Academic Catalog

CRWR 6: INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING

Foothill College Course Outline of Record

Foothill College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Summer 2022
Units: 5
Hours: 5 lecture per week (60 total per quarter)
Prerequisite: Demonstrated proficiency in English by placement via multiple measures OR through an equivalent placement process OR completion of ESLL 125 & ESLL 249.
Degree & Credit Status: Degree-Applicable Credit Course
Foothill GE: Area I: Humanities
Transferable: CSU/UC
Grade Type: Letter Grade (Request for Pass/No Pass)
Repeatability: Not Repeatable

Student Learning Outcomes

  • Evaluate and compare ways communities have used poetry create space, sustain community, challenge stereotypes, preserve cultural knowledge, and respond to injustice
  • Use the elements of the craft with proficiency in both poetry and fiction.

Description

Explicit instruction and practice in writing poetry and short fiction. Assignments include reading, analyzing and responding to published and student work and writing original work. Analysis of public readings and/or interviews with writers.

Course Objectives

The student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate understanding of the basic elements of poetry.
  2. Analyze published poetry.
  3. Critique student poetry.
  4. Create original poetry, demonstrating basic elements.
  5. Demonstrate understanding of the basic elements of short fiction.
  6. Analyze published short fiction.
  7. Critique student short fiction.
  8. Create original short fiction, demonstrating basic elements.
  9. Participate effectively in a workshop setting.
  10. Revise original poetry and short fiction based on workshop critiques.
  11. Produce self-analyses of poetry and short fiction.
  12. Compare and contrast voices which reflect a diversity of cultural and social milieus.

Course Content

  1. Understand basic elements of poetry
    1. Form
      1. Formal poetry: sonnets, etc.
      2. Free verse
      3. Stanza
      4. Line (end-stopped and enjambed)
    2. Content
      1. Sound: meter and rhythm, consonance and assonance, repetition and rhyme
      2. Figures of speech: simile and metaphor
      3. Imagery
      4. Tone
  2. Analyze published poetry
    1. Identify significant elements
    2. Determine how these elements contribute to poet's purpose
  3. Critique student poetry
    1. Identify significant elements
    2. Determine how these elements contribute to poet's intended purpose
    3. Offer critical suggestions about how poet can accomplish purpose via revision
  4. Create original poetry
    1. Formal poetry
    2. Free verse
  5. Understand the basic elements of short fiction
    1. Form
      1. Flash fiction
      2. Short story
    2. Content
      1. Character
      2. Conflict
      3. Dialogue
      4. Setting
      5. Tone
  6. Analyze published short fiction
    1. Identify significant elements
    2. Determine how these elements contribute to writer's purpose
  7. Critique student short fiction
    1. Identify significant elements
    2. Determine how elements contribute to writer's intended purpose
    3. Offer critical suggestions about how writer can accomplish intended purpose via revision
  8. Create original short fiction
    1. Flash fiction
    2. Short story
  9. Participate in workshop setting
    1. Constructive discussion
    2. Constructive written feedback
  10. Apply suggestions in the revision of original writing
    1. Local revision
    2. Global revision
  11. Self-analysis of work
    1. Portfolio review of poetry
      1. Strengths and weaknesses
      2. Progress
    2. Portfolio review of short fiction
      1. Strengths and weakness
      2. Progress
  12. Distinguish diverse voices
    1. Published writing
    2. Academic community

Lab Content

Not applicable.

Special Facilities and/or Equipment

When taught via Foothill Global Access: ongoing access to computer with email software capabilities; email address; internet browsing software.

Method(s) of Evaluation

Methods of Evaluation may include but are not limited to the following:

Participation in workshop discussion
Production of written critiques of student work
Ten analytical responses of at least one page each to assigned published writings
In-class writing exercises
Three to five poems
One short story or several pieces of flash fiction for a total of six to eight pages
Revision of original work
Portfolio review of at least two pages
Quality of original work

Method(s) of Instruction

Methods of Instruction may include but are not limited to the following:

Lecture
Discussion
Cooperative learning exercises
Oral presentations

Representative Text(s) and Other Materials

Burroway, Janet. Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, 4th ed.. 2014.

Burroway, Janet. Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 10th ed.. 2019.

Knorr, Jeff, and Tim Schell. Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry, 2nd ed.. 2005.

La Plante, Alice. The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing (reprint ed.). 2010.

LeGuin, Ursula. Steering the Craft. 2015.

Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook. 1994.

Knorr, Jeff, and Tim Schell. A Writer's Country: A Collection of Fiction and Poetry. 2001.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers. 1997.

Gwyn, R.S.. Poetry: A Pocket Anthology. 2012.

Although some of these texts are older than the suggested "5 years or newer" standard, they remain seminal texts in this area of study.

Materials are to include one text from each of the two following areas:

1. A textbook that explains how to write poetry and short fiction

2. An anthology that contains poetry and short fiction, or two anthologies, each focusing on one of the genres

Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing, and Outside of Class Assignments

  1. Written analysis of published poetry and short fiction.
  2. Composition of original poetry and short fiction.

Discipline(s)

English