Course Syllabus
Course: ENGL 2280
Division: Humanities
Department: English & Philosophy
Title: Creative Nonfiction Writing
Semester Approved: Fall 2023
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2028
End Semester: Summer 2029
Catalog Description: This course is an introduction to the writing of creative nonfiction. Students read and discuss example texts and compose various projects of their own. Emphasis is placed on description, plot, character, dialogue, curiosity-driven research, lyricism, and other techniques associated with creative nonfiction writing—particularly those associated with turning experiences and evidence into creative works. It is recommended that students take ENGL 2250, Introduction to Creative Writing, before taking ENGL 2280.
Semesters Offered: TBA
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
Repeatable: Yes.
Justification: ENGL 2250, Introduction to Creative Writing, is a popular GE course for both majors and non-majors. ENGL 2280 will offer and additional GE creative writing opportunity by offering an introduction to the craft of creative nonfiction writing. As creative nonfiction writing is an established part of university-level creative writing requirements, this class will especially serve students who pursue 4-year degrees in creative writing.
Skill in creative nonfiction writing is also useful for those who plan for careers in business, marketing, copywriting, or similar pursuits. In this course, students learn to pay careful attention to details and experiences, to conduct research as needed, then to turn that research and observation into writing that tells a compelling story to its audience.
This course is similar to UVU's ENGL 3450 (Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Writing), SUU's ENGL 3040 (Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Writing), and Weber’s ENGL 3240 (Writing Creative Nonfiction).
Students in creative writing courses commonly submit work to Weeds and/or join the editorial staff of Weeds. This editing and publication experience can lead to similar work at senior institutions and be a gateway to graduate work, internships, and employment.
General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Effective creative nonfiction writing includes clear recognition of positionality–how each person and ideology grows from and responds to its cultural milieu and its physical place. Students will analyze examples of creative nonfiction and identify how writers examine, describe, and critique these cultures and the elements of the natural world that shape each human story. Students' understanding of this knowledge will be assessed through class discussions, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Effective creative nonfiction writers must also be agile researchers. Most creative nonfiction projects include some form of research to understand how one's story fits into larger narratives and ideas, whether that research is academic, historical, sociological, archival, or primary research. Students will learn to direct the scope and focus of needed research and to identify when to involve disciplinary experts to help with fact-checking and basic understanding. Students will demonstrate these abilities primarily in their original creative nonfiction writing and may also show these skills in analytical essays about other writers' texts.
3: A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Creative nonfiction writing is inherently interdisciplinary, as writers engage with ideas and problems from multiple fields of inquiry as part of their writing projects. This interdisciplinarity will be addressed explicitly as students learn about the vast array of knowledge and skills they may need to call on as creative nonfiction writers. Some potential discussion topics are: archival research, data interpretation, visual storytelling, and working with disciplinary experts. Students will demonstrate understanding of these abilities in class discussions, analytical essays, individual conferences, and original creative nonfiction writing.
4: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. As creative nonfiction writers, students will analyze, question, evaluate, complicate, and draw conclusions from evidence and experience with curiosity, playfulness, and intellectual humility. They will then find creative ways to write about their perspectives and conclusions. Students will also evaluate and analyze the aesthetic, technical, and critical-thinking choices of other creative nonfiction writers. Their ability to do this may be assessed through class discussions, peer writing workshops, individual conferences, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
5: A student who completes the GE curriculum can communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Creative nonfiction writing offers additional techniques for conveying ideas about personal experience, research, opinion, and critical thinking. Students will learn how the practice of creative writing presents compelling arguments and narratives that differ from traditional academic writing. They will demonstrate their grasp of these techniques through class discussions, peer writing workshops, individual conferences, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes:
1: Students will learn to give voice to individual thoughts and experiences while also interrogating—through a variety of lenses—the broader human context of individual thought and experience.
This will be assessed primarily through class discussions and original creative nonfiction writing, but may also be demonstrated in peer writing workshops, individual conferences, and analytical essays. Students will learn to give voice to individual thoughts and experiences while also interrogating—through a variety of lenses—the broader human context of individual thought and experience.
This will be assessed primarily through class discussions and original creative nonfiction writing, but may also be demonstrated in peer writing workshops, individual conferences, and analytical essays.
2: Throughout the course, students will explore the unique ways that creative nonfiction writing has contributed and may continue to contribute to human knowledge and understanding. They will show this understanding in class discussions, peer writing workshops, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
3: Students will engage with some of the history of creative nonfiction as a genre and the ways it is distinct from and similar to other types of nonfiction writing, such as journalism, forms of academic writing, etc. This understanding will be demonstrated in class discussions, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
4: Students will engage with example texts of creative nonfiction writing and will be asked to analyze those works from perspectives beyond their personal tastes and reactions. They will also be encouraged to engage with archival materials and primary texts—such as news, personal journals and letters, etc.—as they create their own works of creative nonfiction. They will demonstrate their learning in class discussions, analytical essays, and original creative nonfiction writing.
5: Students will discuss and write about examples of creative nonfiction writing, analyzing the aesthetic and critical judgments made by the writers. This will be assessed primarily in class discussions and original creative nonfiction writing. Through frequent peer workshops and individual conferences, students will also develop the ability to form critical and aesthetic judgments of in-process creative nonfiction writing and be able to express those judgments in constructive, generous feedback for their peers. Analytical essays may also be used as a form of assessment.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will participate successfully in a classroom discussion of student writing,
commonly known as a "workshop." Students will demonstrate this by participating
actively, knowledgeably, constructively, and politely in peer workshops.
Content:
ENGL 2280 will focus on the practices and techniques that are necessary for writing and revising original creative nonfiction. These practices and techniques include, but are not limited to, idea generation, recursive draft writing, workshop, revision, plot, dialogue, concrete sensory description, character development, language mechanics, and lyricism. Students will read and analyze work from authors of diverse backgrounds and with diverse approaches to the broad and nebulous genre of creative nonfiction. The course will engage with the difficulties inherent in translating experience and/or evidence into compelling, creative works. Students will be encouraged to write stories and ideas that stem from their unique backgrounds and perspectives, and to explore and write ethically about backgrounds and perspectives that differ from their own.
Key Performance Indicators:
3000-5000 words of original creative nonfiction writing 50 to 60%
Online and/or class discussions 10 to 15%
Peer workshops and/or individual conferences 20 to 30%
Analytical Essays 10 to 15%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
Instructor's choice of essays, memoir/autobiography, literary journalism, narrative, biography, and other forms of creative nonfiction.
Instructor may choose to use an anthology of creative nonfiction writing, such as: Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: An Anthology by Debra Monroe or Short Takes by Judith Kitchen.
Instructor may choose a craft-oriented text such as: The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick, The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate, The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, or Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
Instructor may select a book-length work of creative nonfiction, such as: Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, The White Album by Joan Didon, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, For the Time Being by Annie Dillard, The Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel Erlich, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, or Bluets by Maggie Nelson.
Texts may include, at instructor's discretion, student choices of creative nonfiction they find engaging and/or wish to study in further depth.
Pedagogy Statement:
ENGL 2280 will be taught primarily through a mentorship model, which may also include significant writing workshops. The instructor will work to understand each individual student's writing goals and offer frequent, individualized feedback on creative writing assignments. Peer workshops will allow students to receive and offer regular feedback on their in-process creative nonfiction writing. To maximize the benefits of the creative process for all students, great care will be taken to create an inclusive classroom community. The ethos of this inclusive community includes a strengths-based attitude toward student diversity, a celebration of different experiences and perspectives, and a focus on growth, risk-taking, and playfulness. Multiple pedagogical approaches will be employed—including discussion, written and verbal peer workshop activities, written online discussions, one-on-one conferences, in-class writing activities—to give all kinds of students the opportunity to succeed in the course. The instructor may, at their discretion, encourage students to choose some portion of the readings, workshop schedule and format, and/or topics of exploration so that the course can be tailored to the class's learning needs.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
IVC
Online
Maximum Class Size: 15
Optimum Class Size: 15
