schedule updates

CRTW 300 March – April Schedule

March

26 Wed Hejinian from My Life (EMUOnline); Creative Project 3 Due

31 Mon Spahr, The Transformation pgs: 1-40

April

*for the whole class workshop, please find documents on EMU Online (Files), download, read, and type written comments to the writers of each piece. You can give them your typed comments and choose to print/comment on the original text if you have margin notes, etc.

2 Wed Whole Class Workshop: Eric, Kaitlyn, Ashley, Nick

(email 3-4 pages to jdarlin3@emich.edu by Mon at noon)

Critical Response 2 Due

7 Mon Spahr, The Transformation pgs: 40-80

9 Wed Whole Class Workshop: Miranda, Samantha, Alana, George, Savannah, Isaac

(email 3-4 pages jdarlin3@emich.edu by Mon at noon)

14 Mon Spahr, The Transformation pgs: 80-120

16 Wed Whole Class Workshop: Dequan, Devon, Mykea, Jeremy, Chris

(email 3-4 pages jdarlin3@emich.edu by Mon at noon)

21 Last Day of Class, Final Portfolios Due

Writing A Creative "Essay" Exercise

This might be an example of starting with a word (shoulder) and turning it into an essay based in personal memory and including outside research, association, etc. :

Crown and Shoulder by Steven Churchhttp://passagesnorth.com/current-issue/crown-and-shoulder/


Writing A Creative "Essay" Exercise (genre, form, structure open to your own preferences and interpretation; start with the instructions here, create the material, and then take it where you will...)

(from: http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/Robert_Root/AWP/cnf.htm)

First, begin with a description of a memory from childhood, which you write in present tense and without using "I" or "Me"

Next, use that description as one section in the following, and from which you choose a particular word for the focus of the rest of the exercise.

Kim Barnes: “What is a Word Worth?”

        I often speak to my writing students about "bringing their intellect to bear" as they compose their personal essays.  What I mean by this is that the best literary nonfiction should work at a number of different levels, including the level of intellectual stimulation.  The problem we face as writers of nonfiction is how to challenge our individual stories--how to take the narrative itself and expand its breadth and reach to encompass more of the world. 

        One exercise that I use to help my students achieve this goal involves building an essay from a single word. First, the students each choose one word--any word--to which they are particularly drawn, a word that resonates for them.  A young man just discharged from the military chose "paratrooper"; a middle-aged woman of Scottish descent chose "bagpipes."  I then require that the students write five sections of nonfiction revolving around this single word: The first, third, and fifth sections must be personal memories triggered by the word, and they must be written in present tense no matter the actual chronology; the second and fourth sections must be more analytical, intellectual, philosophical, and explore the word in a more scholarly way.  I direct the students to study the word's derivation and history. They often find passages in religious texts and mythologies that inform the word's meaning in their own experience.  Some discuss the word's appearance and use in contemporary literature or film.

        The goal of this exercise is to weave the word's broader application into the writer's personal experience.  Ideally, the five sections weave together and inform one another and bring to the essay a kind of intellectual unity as well as a greater depth and complexity.

Updates and Assignments

For Next Week

Mon 3/24: from Biting: Halpern (55), Markotic (119), Harryman (132) and pdf on narrative from JNT (EMU Online) read and come prepared to discuss



Creative Project 3 Due Wed. Include a one-page write up of your process, thinking, consideration of / reflection on "narrative"...


Also Wed 3/26: read My Life excerpt on EMU Online and come prepared to discuss
 

Keep Blogging, see syllabus for additional assignment info and due dates. 

I will post the assignment sheet for the Final Portfolio next week also.

For Monday, 3/17

Write about Gladman’s Event Factory. Specifically, write about what Gladman is doing in this work with narrative including: how the text relates form and content, how it (or parts of it) can be read metaphorically, give examples of mimesis or how Gladman uses this as an idea throughout. Think also about the various themes or content that happen in the book such as: “the journey,” experience, gesture, language, tourism, intuition, architecture, dystopia, etc. in relation to the above structural/formal properties.

Write 2-3 comprehensive paragraphs, type, print, and bring to class on Monday to share in conversation.

Etc. assignment updates:

See Creative Project 3 Assignment Sheet on EMU Online

3/17: Gladman + On Narrative, further reading from Biting the Error: Davis (35), Shurin (38), Gladman (46)

3/19: Bring a draft of Creative Project 3 to share/workshop in class; type and print it 

3/20: from Biting: Halpern (55), Markotic (119), Harryman (132) and pdf on narrative from JNT

Keep Blogging, see syllabus for additional assignment info and due dates. 

Narrative Writing Exercise– Postcards

Choose three postcards (real postcards or google “postcard images” and see what you get). Choose the postcards at random. Spend 15 minutes writing everything you can about the postcards, anything that occurs to you when you look at them, anything you think of, any way that you can describe the images, etc. Start writing and don’t stop until 15 minutes are finished. 

Next, turn the material into form narrative of some kind with character(s), situation (plot), setting (space, place). Try and use the material from all of the postcards in the story; you can edit and revise further later.