ENGL 114 —Finding Voice Through Creative Nonfiction

(Disclaimer: This is a proposed syllabus for my thesis and does not intend to be a syllabus for an accredited university)

Instructor:                             

Alice Osborn

Office:                                    

G103 Tompkins Hall

Office Hours:                         

M, W, F    10-1 pm

E-mail:                                    avosborn@yahoo.com

Phone:                                    

919-971-9414

Class Meeting Times:            

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3:15 pm

Black White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker

Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson

Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua

The Color of Water by James McBride

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Course Goals and Objectives:

By the end of the semester, you will understand what creative nonfiction is (and its subgenres) and you will see how writers use the genre's conventions of voice and storytelling to express themselves.  You will also gain competence with creative nonfiction's primary components:  voice, point of view (POV), conflict, figurative language, and narrative arc.

With guidance from the in-class exercises, workshops and discussion board, you will compose three personal essays which use support from the text, as well as from relevant experiences from your lives.  You will compose essays which converse with your audience through persuasion and argument, and you will be able to distinguish who your audience is and what is appropriate material for that particular audience.  You will find an appropriate voice that fits each piece of writing and understand that the "I" in your writing is a constructed "I".

During the semester you will read several classic and contemporary creative nonfiction essays dealing with race in America, and you will consider what makes a personal essay effective by examining how these authors make their readers care about their subject.  The texts will explore multiple perspectives on race and gender.

Lastly, in this process-based course, you will discover how important it is to keep a journal, revise your drafts, and to offer and listen to feedback from peers and your mentors.

See Student Prompts

The required readings

Writing True:  The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz ( 2006).

This is the primary text for the class.  The text discusses the craft of creative nonfiction in detail and also offers a diverse anthology.

 You should also reference The Longman Writer's Companion, (3rd Edition) by Chris M. Anson, Robert A. Schwegler, Marcia F. Muth for sentence-level questions and MLA citation guidelines

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963).

Baldwin's unflinching reflection on race, Christianity, and Black Muslims

Black, White and Jewish:  Autobiography of a Shifting Self (2001) by Rebecca Walker

Walker describes her coming of age as a mixed-race child of an African-American mother and a white Jewish father.

The Color of Water (1996) by James McBride

This memoir is told from two points of view:  McBride, a mixed-race child, and his white Jewish mother, Ruth McBride.

Blood Done Sign My Name (2004) by Timothy B. Tyson  

Tyson discusses how his father handled racism in North Carolina in the late 1960s and early 1970s and how the history of the south with racism at its crux formed his worldview.

(We will omit Chapters Three "Too Close Not To Touch" and Eight Our "Other South")

Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) by Gloria Anzaldùa  (Excerpt)

Chapter One (The Homeland)

Chapter Five (How to Tame a Wild Tongue)

Chapter Seven (La conciencia de la mestiza)

Anzaldua discusses the mestiza and Chicano culture and the struggle of women and identity in her culture— she grew up on a ranch settlement in South Texas and was a seventh generation American.

Poems: Cultures (142)
We Call Them Greasers (156)

Handouts

"How It Feels To Be Colored Me" (1928) by Zora Neale Hurston

Hurston probes how she feels as a black woman against white culture

"Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott (1994) from Bird by Bird

"Write from the Inside Out" (2006) by Alice Osborn
Tips and techniques for writing creative nonfiction

Suggested Readings

These two essays are in Writing True            :

"Notes of a Native Speaker" by Eric Liu.  Liu is a Chinese-American who discusses assimilation in this personal essay

"Independence Day, Manley Hot Springs, Alaska" by Lisa D. Chavez.  Chavez is a Hispanic woman telling the story of her and her mother moving to Alaska and the racism they faced.

Mixed (2006) by Angela Nissel

Nissel, a producer on Scrubs, recounts how it was coming of age in the early 90s as a mixed child born of a black mother and white father

Course Requirements:

• Two essays, between 1200-1700 words (4-6 pages)  These essays must be sent via e-mail.
• One multigenre essay (5 pages) with a 3-5 minute oral presentation.
• Two revisions of your first and second essays.
• Informal class writings, between 1-2 handwritten pages on the texts.
• You will work in four-person peer groups so that you will see in practice that knowledge comes from your peers as well as from your instructor.  In these peer groups, you will comment on each other's drafts in-class and you will also be required to e-mail a critique summary for each person in your group (to be only seen by the critiqued writer and the instructor)
• Class participation to include class discussion, workshops, and preparation for class
• Final Portfolio to include all drafts (for Essay #1 or Essay #2), all workshop critique summaries, relevant discussion board postings, your photo, autobiography (2-3 pages), photo essay/collage, reflection paper (3 pages) that heavily quotes from your journal, and a revision of either Essay #1 or Essay #2.

Evaluation:

• Essay 1 (10%):  personal/textual model. You will be evaluated on how well you integrate the text with your own experiences to make your argument and to persuade your audience.  You can use The Fire Next Time and/or The Color of Water to support your argument.

• Essay 2 (10%): form essay.  You are free to chose any essay form that we discussed in class including the chronological, segmented, epistolary, compare and contrast or multiple perspective forms

• Essay 3 (10%): multigenre essay plus 3-5 minute oral presentation.  Feel free to use poetry, e-mail, photos, My Space/Facebook, blogs, music to achieve your essay presentation.
• Class participation (10%): This includes your workshop participation, discussion board postings, in-class writings on the readings, journal writings (I will ask to see your journal twice this semester during our two conferences), and class discussion.  You must come prepared to class and this includes reading the assignments and writing in your journal.
• Two Revisions (15% each)
• Final Portfolio (20%):  Please remember to save all of your drafts for Essay #1 or Essay #2 because they must be included in your final portfolio, attached to Essay #1 or Essay #2.
• Final Exam (10%):  Will be on the readings and the components of creative nonfiction and will include an open-ended reflection question.

Papers/Drafts:

This is a process-oriented writing class that integrates both reading and writing.  In order to write well, you should read material that is in your genre.  In this case, we are reading creative nonfiction that is slanted towards race and what it means to be white or a person of color in the U.S.  In your work this semester, you should strive to reflect on race in your work, but I will not grade on how much you deal with race, but rather on how well you use the conventions of creative nonfiction and if you have a strong voice in your writing. The theme of race can also springboard into a discussion about your family, since many of our readings are also about how the writer negotiates race and family.

You will be evaluated on how you well you support and develop your theme through your examples and through using the conventions of creative nonfiction.  I will also give you a guideline handout for each of the essays.

Attendance:

In this writing class, regular attendance is necessary for success.  I will allow no more than four absences from class.  After four absences, you will drop a letter grade.

Copies:

On the days that you workshop with your group, you will need to make enough copies of your essay, and you will also need to make a copy for me.

Journal:

Please purchase a writer's journal from your local bookstore or drugstore.  It can be lined or unlined.  This is the place where you will record observations, take notes from the readings, and also record your feelings, frustrations, and musings about this class.  Remember that the quality of your Final Portfolio reflection essay will depend on how much time you spend in your journal.  Not only that, if you do journal regularly, you will see yourself grow as a writer in this course.

Class discussion and decorum:

In this class, we will explore many emotional and political issues that should inspire dynamic discussion.  Please be courteous to your fellow classmates, do not interrupt, and please try to limit your discussion to three turns during the same topic of discussion.

Students with disabilities:

Please call DSS if you are a student with disabilities.

Their web site is http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/offices/affirm_action/dss

Academic Integrity:

Plagiarism is against the rules.  Don't do it!  Please acknowledge your sources using the MLA citation guidelines.

ENG 114 Tentative Syllabus

***Please pay attention to what you should be writing in your Journal per class day***

Th 8/24

• Introductions
• Defining Creative Nonfiction and voice and experience:  Everyone write on an index card what they think creative nonfiction is
• Discuss "Race in America": Cultural Studies theme
• Discuss workshop etiquette and class discussion decorum.  Handout of "Questions to Consider When Workshopping (Both Active Listening and Critiquing Round)
• How to use your Journal in this class:  Handout of "Journal Questions"
• Ideas on how to generate first drafts. Journal:  generate a few ideas for your essays

T 8/29

• Read The Fire Next Time (entire) Journal:  How did Baldwin's writing affect your concept of race relations between whites and blacks?

Note: Reading The Fire Next Time will help you understand the historical background of racism for our subsequent readings this semester)

•  Read Chapters 1 and 2 in WT — Reflect on these chapters in your Journal
• In-Class exercise on reading and answering this question, "Why is voice so important?"
• Collaborative exercise on voice.
• Discussion on concrete vs. abstract language

Th 8/31

• Assign workshop groups

• "How It Feels To Be Colored Me"  by Zora Neale Hurston (Handout)

·        For Your Journal: Reflect on these two Hurston lines: "I am not tragically colored" and "At certain times I have no race, I am me."

• Read Chapter 3 and Chapter 6 (Workshopping) WT  Come to class with 5 ideas for a draft for Essay #1  Get to these ideas through your Journal
• Discussion of figurative language, setting the scene, sensory images, and what you should show and tell
• In-class image exercise
• Begin reading Color of Water by James McBride (1-158) for Tuesday
• Pass out Essay #1 Guidelines

T 9/5              Workshop Day

• Writing prompts to generate a first draft for any of the essays
• Come prepared with a few ideas of what you want to explore
• Read "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott (Handout)

Th 9/7 

• Finish Color of Water
• Reflect on Color of Water in your Journal using questions I'll e-mail

Here's a few to start:

·        Reflect on the dual point of view of this memoir (i.e. James and Ruth) How well did you follow this structure as a reader?

·        Reflect on the racism directed at Ruth in Suffolk, VA – is this what you expected?

·        Reflect on Ruth's comment: "I stayed on the black side, because that was the only place I could stay" (232).

·        How similar/dissimilar is your family to James's retelling of his family structure?

• Discussion of personal/textual model with examples
• Read Chapter 5 (Voice)  Reflect on this chapter in your Journal
• Discussion of dialogue and how to make it "pop" and brief in-class exercise with skit

T 9/12  Workshop Day

• Discuss more personal/textual examples
• In-class workshopping and brainstorming of Essay #1 using handout questions
• Point of View (POV) and Opposing Point of View (OPV)

Th 9/14 Essay #1 Due and Workshop Day

• Break out in four-person groups to critique Essay #1 using handout questions
• Remember to post your summary critiques on the discussion board

T 9/19

• Read Chapter 4 (A Repertoire of Forms) WT
• Reflect on this chapter in your Journal
• Class discussion of creative nonfiction essays of the many different forms creative nonfiction pieces can take
• Read Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson  (Ch. 1-6) for Tuesday
• Reflect on Blood Done Sign My Name in your Journal using questions I'll e-mail

Here's a few to start:

·        What experience does Tyson possess which makes him a credible writer/witness to these events in 1970 Oxford (i.e. Tyson's "little postage stamp of soil" [ 117])

·        In Chapter 3, Tyson discusses Dr. King's "nonviolent" stance that included armed self-defense. Reflect on this contradiction.

·        What does white paternalism as a racial concept mean to you?

·        Most of these events happened thirty-six years ago — what were you able to relate to in Tyson's narrative?

·        Family and religion play a leading role in this book; what is their role in your family?

• Pass out Essay #2 Guidelines

Th 9/21

·        Read Blood Done Sign My Name (Ch. 7-Epilogue)

·        Why does Tyson emphasize that we can't believe everything that comes down to us in the history books.  Apply this discussion to racism.

·        Class discussion and in-class exercise on Blood Done Sign My Name

·        Set up individual conferences during my office hours

·        Start generating ideas for your Essay #2 (Form essay)

T 9/26

·        Timothy Tyson is our guest speaker.  Please bring 1-2 questions to ask (For example, you could ask him about his experiences and how his experiences formed his writing)

·        After class, reflect on Tyson in your Journal

·        Read Chapter 9 (The Role of Research) WT

Th 9/28  Essay #2 Due and Workshop Day

·        Break out in four-person groups to critique Essay #2 using handout questions

·        Remember to post your summary critiques on the discussion board

T 10/3

·        Start reading Black, White and Jewish:  Autobiography of a Shifting Self by Rebecca Walker (1-209)

·        Reflect on Walker's book in your Journal

·              Discuss Walker's descriptions of her surroundings and the people she interacts with.  Do you see a theme?

·              Discuss the class issues Walker brings up in the "Larchmont" chapter.  What role does class and race play in Walker's world and as she negotiates living in her father's and then her mother's respective cities.

·        Read Chapter 8 in WT (to help you with your multigenre essay)

Th 10/5

·        Finish Black, White and Jewish:  Autobiography of a Shifting Self

·        Class discussion and in-class assignment:  Compare and contrast Walker's and McBride's books

·        Journal questions: 

·        What is Whiteness in America?  What is Blackness? 

·        Walker discusses her friend Jesse as a human "bridge." Reflect on this quotation: "How like me he [Jesse] is torn, ripped apart by belonging to two worlds and none at the same time."

·        Walker is a child of divorce trying to find where she fits; what if any part of her story could you relate to?

·        Use what you generate in your journal for your next essay (if it fits)

T 10/10  Entire Class Workshop

·        Read Chapter 7 (Craft of Revision) WT

·        Revision discussion in-class.

·        Please revise one paragraph from one of your essays.  Make enough copies for the class and place first version alongside the revised version.

Th 10/12 FALL BREAK

T 10/17

·        Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldùa (Ch. 1, 5, and 7) and reflect in your Journal how Anzaldúa creates a multigenre work and how Anzaldúa seamlessly uses Spanish, Tex-Mex, and the Indian language of Nahuatl. 

·        Reflect on Anzaldùa's concept of mestizaje (a hybrid form of identities) and compare/contrast with Walker's "bridge concept."

·        Anzaldùa and Tyson look back at history to form their arguments about racial conflicts; as you prepare for you multi-genre essay, how can you incorporate history so that it fits seamlessly into your narrative (hint: look at Anzaldùa's poems)

·        In Class Exercise: Set up a scene and see how many different nouns from other languages you can use.

·        Pass out Essay #3 Guidelines

Th 10/19

·        Read these poems in Borderlands/La Frontera

·        Cultures (142)

·        We Call Them Greasers (156)

·        To Live in the Borderlands Means You (216)

·        Putting it all together:  Class discussion on everything we've learned so far.  Revision questions and revision discussion:  building conflict, your narrative arc, and the character's backstory

·        Remember, you can use more textual examples in this revision because we have read more since the first draft of Essay #1 was due.  Also, reconsider your purpose, audience and argument.

T 10/24  Revision Essay #1 (Personal/Textual Model) Due  (no workshop)

·        In-class exercise:  Brainstorm for your multigenre essay.  How will you put it together?

·        We'll share the in-class writing in class

·        Presentation questions.  Remember to keep Journaling!

·        Sign up everyone for multigenre presentations starting Th 10/26

Th 10/26

·        Read Ch. 10 (Ethics of Creative Nonfiction) WT

·        Discussion on ethics.  Reflect on what you've left out or included in your Journals

T 10/31  Multigenre Essay Due

·        Presentations

Th 11/2

·        Discussion of Final Portfolio and what is required

·        Pass back Revision Essay #1 and discuss opportunities for next Revision assignment

·        Private vs. public writing and how to envision your audience

T 11/7 Entire Class Workshop

·        Please revise one paragraph from Essay #2.  Make enough copies for the class and place first version alongside the revised version, so we can see both versions side-by-side

·        Cutting up the drafts exercise

Th 11/9  Revision Essay #2 (Form Essay) Due and Workshop Day

·        Break out in four-person groups to critique Essay #2 Revision using handout questions

·        Remember to post your summary critiques on the discussion board

T 11/14

·        For Journal:  What do you want to research in the near future?

·        Discussion on subjective vs. objective writing:  Finding the balance

Th 11/16 Workshop Day and Autobiography Draft Due

·        Workshop autobiography draft for Final Portfolio

·        Remember to post your summary critiques on the discussion board

T 11/21

·        Sign up for conferences

·        Discussion on voice, setting, dialogue, POV and OPV from Revision #2 Essays

·        Journal: What have you learned about yourself in this class?

·        Journal:  What have you learned about race?  About our nation's collective memory and history on this subject?

Th 11/23   Happy Thanksgiving!

T 11/28

·        Answer any portfolio questions

·        Review of creative nonfiction and in-class reading of a handout: TBA

·        Review of what is required for reflection paper and how to integrate your Journal entries

Th 11/30 Final Portfolio Due and NO CLASS

T 12/5

·        In class writing:  Reflecting on the class and on race in America

·        Discussion of the creative nonfiction publication world

Th 12/7  Last day of class

·        In class writing:  Compare first-day responses to today

·        Evaluations

T 12/12   Final Exam