EngL5630: Theories of Writing and Writing Instruction Sp06

COURSE OBJECTIVES

1) You’re a writer now. Take yourself seriously.

2) Immerse yourself in the experience. Creative writing is not a body of knowledge to be memorized—it is something to be lived. "The teaching of writing is Socratic," author Wallace Stegner has said. I will not tell you how to make a beautiful story. Your fellow students will not tell you how to make a beautiful story. We will ask questions, investigate writing that works, and tell you what we hear in your words.

3) Gain a deeper understanding of how to read literature. If you can understand how a poem or story works—how it creates characters, for instance—then it’s more likely that you’ll create a successful one of your own. And the opposite is true: If you can create a story or poem, then you will understand other authors’ narratives more fully.

4) Attempt to communicate your vision of the world. Creative writing is not just about expressing yourself—it’s about sharing your vision with an intelligent audience. As poet Michael Dennis Browne would tell you, writing isn’t about having an emotion. It’s about giving that emotion to the reader.

5) Recognize that poems, stories, and essays can be made better. Great stories are not (often) created in a single sitting. Or two. Or three. Or...

This list will be modified and expanded by your goals, and the goals of your peers. What do you want to get out of the course? Why did you take it? We will create goal statements at the beginning of the semester and treat them as living documents.