad strategies you see all of the day’s authors using, and several good non-summary questions to get discussion going. Please don’t use PowerPoint.

What should I do when I’m actually leading discussion? The goal of leading discussion is to draw other people in to participate! It’s your responsibility to get the conversation going, and if discussion stalls, it’s also your responsibility to get it started again.

You may lead discussion however you like. Some good tactics include asking your peers to reflect in writing at the beginning of class, trying to bring up themes you see tying the pieces together, and reflecting on specific choices the authors seem to have made.

How is this graded? I’ll participate in the discussion you lead myself, and will assess your preparedness and effort. I won’t assess the contributions of others in class, so don’t worry if some of your attempts don’t go as planned! All you need to do is prepare and work to get discussion going well. Each partner individually receives 45 participation points for leading discussion—please divide the work evenly!

Many authors find it helpful to share their work with one another as they write, receiving feedback and ideas about how to refine the writing. In class, we will focus this process of sharing and refining of our work into a group discussion called a workshop.

Who is workshopped, and how often? Each person will be workshopped two times: once for a short prompt, and once for a longer essay. You’ll sing up for your workshop dates at the beginning of the semester, and you’ll have an office hours conference with me after both of your workshops.

What do we do in workshops? We discuss each other’s original writing: its strengths, its faults, and most importantly of all, why we believe those strengths and faults are occurring. Though we focus on other people’s writing in workshop, workshopping is ultimately about improving our ability to spot strengths and weaknesses in our own work. Thus, it’s most important that we pick out not just what is good and bad, but why good things go well and how to fix bad things.

What DON’T we do in workshops? We do not speak rudely or harshly. We do not mock. We do not nitpick unnecessarily. Instead, we are diplomatic, and we participate in good faith, recognizing that people have made themselves vulnerable by being here and that they are sharing works in progress, not polished final drafts. In essence, we are kind, yet genuine.

How do we prepare for workshop? First, we read each other’s writing. We read thoroughly, marking as we go and taking notes and reading again. For longer essays, we then write a letter to the author that summarizes our reading: What do we feel went well and why, and where do we feel the author can make the work even better still (and how)? We bring our marked copies of the work, and our response letters, to class ready to discuss with each other.

How is this graded? For work you share, the workshop process is factored in to the final grade of the piece. If you bring writing to workshop, and make an honest attempt to thoroughly respond and revise if required, all will be well. There is no participation grade for your own workshops—in fact, you will be asked to remain silent during them.

For the work of others, I will collect your marked-up copies of each other’s prompts and essays, and your feedback letters. Altogether, your marked up prompts and feedback letters are each worth 30 total points, for 60 in all. Your daily participation points will also be awarded in each workshop as normal, based on thoughtful in-class engagement.

In the first six weeks of the semester, I’ll ask each of you to write four 500-1000 word responses to prompts I pose each week based on that week’s reading. Each prompt is a creative assignment, meaning there is no right or wrong way to complete it.

When and how do I turn these prompts in? You should submit your prompt responses as replies to the weekly prompt discussion threads on ICON by 11:59pm the Sunday after each prompt is assigned. For example, the first prompt will be assigned in class Thursday, August 24, and will be due by 11:59pm Sunday, August 27.

Where can I find the prompts? I’ll share them in class and via ICON and email at the end of each of the first six weeks. If you can’t find the week’s prompt, please ask!

Which prompts should I respond to? Everybody, including me, will respond to the first of the six prompts between weeks 1 and 2. After that, it’s up to you which three of the remaining five prompts you pick, with one exception: you’ll sign up for a date to workshop one prompt in class, so you’ll have to respond to the prompt that week?

How do we respond to each other’s prompts? In weeks 3-7, three to four people will have their prompts workshopped in class each week. The names of those being workshopped that week will be published in the week’s prompt discussion thread on ICON. It is your responsibility to print out, read, and write comments on the prompts being workshopped that week, and to bring your copies of the marked up prompts to class that Tuesday. These responses will be worth 30 points altogether, and will be collected in class as part of the workshop grade discussed earlier.

How is this graded? These prompts are creative assignments. There is no right or wrong way to complete them. All that matters is that you attend to the assignment’s expectations: you make a genuine effort to respond to the prompt rather than writing something else, and you write within the word limits. If you do those things, all will be well. Each of your four prompts is worth 30 points, for 120 total, or 20 percent of your final grade.

Part of good writing is understanding how other people write well. To do that, we’ll undertake 1250-1500-word critical essays comparing the tactics different writers use. The final essays will be due on October 16. Two preliminary steps are required: an essay proposal, due in class on October 3, and an essay outline, due October 11.

What’s the assignment? Your task will be to compare a specific writing strategy John Hersey uses in Hiroshima to a specific strategy another author uses in one of the essays we read in the first seven weeks. You may pick any of our authors you like, and focus on any strategy they use.

What are the requirements? In addition to the critical essay itself, you’ll turn in two pre-writing steps:

• – An essay proposal, in which you explain in 250-500 words which authors you are comparing, which strategies you have selected to compare, and why these authors and strategies should be compared;
• – And an essay outline, in which you use a numbered and sectioned list to explain the structure of your essay.

Where and when do I turn it in?

• – Submit your essay proposal on paper in class on Tuesday, October 3. You’ll discuss it with a partner in class that day, and with me during a conference on Thursday, October 5.
• – Submit your essay outline via ICON dropbox on Wednesdauy, October 11.
• – Submit your final critical essay itself via ICON dropbox on Monday, October 16.

What’s my goal in the critical essay? Your goal is to understand and explain how these authors are making choices when they write. Different artists use different strategies to produce an effect in the reader: some use humor, others precise attention to detail, and others still carefully-crated rhythms or processes in the text.

Why is it important to understand these strategies? We study the tactics other writers use so that we can be inspired by them to become better writers ourselves. No artist works in isolation; we are motivated by the world around us, and by the works of our peers.

What makes a good critical essay? You may compare any strategy Hersey uses to any strategy of any of our other authors. However, good critical essays will pick precise strategies: for example, not just Hersey’s use of voice, but his use of a precise sort of voice a few particular moments in the book.

Good critical essays will make it obvious, in a convincing way supported with multiple examples, why the authors they choose might use such strategies. They will also draw meaningful comparisons between the strategies they select, comparing or contrasting the effects that each has produced.

And, of course, good critical essays will be well-organized and attend to all of the submission and formatting guidelines.

Your final project for this class is a long-form creative project of your own. The essay may be in any style and on any subject you like. It should be at least 2,000 words long, and it is due on the last day of class, Thursday, December 7.

What are the requirements?

• – You’ll sign up for a date to workshop your essay during our mid-term meeting on October 5. A draft of your essay will be due via reply to an ICON discussion post three days prior to your workshop date. You won’t have to participate in your own workshop; you’ll just have to show up and listen.
• – After your workshop, you’ll receive feedback letters from your peers and me. I’ll give those to you during a post-workshop meeting. It’s your job to revise your project based on the feedback you receive and your own private musings on the process. You don’t have to take anybody’s advice, but you do have to revise. Most projects should change substantially after workshopping.
• – Once you’ve been workshopped, had your meeting with me, and revised your project, you’ll turn in the final draft via ICON dropbox by class time on Thursday, December 7. It should be a cohesive essay and meet the word minimum—those are the only requirements for this!
• – At the end of your essay, please include a 500-700 word reflection in which you explain a) what you changed between drafts of the essay, b) why you made those changes, c) what you think is still missing, and d) most importantly, what writing, for this project or any other, you want to do next.

How do we respond to each other’s essays? In weeks 10-15, four people will have their essays workshopped in class each week. The names of those being workshopped that week will be published in a prompt discussion thread on ICON each week, and the drafts to read will be available as replies to that thread.

It is your responsibility to print out, read, and write comments on the prompts being workshopped that week, as well as to write a 250-500 word workshop letter for each essay summarizing your thoughts. Bring your copies of the marked up prompts to class that Tuesday, as well as two copies of each letter: one for me and one for your peer. These letters will be worth 30 points altogether, and will be collected in class as part of the workshop grade discussed earlier.

What makes a good creative essay? Like the 500-1000 word prompts we will undertake at the beginning of the semester, this final essay is a creative assignment. There are no right and wrong ways to do it! As we’ve seen this semester, good creative essays come in all shapes and sizes.

However, here are some suggestions that might help:

• – You should probably be excited by your topic. It doesn’t matter how mundane the topic seems, or how wild, or how small or large. If it excites you, it’s fertile ground.
• – Most good essays have stakes. That is, it’s clear to the reader why this project matters to the author, and why it might matter to the reader as well. Think about what’s at stake in your work: what are you risking here? What’s exciting? Where are the hot moments? Try to bring those areas of the essay out, and focus on building the project around them.
• – Be inspired by our reading this semester! We’ve seen so much from so many skilled authors. Something probably stood out to you, and that’s a great place to begin as you think about how to shape your own work.

I require you to conference with me three times during the semester in my office hours:

• – Once during weeks 3-7, to discuss your first workshop;
• – Once on October 5, for a mid-term check-in;
• – And once after your final project workshop in the last third of the semester.

Scale

Assignments are graded on an A-F scale, with A being the highest possible grade. Grade distributions are as follows: 93 and above, A; 92-90, A-; 89-87, B+; 86-83, B; 82-80, B-; 79-77, C+; 76-73, C; 72-70, C-; 69-67, D+; 66-63, D; 62-60, D-; 59 and below, F.

Late work

I will accept late work up to four days after the deadline, with a full letter grade penalty assessed for each extra day past the due date. For example, an essay turned in a day late can only receive an 89% (B+) grade at most, and an essay turned in four days late can only receive a 59% (F) grade. I can’t accept work turned in more than four days late—it’ll receive a grade of 0%.

Extensions

I’m happy to renegotiate a deadline with you once during the semester for meaningful cases, such as job interviews or illnesses, provided that I receive at least three full days’ notice of your request prior to the due date.

Grade concerns (the 24-7 rule)

If you would like to raise a question or concern with me about one of your grades, I will gladly discuss it with you during my office hours. However, some conditions apply:

• – I won’t respond to grade concerns within 24 hours of a grade being posted.
• – After the first 24 hours have passed, I will only respond to grade concerns made within one week of the grade’s posting—after seven days, I consider the grade settled.
• – If you’d like to discuss a grade, please give me at least three days’ notice.

Course calendar (subject to change)