Syllabus for Creative Writing (CRW 2001)

Ref. # 282680 Sept. 22 to Dec. 12, 2008

Online Fall Semester B12 Term (20091)

(See other pages for other course information.)

When you have a piece of writing to be turned in, type it on your word processing program so that revisions can be made and e-mail it to him at hdenson@fccj.edu.

If you wish specific feedback, you should include questions that you would like answered: e.g., "Is the rhyme in this poem too obvious?. . .Should I not use rhyme in this poem?. . .Does the point of view work in this story?"

You should strive for "professional appearing" manuscripts since that is part of the training of a writer. Major speakers at writers' conferences repeatedly emphasize that they simply do not pay any attention to pages that can't be read, that need major spelling and grammatical corrections, etc.

CLASS WORKSHOPS

Since the course is online, we will try to replicate the "workshop" aspects of a creative writing course. Your major projects are the ones to be shared anonymously with your colleagues in the workshop.  However, if you have one very personal major project, you may be excused from a classwide critique on that.  (Again, keep in mind they won't who has written anything.)  Your other two major projects, however, will need to be critiqued by everyone.
 

 The Course Outline

 I. The dynamics of the writing process.

 The writing of fiction:
 Plot
 Characterization
 Setting
 Point of view
 Tone

 II. The writing of poetry

 Prosodic analysis
 Creation of original poems

 III. The writing of drama/film script

 IV. Special problems in drama

 V. Resources for writers; submission of manuscripts

Although the course will be online, you will find it more of a "hybrid" course. You will submit your assignments by e-mail to hdenson@fccj.edu; you will take an online orientation test on Blackboard; and you will refer to the website for 90% of your information:

http://web.fccj.edu/~hdenson

When you click on "Courses and Syllabi" or "Handouts," it will take you to CRW items.

You will use Blackboard for doing the online orientation test and the Tips on Techniques test. It will also record your grades. The instructor believes that you may find this course to be pleasant: i.e., besides learning something, you may find it is easy to earn a good grade, thanks to safety nets that allow you to do extra credit to bring up any low grades.

It is possible that you are focusing on this course mainly to improve your writing. You may even have a bachelor's, master's, or doctorate and have no interest in grades. On the other hand, you may be still working on your associate's degree and still going over the undergraduate hurdles. Especially for the undergraduate, the course has to have a grade structure, along with a method for the instructor to be friendly, courteous, kind, fair, and objective.

So, if you are Dr. Hoogoose D. Moose and have been over the undergraduate degree and graduate degree hurdles, don't roll your eyes at the following procedures. They are to give some of your classmates (online mates?) some structure:

1. Mailing Envelopes: We will do 99.9% of our communicating online. If you have real long submissions, you will send it in sections of about 2,000 words or the instructor may request that you send hard-copy of these (lest he spend an hour going through a piece, only to have the electricity go off and wipe out the work done).  For others, even if Darth Virus attacks the college network over an extended period, the U.S. Postal Service will be the force that's with us. If you do end up needing to US-mail an assignment, send it to the address above. The college will supply the return postage.

2. E-Mail Address: FCCJ automatically provides you with an e-mail address, so you will need to activate it immediately. If you already have an e-mail address that you wish to use IN ADDITION to the FCCJ address, then send a message to the instructor and type in something like the following:

"I'm in your online Creative Writing class and would like to use this e-mail address, too."

When you communicate with the instructor, put "CRW" in the subject line and include your actual name. When gatorgal212@aol.com writes, "I didn't see my Paper 2 recorded on Blackboard," the instructor can only respond with "Who you?"

Here are the steps for activating your FCCJ e-mail address:

Go to the website http://exchange.students.fccj.org/exchange/logon.asp.

If that is not helpful, then try the website http://www.fccj.edu.

In the middle of the top of the screen for www.fccj.edu, there is a list of four green hyperlinks. Click on the one that says Student Resources.

This will bring you to a list of links for different services the college offers. Toward the bottom of the list is one that says Request an E-Mail

Account. Click on this.

At the top of the screen, it should say STUDENT COMPUTING RESOURCES. Here you will find links on the left side of the page. 

Click on the link marked Student Web E-mail.

Your User Name and password should be the same as your Blackboard account.

Although the instructor will insist that you have an active FCCJ account, you may do most of your communicating on your regular e-mail account. However, the Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast, etc. accounts have pitfalls:

You or someone in your family may have put in a block on multiple messages to avoid ?spam,? and our class e-mails may never reach you.

Your account may max out.

Your old account may go inactive.

You may switch from one service to another and forget to tell us.

When you think that your FCCJ Outlook account isn't receiving e-mail from the instructor(s), you are probably having the following problems:

Again, you or someone in your family may have put a block on multiple messages to avoid spam, and the FCCJ e-mails may never reach you.

You may have maxed out your FCCJ account.  (Simplest solution to free up some space:  Do to "deleted mail," highlight everything, and then hit "delete."  (Yes, you have to delete it twice to get rid of it.)

Maybe the college has dropped you from the course for, say, non-payment.  Check with Helpdesk or student services about that problem. 

3. BLACKBOARD: Now that you have your e-mail account, you want to go into Blackboard, which will be located at http://bb7.fccj.org

If you already have an FCCJ e-mail account, simply log in to Artemis with your student user ID. If you don't remember your password, you will be able to reset it. Once you have a student user ID and password, you will be able to log on to Artemis (where you will find links to Blackboard as well as links to your e-mail account) using this student user ID. If you go directly to Blackboard at

http://bb7/webapps/login

you will still log in with this Artemis student ID.

If you are a new student, then the above won't be a problem. On the other hand, if you are an old student, you may want to use your former system and you run into trouble. The new system means that you will no longer need to contact your instructor to get into your course. . .or you won't have to wait until the instructor laboriously types in the names of you and your classmates. It also means your instructor cannot change your password if you have drawn a total blank or run into some other problems.

Blackboard will be used as your online gradebook. It will also be where you will take any quizzes for the course.

3. Attendance and Feedback/Critique Items: In a regular class, the instructor calls roll by circulating a sign-in sheet each class meeting. In an online class, "roll is called" by your responsiveness regarding 30 or more Critique/Feedback Items that will be sent out to you. If you are not replying to any of them or doing any papers or exercises, you are absent.  Use good grammar and spelling on the critiques, not the hasty e-talk that you may use in chat rooms or with e-messages your best friend who's now in California.  A critique will receive a grade of 5 if its spelling and grammar are reasonable, the responses thoughtful and original; 4 will reflect a little deficiency; 3, a greater deficiency; etc.  Do a spellcheck to ensure that you receive maximum credit.

4. Final Grades: Besides A, B, C, D, and F, the college has other final grades. Keep in mind that you have TWO attempts to take any FCCJ course at the regular tuition rate. If you attempt a course for the THIRD time, you will pay out-of-state tuition ($600+).

Incompletes: Theses are only given in extremely rare circumstances (i.e., hospital emergency situations, etc.). Push yourself to finish the course. Enrollees who never attempt any work receive F's. (If you see you are not going to make it, then obtain an official withdrawal by the appropriate date.) If you only finish, say, half of the work, you may withdraw and sign up for the course again.  If you enroll in this instructor's class, you will only have to complete the rest of the work. If you are taking the course for the third time, the State of Florida requires the instructor to give a letter grade, even if it's an F.

"FN" Grade: The college has a grade of "FN" to promote attendance and encourage students who are not attending to withdraw. This grade indicates failure for nonattendance (or, for an online class, failure to sign on, communicate, be responsive, etc.). The instructor will implement the "FN" grade after the absences or non-responsiveness has reached 15 percent of the class. The instructor will largely base your "attendance" grade on your responsiveness and participation (projects, exercises, and critiques). If nothing else or little else appears, he will submit an FN grade and put down a reasonable date for your last day of "attendance." The FN may be administered after the official withdrawal deadline and later whenever the "window" opens for recording the grade.

5. Points for Major and Minor Projects: The major project assignments will be graded on a 400-point scale. Any tests will usually use a 100-point scale. On papers and tests, 90's are A's; 80's, B's; etc. The 40-point exercises will use percentages: A- will be 90% of 40, or 36 points, etc. On a major project, you may receive, say, 360 points (A-) on a short story, chapter, or chapbook of poetry.  You will need to revise the project and then submit it to be critiqued by the class.  Failure to revise and submit it could drop the 360 grade down to 320. 

It will not be necessary to revise the minor exercises.

6. Tests: Any tests will be given through Blackboard.com. Follow the directions earlier for accessing Blackboard. Actually, anything you write during the course is a test of sorts. You are testing yourself and stretching yourself as you aspire to do "real writing" (writing that perhaps could be sold to others, as opposed to writing in English or sociology classes). A test format may be an easy way to get across, say, proper ways of doing dialogue.

All tests, in essence, are open-book tests since they are online. Of course, they are designed to sharpen your writing, and your future success will really tell you your "grade."

7. Late Work: For regular undergraduates, the instructor has a hard line about late work. It will be penalized (see points section). He tells undergraduates that they shouldn't even think about turning everything in at the last minute. The instructor refuses to grade "floods" from one student. Now, for the creative writing class, perhaps involving Dr. Moose with advanced degrees, the instructor still doesn't want to be flooded or to receive a packet with all the major projects and minor projects at one bunch. Writing is rewriting, remember, so be sure to have your work in on a timely basis so that you can incorporate some suggestions. In addition, part of your grade is having your pieces critiqued by your classmates. If the items are sent in late, you miss out on the feedback from classmates.

For the online course, you MUST turn in things on a regular basis for two reasons:

That's the way it's done.

Your instructor may have about 150 or more students in all classes during a fall semester.

This creative writing class may have a large number of students enrolled.

 In short, to maintain sanity and to be able to give quality service, your instructor will have to insist on regular pacing and the like. 

8. College-Level Writing and Typed Papers: A standard note to undergraduates says that the instructor simply is not going to read any illiterate gibberish. If a paper is a mess, he will bounce it back for rewriting using acceptable standards. As an aspiring writer, you will be competing with others who are good writers. To use a high jump metaphor, the bar will be raised higher and higher when you strive to get published in, say, The New Yorker or Atlantic.

Run your final copy on the letter-quality setting. Doublespace the type. Please the Courier New font (set at 12 points).  If you know how to do normal double-spacing, then do that for prose.  However, do not put a "return" (the "enter" key) after each line to make it look like double-spacing.  Instead of using line-return-line-return, just make everything single-spaced, and the instructor will make adjustments.

When papers are returned to you, you will notice Arabic numbers on your paper. These will refer to parts of Harbrace College Handbook. Copies of Harbrace are available on reserve in the library. (Hemingway used Harbrace when it first came out in the 1940s.) If you have another English handbook, then go to the instructor's homepage and click on "Handouts" to see what the current Harbrace numbers represent.  A rule of thumb is this:  If the instructor has marked a problem in a story or poetry, fix everything that is marked.  If only a few items are repaired, the instructor has the option of taking off additional points and not sending out the piece to classmates for workshopping.

9. Decorum: Since you are taking the course online, you may chew gum, whistle, or whatever in the privacy of your home study-area. When you are online, however, use good manners. The instructor will treat you politely, so, if you enjoy a good flaming session, save that behavior for your online adversaries.

10. Plagiarism: Do your own writing. If you are using information from some source, give credit to that source in the text of your paper, as you are using the source (not just at the end). If you do not know what plagiarism is, read the appropriate section of any composition handbook. A temptation in a Creative Writing class may be to say, "Darn, a story is due Monday, and I haven't done anything." So you see a story in Yankee magazine, and a little devil appears on a shoulder and whispers, "He'll never know if you turn this in. What's the harm?" If the instructor is suspicious, all he has to do is go to Google.com or Turnitin, search for a phrase from the story, and that little devil is popped into a blender. And then--

When we workshop a student's writing (anonymously), the text will be sent to all students.  Sometimes, a little devil whispers, "Why don't you just copy this person's critique?  The instructor is too stupid to know."  If Critiquer #1 has said something distinctive (e.g., "The conclusion of the story gallops toward the goal line like a halfback with a rocket on his back," the instructor will NOT give credit to Another Critiquer who observes, "The conclusion of the story gallops toward the goal line like a halfback with a missile on his back."  Do your own work.  It's simpler.

Student-to-Professor Hours in Fall and Spring Semesters

Full-time Instructors are required to post so-called office hours, which are really times when the instructor is available to answer your questions. Your instructor is retired and posts only the hours for an adjunct; that could mean posting only 30 minutes, but your instructor will probably be online from 11 to noon every weekday.  If you have a simple problem, go ahead and use the e-mail address: hdenson@fccj.edu. On the other hand, if your problem is more complicated, come to C32 (usually on Tuesdays), when the instructor is in the Writers' Festival office. Sometimes a student says, "I'm working on a project in the library [or lab]," so your instructor will go to a PC or whatever until the question is resolved. If you have a question about the course procedures, be sure to bring a copy of your syllabus.

At certain times during the term, the instructor may be in the Learning Center (D330) at North or the library. Take a spin through the LAC and library, and, if you spot your instructor, feel free to ask him any questions during the following times, if it suits your schedule better.

Assignments for CRW 2001

The course will feature two categories of writing:

 ANY TEN MINOR EXERCISES -- You will work on facets of poetry, fiction (short stories), and drama. Since these exercises may have you writing in an unfamiliar area, the instructor will grade these liberally:  i.e., you will not be expected to write a great poem or play, especially since your main interest may be in short stories. Exercises will be graded on a 40-point scale. Additional exercises may be done for extra credit.

 ANY THREE MAJOR PROJECTS - YOUR OWN WORK -- You will want to write a booklet of poems, a play, and a story -- or any three major projects (see list later). 400-point scale. Additional major projects may be done for extra credit.

 MANUSCRIPT FORM -- All work will be e-mailed to the instructor in a format (Word or RTF) that can be shared with others. Neither the instructor nor any editor wants to look at any handwritten material.

 The first page of your submissions should look like this:

hmoose@moosenet.net; mooshd@students.fccj.org (or edu)

Hoogoose D. Moose

(Pennym O'Demoose)
10001 Antler Rd.
Deerwood, Fla. 322--
(904) 766-6559

3,250 words
 
  
 

 ANTLERS IN THE TREETOPS

 by

 Pennym O'Demoose

         At the top left corner of the page, you should have your name and mailing address. A telephone number and an e-mail address are handy because the editor may want to use the article/story may want to discuss some revisions with you. Notice that Hoogoose uses a penname.

         You double-space the typing. At the top right, you put the word count. (The word a counts just as much as atrocious does.) Your computer has a word-count feature, but, if it doesn't, you can count the number of full lines and multiply that by the number of words in an average line.

[And so on.]

If you have only been receiving e-mail in “plain text,” try to reset your defaults so that you can read the formatting (“html” is recommended). When the instructor e-mails back your paper, it will contain numbers and comments in brackets (and perhaps in bold-face type): [2], [3, 17a], [32 dev]. These three numerical items mean (respectively) fragment, comma splice or run-on (put a period), and develop the idea with more support. The numbers will come from Hodges' Harbrace Handbook. If you do not have a copy of Harbrace, then go to "Handouts" and print out the list of Harbrace numbers. You may use any grammar handbook to write in the equivalents of the Harbrace numbers. For example, your textbook may discuss fragments in Chapter 3 or 13.(Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a Harbrace? Well, if money is no problem.) Let's see what happened to the opening of a paper by Hoogoose D. Moose:

hdmoose@moosenet.com; hdmoose@students.fccj.edu

Hoogoose D. Moose

CRW 2001 Major Project #1

April 1, 200-

[GRADE:  360 pts]

[x] -- obvious or repeated errors / problems

Wordy and red – delete word/phrase/etc.

______________ avoid –ing openings (or past participle openings)

[LV] -- Avoid linking verbs and weak verbs.

[OW] – Avoid Outlawed Words (get, got, a lot, plenty of, etc.)

[AvP] -- Use active verbs ("he hit the ball") instead of passive ones ("the ball was hit by him").

[NP / NS / NL] = new paragraph / stanza / line

[p] – periods and commas go inside quotation marks

[t] – tenses are shifting from present to past (or vice versa); keep them consistent.

[No NP / NS / NL] = no new paragraph / stanza / line

Mooses [18 pl] in the Deep Dark Aklantic [Sp 18]

I am going to write a tell you a story about mooses[18 pl] in danger. [Don't put your paper in your paper.] In Deerfield Beach, many diver [18pl] has [6] been fascinate [7] by the challenge of diving down to wrecks in the Aklantic [Sp] Ocean. Martin Moose had such a craving, and he. . .

and so on. The paper will often include 33e or [x] because that means the student did not proofread the paper, and it may end with a remark from the instructor, similar to the one below:

[Mr. Moose: I don't have any problem with your story, but do a spellcheck before you send in the next one. As you revise this before sending out to your classmates for feedback and workshopping, see if you can do more "showing" instead of "telling." Let us SEE Martin's desire to be a diver.]

Required Points for the Course

*The final grade is based on the points accumulated, not on an average of, say, 69.5 that someone might hope to have rounded upward. The scale deliberately includes 200 points between letter grades.

EXTRA CREDIT ON MAJOR PROJECTS:  After you have done the three major projects (each worth up to 400 points), you may do extra Major Projects.  These will be worth 100 points each (500-2,000 words in a story or article).

HONORS SECTION:  If you see you're going to make 95% of the required points (1900) instead of 1800 for the A-, you may want to go to Student Services and fill out a form to designate the class an Honors Course.  Do this early in the term to avoid confusing the Student Services staffers. The basic 1900 points MUST include the Orientation Test and the Tips and Techniques Test. To be considered honors-caliber work, assignments must be turned in on a regular basis (i.e., no last minute flooding of the instructors).
 

Do you have something that pleases you and your classmates?

During the course (and afterwards as long as you're enrolled at FCCJ), you may want to send submissions to The Experience, the FCCJ student literary magazine.  The current advisor is Professor Jana Kinder (jkinder@fccj.edu).  Check to see if she will accept e-submissions or if she'd prefer for you to send hard-copy to The Experience, FCCJ Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32205.

 Click here for information about your instructor.