Catalog Description

Prerequisite: Eligibility for ENGL 1A
Hours: 54 lecture
Description: Composition of non-fiction prose, with non-fiction reading and analysis assignments drawn from the following genres: autobiography and memoir, philosophical/contemplative reflections, travel writing, nature writing and political/social commentary. Includes discussion and criticism, in workshop mode, of original student writing. (CSU, UC)

Course Student Learning Outcomes

  • CSLO #1: Identify, interpret and analyze the fundamentals of the creative non-fiction essay, through a variety of forms, styles, and historical periods.
  • CSLO #2: Identify, interpret and analyze the fundamentals of the creative non-fiction essay, through a variety of forms, styles, and historical periods.
  • CSLO #3: Discuss, critique, edit, and revise through peer review workshops original creative non-fiction essays.

Effective Term

Fall 2017

Course Type

Credit - Degree-applicable

Contact Hours

54

Outside of Class Hours

108

Total Student Learning Hours

162

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion, students will be able to:
1) Identify, interpret, analyze and evaluate the fundamental elements of nonfiction prose such as genre, audience, purpose, voice, literary techniques and style in published and student works of nonfiction.
2) Apply analysis of non-fiction elements, devices, and forms, to the composition of college-level works of original non-fiction.
3) Incorporate literary techniques into composition of non-fiction prose.
4) Find, evaluate, and use sources as appropriate to composition of nonfiction prose.
5) Apply knowledge of genres and sub-genres to composition of imaginative works of nonfiction.
6) Identify and apply common practices of developing ideas through drafting, editing and peer review in the creative nonfiction writing process.
7) Assimilate literary techniques and critical standards into the interpretation, analysis, and evaluation of classmates' and students' own work through peer review workshops.
8) Identify and apply stages of the editorial process in the selection and revision of nonfiction works for assessment.

General Education Information

  • Approved College Associate Degree GE Applicability
    • AA/AS - Fine Arts
  • CSU GE Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU approval)
    • CSUGE - C2 Humanities
  • Cal-GETC Applicability (Recommended - Requires External Approval)
    • IGETC Applicability (Recommended-requires CSU/UC approval)

      Articulation Information

      • CSU Transferable
      • UC Transferable

      Methods of Evaluation

      • Classroom Discussions
        • Example: Student will participate in small- and large-group discussions of critical analysis of professional and peer essays, including form, style, techniques and themes. Student will also participate, as a writer and a peer editor, in peer editing workshops of original writing, discussing form, style, techniques, and themes. For example, using a nonfiction editing rubric, a student will critique selected letters by Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright, including professional criticism of form, style, techniques, or themes. Small groups will then critique peer writing that emerged from the Silko and Wright ideas and techniques; the same editing rubric will be applied to student writing.
      • Essay Examinations
        • Example: Through short answers, students will with 70% accuracy identify and define literary terms and concepts and apply literary terms and concepts to brief interpretations and analyses of individual works of nonfiction, including distinct sub-genres. For example, an exam could include a question examining Phillip Lopate's "Portrait of My Body" for its style, based on class discussion and analysis: "How does Lopate's essay use voice to engage the reader?" or "How does the essay's level of diction, including the use of colloquial language, support Lopate's theme of self-discovery? Discuss this, using specific examples, in a concise paragraph." Another example of an exam or quiz question could include: "As discussed in the text and in class discussion, identify the Baldwin, Queen Elizabeth, or Dave Berry essays as narrative or expository or both. Use specific examples to support your choice."
      • Projects
        • Example: All English 18 students will complete individual portfolio submissions which will be revised throughout the semester with passing grades, through journals, workshops, presentations, and consultation with instructor. For example, interviews will be assigned and scheduled after models and methods are explored. The completed interviews will be shared in class, critiqued, and edited in small and large groups. The interview will be evaluated for structure, content, techniques, style, and themes. Another example would be a contemplative nature essay, based on models from Thoreau and Dillard, supported by the student's own personal experience in nature. This essay will be evaluated on form, style, techniques, and themes.
      • Reports
        • Example: Student will demonstrate with passing grades critical evaluations and reports on examples of nonfiction essays by professionals and peers, in written assignments, journals, class discussion, and editing workshops. For example, the student will select from a list generated from assigned reading and student input an essayist to read throughout the semester, from Plato to David Sedaris, keeping a journal of select essay comments, focusing on form, style, techniques, and themes. An overall impression of the essayist's form, style, techniques, and themes will be discussed through informal presentations and comparison and contrast with other essayists selected by peers.
      • Skill Demonstrations
        • Example: All on-ground and online students will each submit a final portfolio of a minimum of six finished pieces of original nonfiction work that demonstrates a thorough knowledge of college-level nonfiction writing in a format suitable for publication in college journal, newspaper or magazine. The portfolio will be evaluated for its adherence to specific assignment details and college-level development of topics, techniques, styles, themes, and nonfiction sub-genres as covered in class. For example, the portfolio would include an interview, a researched informative report, a memoir excerpt, a nature or contemplative personal essay, a social commentary, and a process analysis. The portfolio is required and graded on a standard scale.

      Repeatable

      No

      Methods of Instruction

      • Lecture/Discussion
      • Distance Learning

      Lecture:

      1. Critical thinking: Instructor will require analysis and evaluation of professional and student writing, incorporating terms, concepts, and standards covered in the text, lecture and discussion. Some assignments will require research, including primary and secondary sources. For example, in an on-ground environment, lecture on and analysis of Dillard's "Living Like Weasels" in a large group discussion could be followed by analysis and editing in small groups of original student work based on an assignment related to the Dillard essay.
      2. Reading: Instructor will require students to read selected works of creative nonfiction, criticism, and biography, including original drafts by classmates, and require students in groups to interpret, analyze, and evaluate the writing of professionals and peers and make informal presentations providing their conclusions and suggestions to the class. Instructor will also require oral and written responses to assigned reading, shared in class and in their journals. For an on-ground class, students would work in small group workshops, using editing rubrics, to analyze the form, style, techniques, and themes of the assigned professional essays. They then would present their findings to the class. Later in the week, after reading original peer essays generated from the Dillard techniques and themes, students would work in small groups, moving through an editing rubric on form, style, techniques, and themes, and then present the editing ideas to the class.
      3. Writing: Instructor will assign select written critiques and analysis of professional essays; original student writing will include essays, reports, research, and exercises from prompts, including brainstorming, planning, and rough and final drafts. For an on-ground class, these would be done at home and in class, turned in for instructor comments, and shared in class for small- and large-group workshops, using editing rubrics and models.

      Distance Learning

      1. Critical thinking: Instructor will require analysis and evaluation of professional and student writing, incorporating terms, concepts, and standards covered in the text, lecture and discussion. Some assignments will require research, including primary and secondary sources. For example, in an on-ground environment, lecture on and analysis of Dillard's "Living Like Weasels" in a large group discussion could be followed by analysis and editing in small groups of original student work based on an assignment related to the Dillard essay. An online class, after instructor lecture notes on the essay and text information, would participate in discussion board analysis, following a rubric of form, style, techniques, and themes. A follow-up discussion board assignment would include analysis and editing of original work related to the Dillard essay, following an editing rubric for comments and discussion.
      2. Reading: Instructor will require students to read selected works of creative nonfiction, criticism, and biography, including original drafts by classmates, and require students in groups to interpret, analyze, and evaluate the writing of professionals and peers and make informal presentations providing their conclusions and suggestions to the class. Instructor will also require oral and written responses to assigned reading, shared in class and in their journals. For an on-ground class, students would work in small group workshops, using editing rubrics, to analyze the form, style, techniques, and themes of the assigned professional essays. They then would present their findings to the class. Later in the week, after reading original peer essays generated from the Dillard techniques and themes, students would work in small groups, moving through an editing rubric on form, style, techniques, and themes, and then present the editing ideas to the class. For an online class, after reading/listening to the instructor's lecture notes on Dillard's essay, students would work in small groups within Canvas (this could include a live chat, Skype, or traditional Groups discussion), analyzing the form, style, techniques, and themes. They then would present their summary discussion on the discussion board, in written, video, or audio form. At the end of the week, this same format could be applied to original student essays, culminating in a discussion board posting, either in writing or video or audio form, including point-by-point editing suggestions as they follow the editing rubric.
      3. Writing: Instructor will assign select written critiques and analysis of professional essays; original student writing will include essays, reports, research, and exercises from prompts, including brainstorming, planning, and rough and final drafts. For an on-ground class, these would be done at home and in class, turned in for instructor comments, and shared in class for small- and large-group workshops, using editing rubrics and models. For an online class, the same assignments and processes would be managed within Canvas, utilizing its files and apps. Instructor will require students to participate in the writing process, from brainstorming through the planning and revision stages, including editing their own work and their peers' essays through peer editing workshops and instructor conferences on Discussions, in chats, Groups, Skype, Google docs, and social media, as appropriate. Instructor editing comments, written or by video or audio, would refine and guide students through the editing rubric and revision process.

      Typical Out of Class Assignments

      Reading Assignments

      1. Read the essay "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" by Alice Walker. In your journal, write a page (250 word) response to the following question: Walker's essay is written entirely in the present tense, although it moves through time and uses repetition. How do these elements combine to create a unified meaning? 2. Read two essays of place: Legler's "Moments of Being: An Antarctic Quintet" and Whitehead's "The Port Authority" noting the sensory details and images. In groups of three, compare the writers' use of these details and images discuss their effects.

      Writing, Problem Solving or Performance

      1. In a 3-4 page draft, compare something in your life now to something in your past by juxtaposition. Write one segment in first-person present and the other in first-person past as Mary Pope does in "Teacher Training." Make at least two shifts. For example: write about learning how to swim and becoming a life guard; or dating vs. having a steady relationship. 2. Choose one of the assigned free-write topics from your journal work for this class and develop your journal entry into a three to four page (750-1000 word) polished reflection on that topic. Suggested free-write topics to choose from include describing: 1. when everything changed 2. the end of childhood 3. falling again 4. my other self 5. a brush with the criminal side 6. facing mortality 7. an encounter with an animal 8. your parents before you were born 9. running risks 10. a place in nature 11. the oddball relative 12. a friend from the past 13. something I've never told anyone 14. something in the newspaper you can't forget 15. associations on a word 16. associations on a color 17. overheard conversation 18. a death, human or nonhuman 19. hair, fingernails, peeling skin 20. a remembered dream 21. a time you were, might have been, or were afraid you might be close to death 22. an unpleasant situation remembered, something that makes you uncomfortable: tell about it and interpret it, to put yourself in control; consider how you gained strength from the situation, how you now understand it, how you now accept reality, how you take or reject responsibility, how you reveal or don't reveal yourself to others 23. a memorable meal 24. a travel experience 25. the child that remains within 26. learning a craft or skill with little or no guidance or mentoring 27. the first time you swam with jellyfish, ate an exotic (to you) food, met a dignitary, experienced the ocean or mountain snow 28. a stone, pond, plant, flamingo at the zoo,or a bridge 29. your first memory of going to the dentist/eye doctor/family physician 30. your thoughts on pollution,the electoral college, or the legal age to vote

      Other (Term projects, research papers, portfolios, etc.)

      Complete a final portfolio of six finished pieces of original nonfiction demonstrating a thorough knowledge of college-level nonfiction writing in a format suitable for publication in a college journal, newspaper or magazine.

      Required Materials

      • Brief Encounters: A Collection of Contemporary Nonfiction
        • Author: Kitchen, Judith
        • Publisher: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
        • Publication Date: 2015
        • Text Edition:
        • Classic Textbook?:
        • OER Link:
        • OER:
      • To Show & To Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
        • Author: Lopate, Phillip
        • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
        • Publication Date: 2013
        • Text Edition:
        • Classic Textbook?:
        • OER Link:
        • OER:
      • Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction
        • Author: Miller, Brenda and Suzanne Paola
        • Publisher: McGraw-Hill
        • Publication Date: 2012
        • Text Edition:
        • Classic Textbook?:
        • OER Link:
        • OER:
      • You Can't Make This Stuff Up
        • Author: Gutland, Lee
        • Publisher: DeCapo Press
        • Publication Date: 2012
        • Text Edition:
        • Classic Textbook?:
        • OER Link:
        • OER:
      • Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief
        • Author: Stackey, David
        • Publisher: Macmillan
        • Publication Date: 2017
        • Text Edition:
        • Classic Textbook?:
        • OER Link:
        • OER:

      Other materials and-or supplies required of students that contribute to the cost of the course.