English 211 Calendar

8/28

Introductory writing.
Meet each other
Syllabus: what, where, why?

8/30

In-class reading: short-shorts by Elizabeth Danson, Bailey White, Stuart Dybek, Maryanne O'Hara, Marilyn Chin and Peggy McNally. Read these pieces and annotate them using a pen or pencil. Annotate means underline key passages and write notes in the margin. Margin notes can summarize what's happening in the piece or spark away from the story toward a separate but related idea of your own. REMEMBER: YOU'RE A WRITER in this class, not a student of literature. If you don't "get" all the "meaning" of a piece, you can still make use of the ideas you have while you read.
In class: develop ideas about the qualities of a short short.
In class writing: memory association.

9/4

From The Scene Book, read and annotate chapter 1, "The Basics." Note: this book isn't exactly written for you, the writing student in a university.
Assignment: launching ideas from an artifact--find a small, compelling, mysterious, interesting thing. Free-write about it: what kinds of scenes or stories could it be involved in. How would it be involved? What would happen to it? Bring the thing and the writing to class.
Discuss drafting a short short: remember KEEP YOUR PROCESS MATERIALS. In fact, make a point of developing process materials, even if it seems a little artificial.

9/6

In-class writing: story machine.
Preview Andrei Codrescu: homepage, NPR bio, "My Gullible Goth Beautician," "The Long Route with New Orleans Oldest Cabbie," Exquisite Corpse.

9/11

No class: please attend Andrei Codrescu poetry reading, 4:00 PM at UW-L's Toland Theater--corner of 15th and Vine. Arrive 10 minutes early, please.

9/13

Type up something that you've written by hand: an observation, a scene, maybe a stab at a draft of a short short. In the process of typing it up, try to expand it, develop it, make it more of something and less of something else.
In your email: .pdf file of poems by Andrei Codrescu
Link to Allen Ginsberg's "America"--the poem to which Codrescu's "9/11" pays homage.

"Criteria" for the short short: these are "elements" of writing that I'll be looking for when I read and evaluate your first drafts. 1) Action--something interesting happens, 2) Emotion--for me and for someone in the short short, the action has emotional tone and substance, 3) Definition, or Progression--the piece is well-structured, so that it has a beginning, middle, and end, 4) Active language--word choices and sentence structures are sharp and effective.

9/18

Peer workshop on first full draft of short short.
Preview Jordan Stempleman.

9/20

First full draft of short short due to me.
Jordan Stempleman in class.
Attend Jordan's reading at the Pump House, 7:00 PM

9/25

Review course objectives.
Poetry: what is it? how does it work? how can it work for me? Ideas: poetry as art and/or expression. Personal poems, emotion in poems, knowledge in poems, poems from formal constraints or games. Writing poems to people, other poems, inanimate objects. Poems poems poems poems.

9/27

Read "The Glasses" by Elena Bossi.
Hand back short shorts, discuss.
Assignment: review your short short, with my comments, and review the "criteria" I posted earlier, and perhaps review some of the examples of short shorts that we read. Then send me an email with the score you'd give the piece out of 150 points, and a brief explanation of why you'd give it that score. I've given it a tentative score--let's see how close our evaluations are to each other.

Monday night, 10/1, 7:00 PM in FAC Recital Hall--reading by writers from the University of Iowa's International Writers' Workshop, Elena Bossi, Peter Kimani, Khaled Kalifa.

10/2

Read chapter two of The Scene Book. What are the crucial elements of "significant action" in a scene? Which of Scofield's examples most clearly illustrated her points?
Homework:
1) Looking back at Elena Bossi's "Glasses," isolate a scene from the story and break it down using the method Scofield outlines on 28-29: a) summary, b) actions, c) event, d) emotion.
2) Bring to class a list of five "occasions that can lead to scene events" (Scofield 38). "Practice conceiving a unit of narrative that has enough action and meaning to suggest a strong scene. You are looking for moments when things are off-kilter in some way. Look for situations when a character is under stress. What might happen next?" (39)

10/4: No class, however, your first "Invention Writing" is due to me in email (as an attachment in MS Word '98-2003 format, or in Rich Text Format, ".rtf"). (50 points) Here's the assignment:

Using one of the "five occasions" you wrote about, generate a story prospectus. This should be a 1-2 page description of a realistic short story which you could possibly write. You can format the prospectus any way you like, from regular paragraphs of writing to a bulleted list, but it should do the following. things: 1) it should describe two characters, physically and emotionally, and 2) it should describe a sequence of three to five meaningful actions which would make up the plot of the story.

10/9

Reading: Over the weekend, read from Tao Lin's You Are a Little Bit Happier Than I Am "Some of My Happiest Moments in Life Occur on AOL Instant Messenger," "I Want To Pour Orange Juice On My Face," "That Night with the Green Sky," "Poems that Look Weird," "i honestly do not know who this poem is directed at but i still somehow wrote it with conviction."
Homework: write a brief, informal essay about how these poems work. Make it less than one page long and use your own reader responses as the basis for your claim.
REVISION workshop on short shorts--bring to class the original version of your piece, plus a revised draft (bring copies if you'd like your groupmates to have copies).

10/11

Invention Writing Two (50 points): for one afternoon (or morning, evening, or night--one period of about four hours), carry a notebook on your person at all times and write down all ideas that occur to you which might make useful observations for poems or stories. Type up the best ones and turn them in to me, along with a brief note that explains what the best idea you had, during that afternoon (or morning, evening...) was.
REVISION OF SHORT SHORT DUE (200 points)--please turn in a revised and edited draft, along with the original draft that I commented on. In the revisions, I'm looking for your ability to take a previous piece and make (potentially radical) changes to it that will make it more successful. Also, I will be looking for finished quality editing.

10/16

10/18

Read Richard Ford's "Rock Springs" (handout). Analysis assignment: an informal essay of about 2 typed, double-spaced pages. Find two moments that you like in "Rock Springs"--specific scenes, events, or even sentences that you think really make the story work. Explain why these moments are great, within the context of the story as a whole. In other words, while showing that you've comprehended the story well, break down two highly successful passages of your choice, explaining why they work.
Pump House Reading (not required--make-up for those who've missed). Fiction writer Matt Cashion and poet Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet, a New York Times notable book of poems drawn from his experience in Iraq.

10/23

Invention writing three due: repeat the "Story Prospectus" assignment from 10/4. Create a new story outline, with new characters (it doesn't have to be based on the "occasions" writing from The Scene Book).

10/25

No class

10/30

Draft workshop: bring to class four copies of a short story draft. You should try to make it a complete draft--a sequence that's written through to its ending, even if it's rough (it's going to be rough). If you don't make it that far, then add to the end of your draft a short passage explaining either a) what your plan is for the remainder of the story, or b) why you don't have a plan for the remainder of the story.

Instructions for process presentations: on the class period before his/her process presentation, each student will pass around a current draft of his/her short story, along with available process materials (invention writings, previous drafts, inspirational texts). On the date of the presentation, each student will briefly describe the process behind the current draft, and then receive constructive comments from the class. The presentation should last 5-7 minutes, and the commentary should last another 10-15 minutes. On the class period after the process presentation, each student's first full draft of the short story will be due. A reminder: students should frame their comments in a constructive manner, and should "own" their comments about the story. Our purpose is to help each other, not to establish dominance in the group.

11/1

Reading: Scene Book, chapter 3, "Beats."
Handouts for process presentations
Short story requirements: You should turn in the first full draft of your short story on the class period after your process presentation. Based on our readings in The Scene Book, and our discussions of stories by Richard Ford, Lindsay Moe, and Joe Dawson, here are some guidelines for your piece--think of them as the statements of editorial preference for a magazine to which you're submitting work. Your short story should accomplish some or all of the following:
at least one, possibly two, main characters should be physically and emotionally developed within the limitations of your plot--short story characters can not be given whole lives; they exist for us only in the time frame of your story. By the end of the story, your character(s) should have changed his/her relationship to the story's main conflict.
a plot should move through three to five scenes, in which your main character(s) defines him or herself through action. Your story should have physical presence--choreography, in a way--that highlights what is being done over what is being thought or felt or what happened in the characters' pasts. Again, the plotline should result in the character changing his/her relationship to the conflict.
a realistic setting or settings should be clearly drawn so that the physical world of the story is available to the reader. Remember, though: too much setting description can detract from the necessity of forward movement in your story. Build setting into action.
in terms of style, your story should be crisp and direct, using the subject/verb relationship to create description, rather than relying on the accumulation of modifiers. This simplification of syntax prioritizes the vision of the writer--the writer's placement of the story's lens from moment to moment--over the writer's ability to impress with rhetorical virtuosity.

11/6

Reading: Scene Book, chapter 4, "The Focal Point."
Process presentations: Cody, Megan, Jessica.
Discussion leaders: Ellen, Hailey, Johanna

11/8

Reading: Scene Book, chapter 5, "Pulse."
Process presentations: Jeffrey, Caryn, Aften
Discussion leaders: Karina, Katye, Tim

11/13

Registration notes: Eng 310, 311, writing minor
Process presentations: Johanna, Katye, Tim
Discussion leaders: Cody, Jessica, Jeff
8:00 PM -- American Movie in MC 432, w/ free pizza.

11/15: Jim Armstrong in class.

Reader-response assignment. Please bring to class two written questions for Jim. These questions should show your specific engagement with poems from Blue Lash.

7:00 PM -- please attend Jim Armstrong's reading at the Pump House.

11/20

Process presentations: Rebecca, Ellen, Hailey, Jacob
Discussion leaders: Amber, Lee, Cara
Poetry drafts due--please turn in two first drafts of poems. These should be free verse poems (no regular end rhyme), focusing on resonant imagery. Your poems may use expository lines to provide a setting, and the poems may have action--something like a plot--but the primary effort in the poem should be to display one or a sequence of images, crystallizing experience in a compelling moment.

11/22

Thanksgiving

11/27

Process presentations: Karina, Amber, Lee
Discussion leaders: Aften, Megan, Rebecca

11/29

Final portfolio instructions:
On Tuesday, 12/11, I will collect your final portfolio for this class. It should include process materials and most recent revisions of your short short and your short story, as well as new first drafts of two to five free verse poems (see instructions under 11/20). At the front of the portfolio, you should place a critical introduction: a short essay describing your growth as a writer and reader during this semester. What has worked for you in your writing? What have you learned from course readings and from reading peer work? What would you like to work on as a creative writer?
Last day for first full drafts of short stories
Poetry

12/4

Poetry workshop: bring to class two original poem drafts. These should be free verse poems, focusing on resonant imagery. Your poems may use expository lines to provide a setting, and the poems may have action--something like a plot--but the primary effort in the poem should be to display one or more images, crystallizing experience in a compelling moment.

12/6

No class: instructor away

FINAL EXAM

Tuesday, 12/11, 9:50-11:50 AM

Poetry reading
Portfolio due including critical introduction, revisions of short stories, and first full drafts of two poems.