| The Question | The Proposition | On the Syllabus |
| What are the goals of this course (my goals, not just re: the description) and how do I want to communicate this to my students? | I want to provide a safe space where each student will grow in confidence and trust. As there is diversity in learning styles, so is there diversity in communicating, interacting, and engaging styles. I want them to develop a better sense of who they are as writers. | Each student, in her own way, engages with the other students’ work, mindful at all times to be respectful and considerate. Moving about the space is permitted, but only when you have the floor. Otherwise, you are always seated and engaged. You submit work based on guidelines, and you will read and respond in written form to your classmates’ submissions. |
| What teaching style do I plan to use and how much are the students involved in the pedagogy of the class? | I want the workshop to be interactive but with some “instruction” or “lecturing” in the beginning for centering, orientation and learning the basics components of the genres, of analyzing a text and otherwise engaging with it. | Do not hold back. What you have to say is important, whether the rest of us know it or not. The assigned materials are designed to help you with creating a solid foundation upon which to build. You are expected to read them all by any specified due date and be prepared to engage in any direction and on any level the class takes when you come to learn. |
| What are the formal expectations of this class? What do I want the students to accomplish and what do I want them to know? | I want the students to read at least one text or body of work in each genre, and to critically read and respond to these texts. My hope is that they develop the habit of writing every day. | To each of the assigned readings you will write a 1-page (300 word) response in your own words, focusing on some craft aspect. Each response will deal with a different aspect of the genre. You will compose 2 pages of poetry, 5 pages of both fiction and creative nonfiction. Your final project will be 15 pages of either poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction. |
| What are the pitfalls of the class? Where can it go wrong and how can I prevent that? | That the line between formal and casual gets blurred and discipline erodes. That the students lose interest. | You will be put into groups and assigned a project that you will do collaboratively. The end result will be a work in any of the genres. You will have to clear this project with me in advance. You are expected to have fun with this and to really use your imagination. You will present this to the class, a twenty-minute project. |
| What is the role of reading in my class? How do I determine the authors I’ll discuss and will they be models or points of discussion or what? | In this introductory workshop I want the students to feel as comfortable with the reading materials as possible. I want diversity of genre and style of basically contemporary authors. The point of the reading would be to engage their interest, and this means that the texts would have to be approachable. I also want the readings simply to broaden their base. | Based on what you offer on the first day of class as creative works you feel are seminal and/or indispensable to the serious creative writer, one of such suggested works in each of the three genres will be assigned as class readings and will be treated in the same manner as the pre-assigned readings. A vote will be taken and in the event that a decision is not clear cut, I will be the one to decide what pieces will be added to the syllabus. |
Introductory Writing Workshop: Fiction Poetry Memoir
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