SYLLABUS
English 398R: Writing Non-Fictional Narratives
Spring 2016
Stewart Foehl
Office Hours: T/TH 1-2pm, and by appointment
Office: 1236 Tawes Hall
Course Description: This class is geared toward students interested in careers that will involve writing and editing nonfiction narrative. Goals include creating usable forms of communication for specific audiences, learning professional standards of practice, producing credible, well-crafted texts, and developing writtem communication skills. Most importantly, we’ll be examining and practicing the mechanics of nonfiction narrative.
Nonfiction narrative writing draws its influences from fiction, magazine journalism, memoirs, poetry, and personal essays. Writers use many of the same tools as fiction writers, including dialogue, vivid description, character development, nonlinear structure, and shifts in tense, time, scene, and points of view. However, unlike fiction, nonfiction narrative strives to focus on what is real. The author hopes to tell the truth. That is, he or she does not “make things up” and includes research in the form of anecdotes, quotes, interviews, statistics and personal experience. As we will see, the difficult business of truth telling raises many philosophical questions about the limits of memory, interpretation, and human experience.
We’ll focus on many aspects of the nonfiction writing world, from the submission policies of literary and trade magazines to the dynamics of the New York publishing industry. At its most practical level, this class will emphasize the professional market and how to get your work published. But more globally, we’ll together work to produce narratives that are compelling, well structured, and have a unique voice.
Required Texts: Selections printed out or downloaded via email or class website on Canvas
Recommended Text: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
(witty, concise notes on style, grammar, etc.)
Grading:
Quizzes (based on reading assignments)10%
Audience paper, Query letter, and Entertainment Review, 1 page each15%
A 3-5 page personal essay (memoir)15%
A 3-5 page narrative essay (literary journalism)15%
A 3-5 page experimental essay (hybrid/experimental)15%
Portfolio (including expanded, 8-10 page revised essay of your choice)20%
Professionalism (participation, attendance, etc.)10%
Grading Standards
A grade of “C” indicates that you have adequately met all the requirements for an assignment—you’ve done what you needed to do. A “B” indicates superior work that exceeds those standards, and an “A” indicates work that is exceptional in every way. Failure to meet any of the requirements of the assignment will result in a grade of “D” or “F.” The percentages above assume that the attendance requirements are met. Excessive or unexcused absences will impact the final grade as described elsewhere in these policies. In order to receive a passing grade in this course, you must complete all of the specific assignments listed above in a timely manner.
Professional Writing Program Goals
The Fundamental Studies Professional Writing requirement strengthens writing skills and prepares students for the range of writing expected of them after graduation. On completion of a Professional Writing course, students will be able to: Analyze a variety of professional rhetorical situations and produce appropriate texts in response; understand the stages required to produce competent, professional writing through planning, drafting, revising, and editing; identify and implement the appropriate research methods for each writing task; practice the ethical use of sources and the conventions of citation appropriate to each genre; write for the intended readers of a text, and design or adapt texts to audiences who may differ in their familiarity with the subject matter; demonstrate competence in Standard Written English, including grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, coherence, and document design (including the use of the visual) and be able to use this knowledge to revise texts; produce cogent arguments that identify arguable issues, reflect the degree of available evidence, and take account of counter arguments.
Expectations
No cell-phone use is allowed in the classroom. Laptops should only be open if you need to reference the material we are discussing. I know it’s unfathomable, but you will have to live through 75 minutes without text, social media, or internet surfing. I assure you, I can tell if you’re using your laptop for anything non class related, and your “professionalism” grade will be affected. This class is about being present and engaged.
Attendance
To succeed in this course, regular attendance is required. Classroom discussions and in-class work account for a significant part of your grade, and class participation, once missed, cannot be restored. Please note that missing more than three classes for any reason may result in a zero for the participation portion of your grade—and may jeopardize your overall course grade. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to make up what you’ve missed. Missing class will make catching up difficult, if not impossible.
Unexcused absences: You may miss two classes of no-questions absences for both the expected (i.e., a family wedding) and the unexpected (i.e., a flat tire). If you take an unexcused absence, however, you are still responsible for whatever material was covered in class. If a major grading event is scheduled for that class period, and you use an unexcused absence, then you will lose points for that activity.
Excused absences: The University excuses absences for your own illness or the illness of an immediate family member, for your participation in university activities at the request of University authorities, for religious observance, and for compelling circumstances beyond your control. Documentation is required for all excused absences. If you have an anticipated excused absence, you must let me know in writing by the end of the schedule adjustment period or at least two weeks in advance.
Absence for one class due to your own illness: You must provide written documentation of the illness from the health care provider who made the diagnosis. No diagnostic information shall be given. The provider must verify dates of treatment and indicate the time frame during which you were unable to meet academic responsibilities.
Absences due to religious observance: It is your responsibility to notify me within the first three weeks regarding any religious observance absences for the entire semester.
Tardiness
If you arrive after I take roll, you are welcome to stay, but you will be marked absent for that class.
Participation
You are responsible for the assignments and reading as they are listed for the day—come to class prepared! Your professionalism grade includes class discussion, peer-review workshops, conferences, contributions to group work, attendance, and your general demeanor toward everyone in the room. Listening can often be as important as the act of responding; it’s up to you to carry yourself in a thoughtful, measured, and professional manner.
Papers
I will be providing assignment sheets for each of your writing assignments. These will contain clear instructions as well as grading guidelines.
Grammar
You are expected to demonstrate mastery of standard English grammar. I encourage you to seek out and take advantage of available resources (such as the above recommended style manual, available websites, and the Writing Center). Papers with excessive grammatical, mechanical, and proofreading errors will be returned to you unread for correction, and the final grade will be downgraded accordingly.
Formatting
Papers are expected to meet professional standards. You will be tailoring your formats to the audience you’ve chosen for your arguments. This means that you’ll still be working within a formatting system. Papers that do not follow clear formatting guidelines will be penalized up to one full letter grade.
Late Papers
Papers are due in class on the date specified. For each day that an assignment is late, you will be penalized one letter grade. Papers more than one week late will not be accepted; you will receive a zero. Papers will not be accepted via email.
Semester Portfolio
All writing assignments must be saved in a folder, which will then be turned in at the end of the semester, with any edits I have made corrected, old and new versions.
Conferences
Twice during the semester we will be having conferences to go over your writing progress. You are expected to contribute thoughtfully during these one-on-one sessions.
Workshops
We’ll be conducting formal workshops in which, as a class, we will critique another student’s work. During these workshops, it is important that your comments, both written and verbal, are respectful and professional.
Writing Center
The Writing Center is located at 1205 Tawes Hall (x53785). This is a great resource to help improve your writing in order to better present your ideas. Try to call ahead to schedule a full appointment with lots of lead-time. For quick questions, call the Writing Center Grammar Hotline (x53787). If the Center is closed, leave a message and they will return your call. Appointments can also be scheduled online:
Academic Integrity: UMCP has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is essential for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit
Academic Support: If you are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the academic demands of this (or any) course, contact the Learning Assistance Service in 2201 Shoemaker (x47693). Their counselors can help with time management, reading, note-taking, and exam preparation skills. The website:
Students with Disabilities: If you have a registered disability that will require accommodation, please see me immediately.
Copyright Notice: Class lectures and other materials are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for anything other than personal use without written permission from the instructor.
Course Evaluations: Your participation in the evaluation of courses through CourseEvalUM is a responsibility you hold as a student member of our academic community ( Your feedback is confidential and important to the improvement of teaching and learning at the University.
Special Concerns: If you have questions about procedures, or if a problem occurs, write me a memo, making clear what you are asking for.
Some Quotes on Writing in General:
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.
-Truman Capote
To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.
-Allen Ginsberg
Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything…It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.”
-Enid Bagnold
Some Quotes on Nonfiction, Narrative, and Memory:
I have been corrected on some points, mostly of chronology. Also my mother thinks that a dog I described as ugly was actually quite handsome. I’ve allowed some of these points to stand, because this is a book of memory, and memory has its own story to tell. But I have done my best to make it tell a truthful story.
-Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life
When you are in your twenties, even if you’re confused and uncertain about your aims and purposes, you have a strong sense of what life itself is, and of what you in life are, and might become. Later...later there is more uncertainty, more overlapping, more backtracking, more false memories. Back then, you can remember your short life in its entirety. Later, the memory becomes a thing of shreds and patches. It’s a bit like the black box airplanes carry to record what happens in a crash. If nothing goes wrong, the tape erases itself. So if you do crash, it’s obvious why you did; if you don’t then the log of your journey is much less clear.
-Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Creative nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and often more accessible.
-Lee Gutkind, Keep It Real
The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.
-Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
Schedule of Readings and Assignments
You are responsible to have read the texts by the day they are listed.
Week 1/25
T: Syllabus, Introductions - Memory exercise: Right Place Moment
Assignment of first reflective writing activity.
TH: First reflective writing activity due. Introduction to Memoir/Personal Essay.
George Orwell, “AHanging” and “Shooting an Elephant”
Workshop Sign up. Assignment of Audience Paper.
Week 2/1
T: Audience Paper due.Annie Dillard, “Weasels” Mary-Louise Parker,“Dear YoungLehman”In-class Writing Exercise #1
TH: “Modern Love” Essays. David Sedaris, “Standing By”
Assignment of Personal Essay. Content Ideas. Assign Peer Reviewers.
Week 2/8
T: Augusten Burroughs, “Debbie’s Requirements” Nora Ephron, “A Few Words About Breasts” Wendy Lawless, “Chanel Bonfire” Conference sign up.
TH:Personal essay due. Todd Snider, “Is This Really Garth Brooks?”
Entertainment Review samples.Assignment of Entertainment Review. Psychological Game.
Week 2/15
T: Conferences.Entertainment review due.
TH: Conferences.Entertainment review due.
Week 2/22
T:Personal Essay Workshop.
TH:Personal Essay Workshop.
Week 2/29
T:Introduction to Literary (Narrative) Journalism
David Foster Wallace, “Consider the Lobster”In Class writing exercise #2
TH:Gay Talese, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold”
Week 3/7
T: Joan Didion, “John Wayne: A Love Song” Truman Capote “In Cold Blood-Chapter 1”
Assignment of Narrative essay. Assign Peer Reviewers.
TH:Hunter Thompson, “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved”
David Rakoff, “I Can’t Get It For You Wholesale”
Week 3/14
T: Narrative essay due. David Sedaris, “Santaland Diaries” In-class Writing Exercise #3.
TH:Narrative Essay Workshop.Assignment of second reflective writing activity.
Week 3/21
T: Narrative Essay Workshop. Second reflective writing activity due.
TH: John Updike, “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” Mary Louise Parker, “Dear Poetry Man”
Assignment of Query letter.
Week 3/28
T: Query Letter Due. Introduction to the Hybrid. Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
Barry Lopez, “The Raven” Assignment: Two Hybrid Ideas.
TH: Dinty W. Moore, “Son of Mr. Green Jeans” Brian Doyle, “Kaddish” Assignment Due: Two Hybrid Ideas.
Week 4/4
T: Weinberger, “Aztecs” Kiese Laymon, “How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others In America.”Poem Exercise.
TH:Joan Didion, “The White Album” Mary-Louise Parker, “Dear Future Man Who Loves My Daughter”Hybrid essay due. Lottery Workshop Sign up.
Week 4/11
T: Hybrid Workshop. Conference Sign up.
TH: Hybrid Workshop. Assignment of third reflective writing activity.
Week 4/18
T: Conferences. Third reflective writing activity due.
TH:Conferences. Third reflective writing activity due.
Week 4/25
T: Ondaatje, “Passions Of Lalla”
TH: Lottery Workshop.
Week 5/2
T: Lottery Workshop.
TH:Lottery Workshop.
Week 5/9
T: Portfolio Due. Wrap up. Evaluations.