ENG-232 Creative Nonfiction Writing

This course focuses on the writing of Creative Nonfiction. Techniques and skills of the various forms of creative nonfiction, such as The Personal Essay, Memoir, Literary Journalism, Flash Nonfiction, and the Travel Essay are examined in class and practiced in student writing. Students will learn and practice strategies for brainstorming, drafting, critiquing, and revising their work, as well as refining the critical expertise and technical language to help them better discuss works-in-progress. Previous experience in creative non-fiction is not required, but the student is expected to be proficient in the mechanics of writing. This course carries SUNY General Education The Arts credit.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

ENG-101

Lecture Contact Hours

3

Lab Contact Hours

0

Other Contact Hours

0

Department

• Humanities

Grading Scheme

• Letter

SUNY Gen Ed Credit

• Yes

Semesters Course Will Be Offered

• Fall

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Apply craft elements of creative nonfiction to their own writing.
2. Research, craft, and submit creative nonfiction to be assessed by their peers and professors.
3. Integrate feedback from classmates and professors received through workshops, conferences, and written comments into their creative writing during revision.
4. Read, explicate, and respond in writing to at least one piece of published creative writing in order to analyze craft.

View Course Outline

ENG 232: Creative Nonfiction Writing

Department

Humanities

Course Description

This course focuses on the writing of Creative Nonfiction. Techniques and skills of the various forms of creative nonfiction, such as The Personal Essay, Memoir, Literary Journalism, Flash Nonfiction, and the Travel Essay are examined in class and practiced in student writing. Students will learn and practice strategies for brainstorming, drafting, critiquing, and revising their work, as well as refining the critical expertise and technical language to help them better discuss works-in-progress. Previous experience in creative non-fiction is not required, but the student is expected to be proficient in the mechanics of writing. This course carries SUNY General Education The Arts credit.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

Lecture	3
Lab	0
Other	0

Grading Scheme

Letter

Semester(s) Course Will Be Offered

Fall

Prerequisites

ENG-101

SUNY General Education Course

• The Arts

First Year Experience Course

No

Capstone Course

No

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Apply craft elements of creative nonfiction to their own writing.
2. Research, craft, and submit creative nonfiction to be assessed by their peers and professors.
3. Integrate feedback from classmates and professors received through workshops, conferences, and written comments into their creative writing during revision.
4. Read, explicate, and respond in writing to at least one piece of published creative writing in order to analyze craft.

Topic Outline

1. Nonfiction Craft Elements
   1. Point of View: the impact of narrative perspective as defined by individual, idiosyncratic observation and opinion
   2. Plot: exposition, conflict, climax, resolution, and denouement
   3. Characterization: motivation, speech, appearance, and psychology
   4. Dialogue: natural speech, elision, tone
   5. Setting: detail and relationship to theme, characterization, and plot
   6. Theme: the guiding meaning(s) of the story
   7. Symbolism: how specific items, behaviors, or actions reveal the other element
2. Genres of Creative Non-Fiction
   1. Types:
      1. Personal essay – an examination of a concept, theme, or situation from a subjective perspective that may include research but does not require it
      2. Memoir – a narrative about the significance of one’s personal life experiences
      3. Flash – a brief form, typically under 500 words, that may focus on any of the types of essay
      4. Literary journalism – an examination of contemporary social, cultural, and political issues expressed through a subjective lens
      5. Lyric – a form that highlights the musical, imaginative, and metaphorical aspects of a personal narrative
3. Reading in the Genre
   1. Origins and evolution of the form through history with a focus on contemporary essays
   2. Analysis of aesthetic choices and craft in established literature
   3. Examination of historical trends within genre practice as well as the contemporary transformation of the written arts
   4. The ways the historical moment informs rhetorical motivation and intent
   5. Methods: narrative choices, point of view, topic, truth vs. fictive truth, lyrical language
4. Workshop Skills
   1. Identification and discussion of the various aesthetic elements practiced within the genres
   2. Oral presentation of key observations of craft
   3. Discussion of strategies for invention and revision beyond the drafting stage
   4. Ethics: the privacy of people to whom you refer within the essay, responsibility to the factual truth when complex issues can be compromised by invention, whether or not one’s personal opinion or insight leads to defamation or perceived cruelty