English 309-001: Introduction to Nonfiction Writing
Dr. Terry Myers Zawacki
Fall 2005

tzawacki@gmu.edu
Office: RA 112A     Office hours: MW 10:30-12:00 and by appointment or drop-in.
Phone: 993-1187   Class Meets: MW 12:00 -1:15, Ent 278

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Writers are people who write.
Donald Murray

Information about the Course
Course Description	Required Texts	Optional Texts

Course Requirements
Participation	Written Assignments	Grading

Weekly Schedule
Week One 8/29, 8/31	Week Two 9/5, 9/7	Week Three 9/12, 9/14	Week Four 9/19, 9/21
Week Five 9/26, 9/28	Week Six 10/3, 10/5	Week Seven 10/11 (Tues), 10/12	Week Eight 10/17, 10/19
Week Nine 10/24, 10/26	Week Ten 10/31, 11/2	Week Eleven 11/7, 11/9	Week Twelve 11/14, 11/16
Week Thirteen 11/21	Week Fourteen 11/28, 11/30	Week Fifteen 12/5, 12/7	Final Exam Info 12/19, 10:30-1:15

Course Description:
English 309 is designed to give you practice in reading and writing in such popular nonfiction genres as memoir/the personal essay, profiles, reviews, travel accounts, and the feature article. Your final portfolio will contain pieces written in three (or more) of these genres, with everyone writing an autobiographical essay and a feature article. Your intended readers are people like you who enjoy reading magazines, memoirs, essay collections, popular histories, and so on. Because you'll be choosing your own topics, you need to begin generating ideas starting now--recall, look, listen, note. You'll find topics all around you if you''re full of curiosity and know how to pay close attention to the details you'll need to tell a good story. A good story but also a true (though always partial) story, which is the pact you make with your readers when you write nonfiction. The creative part comes in the devices you use to tell a good story: a distinctive voice and style, detailed description, remembered and recorded dialogue, vivid imagistic language. I've organized the syllabus into three thematic categories, each represented by a different nonfiction genre: Telling your own story--memoir and the personal essay; telling a story about someone or someplace else--profiles, food and travel writing, reviews; telling a research-based story--the feature article or profile. 

Required Texts:

Root and Steinberg. The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction (Abbreviated as 4G)
PEN/Faulkner. 3 Minutes or Less: Life Lessons from America’s Greatest Writers (Abbreviated as 3M)
Readings on  Library e-reserve. Access directions and password announced in class.

Optional Texts:
Dillard. The Writing Life.
STET Again! More Tricks of the Trade for Publications People, EEI Press, Alexandria, VA
www.washingtonpost.com

Course Requirements:

Participation:
Our class is a writing workshop, so regular attendance and active participation is very important. We’ll spend time discussing the assigned readings, but most days will be devoted to discussions of your own writing, in small groups and, if you choose, in full-class workshops. You'll need to be prepared for every class, whether it be keeping up with the readings or sharing drafts in workshop. I expect you to attend every class and to let me know in advance, if possible,  if you must miss class.  Missing more than four classes (that’s two weeks of class out of a short fifteen) may jeopardize your chances of getting a good grade in the course.

Written Assignments:
Three or more pieces, which may be of varying word counts but will add up to at least 7000 words when placed in the final portfolio. At the end of each piece, please provide a word count. When you submit a draft to me, you'll attach a self evaluation form to help me understand what kinds of feedback might be most helpful to you. While you can submit drafts to me as often as you like, I've indicated on the syllabus the dates when a draft is due to be graded. At the end of the semester, you'll turn in a portfolio of "finished" work, consisting of your finished pieces, accompanying drafts, and a preface that conveys your writerly persona and the spirit of your work.
Reading log when indicated on the syllabus. Include a brief summary (2-3 sentences) and then, reading like a writer, focus on style, structure, voice, use of details, etc. Note strategies and devices you might like to imitate.
Brief writing exercises consisting of about 350-500 typed, double-spaced words.
"Last writes," in-class writing on exam day. 

Note: I’ll expect all of your writing to be technically correct, with few or no errors in sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation. Our focus in the class will be on content, form, voice, and the stylistic choices you make as a writer, not on learning to write correct prose, which I consider to be a prerequisite for the course. 

Grading
Your final grade will be based on the quality of the written pieces in your portfolio, your demonstrated understanding of the genres which these pieces represent, and on your active participation in the class.  Portfolio pieces with preliminary grade and final grade averaged together = 75%, with some pieces carrying more weight than others; other work (insightful/helpful reading group responses, reading logs, exercises, contributions to class discussion, etc) = 25%.  Note: Your reading group and I must see in draft a substantial portion of any work you include in your portfolio.  Keep drafts with notations of reading group comments and my comments for inclusion in the portfolio. I’ll put a grade on a draft when you consider it finished. The grade doesn’t mean you should stop revising, as you may want to keep working on a piece until it is put into the final portfolio. I've listed due dates for drafts to be submitted for grading, but you can show me your work as often as you would like feedback. I give two progress grades in the semester. Note: Dual submission of work is not allowed!

Late Work: Logs, exercises and drafts are due at the beginning of the class period and automatically receive a late grade for each class period they are late. This includes assignments put in my mailbox in lieu of your attending class. In the event of an unavoidable absence, you should contact a classmate to find out what you missed so that you will be prepared for class when you return. Because absences are sometimes unavoidable, I allow each of you one "cut-me-some-slack" card to be used when you absolutely need a break. 

Provisional Schedule
Note: For me, schedules on a syllabus must always be flexible.  There's an old saying regarding writing classes--"Just when you've designed the right syllabus, the wrong students walk in the door"; in other words, I need to know what topics the students are interested in pursuing in order to figure out whether the syllabus is going to work for them. As I learn more about you as writers, the topics which interest you, and the readings which would be most relevant to your interests, I'll adjust the schedule accordingly.

Class schedule: All assignments are due on the day they are listed.

Telling Your Own Story (and realizing that there may be many true versions of the same story, depending upon the teller, who's being told, and the reasons for the telling)

Week One
8/27: Introduction to course. In-class writing: One writer's beginnings.
8/29:  Introductions to each other and your writer's beginnings. Read: 3M-- Kennedy, Conroy, Welty, Bausch, Dillard, Goodwin, Settle, and others of interest to you. Write: Your writer's beginning (350 words). 

Week Two
9/5: Labor Day, university closed
9/7: Developing an eye for details. Keeping a writer's journal and mining it for topics. Read: Grayson, Erlich, Flory--handed out in class. In 4G, Erlich, p. 80. Write: In journal, in as many pages as you can manage. Begin with "I remember" and create a list of images from moments you recall vividly. Use concrete details; help us share the moments through small glimpses. Try looking at photos. Think about family sayings and stories.

Week Three
9/12: Memoir and the "truth" of nonfiction. Developing an eye for details, cont. Read: 4G: Schwartz, p. 399; Blew, p. 282; Steinberg, p. 405.  In log, note briefly the central points each makes. Also in 4G, Balcita, p. 13 and Lott, p. 128.  Handed out in class: Eric, "Fishknife." Do short log entries on each of these, noting how the writer uses details--types of details, effects of these details, purposes for using--and characteristics of each writer's voice. Exercise: Describe an object so that we can see/hear/smell it. This is not a riddle; you can tell us what it is. Feel free to experiment with style and voice.
9/14: The effect of lists. Read: 4G--Lamy, p. 115; Toth, p. 247. No log due. 

Week Four
9/19: The personal essay--why it's different from memoir. Sort of.  Read:4G--Harvey, p. 316; Hample, p.306.  Also, Offut, p. 165; Daum, p. 67, Sanders, p. 202. In log, explain why these are essays more so than memoir. Write: Describe a person in the act of doing something. We should be able to see the significance of the person to you through the details you choose to include.
9/21: Workshopping. 

Week Five
9/26: Form in the personal essay and memoir. Read: 4G--Root, p. 188; Willard, p. 266; Pope p. 449 and 455. On e-reserve, Kennon "Vocabulary Lessons." In log, note form. In 3M under "First Love," Gurganus, Gibbons, Kittredge, Smith, Wiley. Browse others under "Confessions" and "A Lesson." Write: Draft of essay/memoir.
9/28: Workshopping draft of personal essay/memoir.

Telling a story about someone or someplace (what fascinates you about this person, place, or event? how can you capture that in a profile or travel essay? on what do you base a review?)

Week Six
10/3:  Due for grading: Personal essay/memoir. Introduction to other nonfiction forms: travel and food narratives (which often also take an essay form), reviews, "creative journalism."
10/5:  Travel and food narratives. Read: On e-reserve, Bryson (chap 1 from A Walk in the Woods); Kerouac (chap 4 from On the Road); Mayes ("A Long Table Under the Trees"); MFK Fisher ("How Not to Boil an Egg"). In log, note the stylistic moves each author makes and how each is different from the other, not in subject matter but in voice and approach to the topic. Write: Begin drafting your second portfolio piece, a travel/food narrative/essay or a review (CDs, concerts, films, books, restaurants, etc).  

Week Seven
10/11 (Monday classes meet on Tuesday): First progress grade given. Travel essays, creative journalism, reviews. Read: 4G--Poirier-Bures, p. 433 and "Afterword," p. 443; Iyer, p. 105; Gopnik, p. 88. On e-reserve: Kelly ("Weezer Review").  In log, note use of details in each piece. Why is Poirier-Bures essayistic? Compare to Kennon's "Vocabulary Lessons" that you read earlier. Please look especially closely at Iyer and describe some of the stylistic devices he uses to make his prose mirror his subject matter. If you are interested in writing a review, please analyze Kelly's review and read others in magazines and newspapers of your choice.
10/12: Workshopping draft of either a travel/food narrative or a review.

Week Eight

10/17: Working with dialogue and detail. Read: In 4G--Conroy, p. 62 (revisiting the personal essay).
10/19:  Workshopping. 

Week Nine
10/24: Draft of second piece due for grading. Profiles: Interviewing. Read: On e-reserve, Simonpietre ("Man or Mouse"). Terkle, handed out in class. In log, note how the interviews are stylistically different and the effects of each.

10/26: Guest speaker Scott Berg. Read: On e-reserve, Berg's profile of Diana Hacker, author of the bestselling textbook ever.

Week Ten
10/31: "Re/Searching" for the story in feature articles and profiles. Read: On e-reserve: Cozart ("Shoe Dogs") and Ruane ("Clear and Present Danger" from the Washington Post Magazine). In log, note the kind of research both writers have done. In "Clear and Present Danger," also note how Ruane focuses his article on Del Costello, the foreman, as a way to tell his story of re/building the Wilson Bridge. Also notice the kinds of research he has done.
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11/1:  Write: Propose/pitch a topic for your feature article or profile, including a description of topic, the story hook (why readers will want to read the article), and how you'll go about the research. Write in the form of a memo addressed to me. Three-four paragraphs should be sufficient. Sell me and yourself on the topic..

Week Eleven
11/7: Conferences.
11/9: Conferences.

Week Twelve
11/14: Second progress grade given. Voice and style. Readings handed out in class.
11/16: Workshopping

Week Thirteen
11/21: Workshopping.
11/23: No class. Thanksgiving break.

Week Fourteen
11/28: Catching up
11/30: Catching up.

Week Fifteen
12/5: Compiling the portfolio. Final edits.
12/7:  Final edits.

Exam Day: 12/19, 10:30-1:15  (No final exam. We'll meet to read portfolios and write in class)

A note on my grading:
"A" portfolios demonstrate originality, insight, reflection, and critical thinking.  The individual pieces have an identifiable purpose, are carefully framed and developed, feature engaging prose and a coherent (or deliberately non-coherent, e.g., digressive/segmented) structure.  Pieces are technically correct overall.  Drafts show growth in writing from the beginning of the semester.

"B" portfolios demonstrate all of the above but some qualities are more present than others.  Drafts show a writer's growth.

"C" portfolios demonstrate surface thinking about a topic and may contain some technical flaws and surface errors.  Little growth as a writer.

"D" portfolios usually indicate writers who paid little attention to their writing.  Drafts do not demonstrate growth in writing.

"F" portfolios do not meet minimum length requirements.

http://writingcenter.gmu.edu