Sample Graduate Course Descriptions
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- ENG 605: Teaching in English Studies
- ENG 610: Theory of Creative Writing
- ENG 611: Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop
- ENG 612: Fiction Writing Workshop
- ENG 613: Poetry Writing Workshop
- ENG 614: Practicum in Literary Editing
English 605: Teaching in English Studies (Creative Writing)
This course is open to all graduate students in English Studies who wish to examine the pedagogical issues specific to the teaching of creative writing at the college level, with a focus on both theory and practice. Readings will explore the theoretical, ethical, historical, and practical and may include The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach. (eds. Robin Behn and Chase Twichell), Colors of a Different Horse: Rethinking Creative Writing Theory and Pedagogy (eds. Wendy Bishop and Hans Ostrom), The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry Writing (Richard Hugo), Beyond the Writers’ Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction (Carol Bly), as well as pedagogy papers published annually by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and essays on electronic reserve. The course will include lectures on the fundamentals of teaching everything from a multi-genre introductory course in creative writing to an advanced writing workshop in a specific genre. Assignments will give students the opportunity to 1) articulate their own teaching philosophies in a short essay, 2) develop lessons in creative writing via several class presentations, 3) practice evaluating creative writing, 4) teach a short unit in a Ball State undergraduate creative writing classroom (and reflect on those experiences with their classmates), and 5) produce a portfolio of teaching materials (including syllabi, course policies, writing exercises, and assignments).
English 610: Theory of Creative Writing: Reading and Writing Across the Genres
This graduate creative writing class course is designed specifically for MA students in English who are beginning the Creative Writing program at Ball State, but open to all graduate students interested in reading and writing broadly across the genres. Our program encourages cross-genre work and this course will ask students to consider the possibilities inherent in the writing of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry with the goal of encouraging students to both think critically about creativity and the mechanical elements of their craft and to experiment with various forms and styles. In addition to reading writers on writing (on topics such as creativity, imaginative and critical processes, language usage, creative writing pedagogy, etcetera), students will also read, write, and critique original fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Class time will consist of discussion of assigned reading, writing assignments and experiments, writer visits (including all members of the graduate faculty in Creative Writing talking about their own genre specialization), and workshops. Hovering in the back of students’ minds during the semester should be several important questions: 1) what similarities and differences exist among the three genres in terms of inspiration, content, form, and production? 2) what are the sources, benefits, purposes and limitations of each?
Texts for this course may include The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, Writers on Writing by Alice Flaherty, Volume II: More Collected Essays from The New York Times edited by Jane Smiley, Creating Minds by Howard Gardner, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, current issues of the AWP Writer’s Chronicle, Strunk & White’s The Elements and Style, and assorted writing on reserve (including work recommended and written by the graduate Creative Writing faculty at Ball State). Course requirements will include a class presentation, regular reading responses and exercises, workshop critiques, one long critical essay, and a creative assignment in each of the three genres
English 611: Creative Nonfiction Writing Workshop
This is a creative nonfiction writing workshop that will focus on the shaping of a range of personal narratives and the navigation of those slippery spaces between remembering and forgetting, truth and invention, experience and research. In order to write well, we must read, and so we will split our time between workshops of student work and the discussion of published texts. Our reading list will be diverse in terms of both subject and form, and may include—memoirs of childhood/family (John Edgar Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers, Joy Castro’s The Truth Book), fragmented memoirs (Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family, Marguerite Duras’s Practicalities), memoirs in essays (Jo Ann Beard’s The Boys of My Youth, Abigail Thomas’s Safekeeping), memoirs on a subject or event (Gretel Ehrlich’s A Match to the Heart, Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals), and/or works of literary journalism in which the author’s life intersects with the subject (Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s Random Family, Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man).
We’ll read greedily with a writer’s attention to style and technique as we get in the practice of asking the questions that are essential in the crafting of real-life material: How much do we trust the narrator and why do we care? How do we decide what to put in and what to leave out? What do we consider risky either personally or technically? How is memory constructed on the page and how does forgetting fit in? What’s the difference between invention and lying? What responsibility do we have to history? How does solid research and interviewing contribute to our construction of nonfiction narratives? How do our expectations as readers change when we’re told something is nonfiction? How do our obligations as writers change? And so on. My hope is that when we apprentice ourselves to the books on our reading list, we will practice the habit of art, honing our technical skills while we locate the patterns in our lives and the world that have something to say about the human condition. Creative assignments will include regular short writing assignments and one long essay (20-30 pp)—all of which will be revised. Other requirements will include: typed reading responses of published works and typed critiques for all workshopped material (1-2 pp).
ENG 612: Fiction Writing Workshop
Enrollment in Fiction Writing Workshop, English 612, will draw from students pursuing the Master's Degree in English Studies: Creative Writing, students pursuing the PhD with or without the creative writing cognate, and students pursuing a Master's Degree in English Studies (general, literature, composition), and master's degree candidates from other departments such as journalism. This workshop in graduate level fiction writing builds upon the students' previous experiences in the undergraduate fiction writing workshops; class members will consist of those who have had considerable experience in literature, not all, perhaps, and those who have had considerable experience in writing fiction.
The course, which is to be structured upon the submissions of original works of fiction and the critiques by class members of those stories, will/may also include: * reading of published stories (Best American Short Stories, handouts, and other stories of your individual selection); * discussion of, and writerly responses (annotations) of those stories; * a visiting guest writer or two (funding pending): * reading and discussion of essay handouts concerning creative writing in the academy; * a video interview or two; * assigned out-of-class or in-class exercises. I will also ask you to read and respond to one book about writing (or an option to this assignment). Attendance at readings by visiting writers to the Ball State University campus will also be expected.
The focus of the class, however, is the fiction writing of each student. These stories are the heart of the class, and the students' submissions are the most significant element of the class. The professor's goal is for the class to be a community of writers. Stories will be photocopied and distributed ahead of workshop. The English Department requires that you bear the expense of the photocopies.
Texts:
- Best American Short Stories (required)
- Becoming a Writer, Brande (required or approved option)
- Writing Fiction, Burroway (when appropriate for student)
English 613: Poetry Writing Workshop
About half the class will be devoted to discussion of readings, including six collections of poems by contemporary poets. We will talk about how the authors attempt to unify these collections, and look closely at the dazzling number of formal choices poets make in their work. Groups of students will present each book to the class, and help focus discussion on relevant questions. The readings will help inspire the poems written for the class, inform the way we discuss your poems, and offer strategies for revision. You will turn in one poem per week, reading responses, and a portfolio of poems at the end of the semester.
Readings will include essays on poetics and six volumes of poems. Possible texts include: Kim Addonizio’s Tell Me, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon’s Black Swan, Tim Earley’s Boondoggle, Sesshu Foster’s City Terrace Field Manual, Barbara Hamby’s Babble, D.A. Powell’s Cocktail, Cate Marvin’s World’s Tallest Disaster
ENG 614: Practicum in Literary Editing
In this class we will explore the history, theory and practice of literary editing, and talk about how writers and editors work together to produce various kinds of literary texts. Students will also produce texts of their own, as a hands-on way to learn about this art. We will talk about the various kinds of collaboration involved in producing works of art, and also consider what happens when literary texts become products, meant to be purchased and consumed. Part of the class will be dedicated to editing texts produced by students in the class, and to an exploration of the process texts go through from inception to publication.
The reading list will include the AWP Writer's Chronicle, readings from other journals, copies of literary work in manuscript form, and at least one of the following: Jason Epstein, The Book Business; Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees; Gerald Gross, Editors on Editing; Andre Schiffrin, The Business of Books.