ENG 162-95 Spring 2012

Week 3 Theme: scene-setting and dialogue

2012-01-28T07:17:00.002-05:00

Theme for week three: setting scenes; doing dialogue

On your own blog, take the theme material and write a piece using it, a piece with scenes and plenty of dialogue.

Sometimes--in fact, lots of times--writing comes alive when people are trotted out to speak and act. You as a creative nonfiction writer need to be able to set the scene, bring out some warm bodies, make them open their mouths and talkWhen this works, you'll feel like your material is writing itself. When it doesn't work, you'll feel like you're giving the material CPR, but there's no heartbeat, no breath, and why oh why won't they let you stop?
If I knew the secret of how to get the first consistently, I wouldn't tell you! I'd quit teaching, bottle it, and make a million selling it to struggling writers. But, alas, there is no secret.Or rather there are bits and pieces of secrets.
Don't pick a topic you're too emotional about--that hurts the writing.

Don't pick a topic that blahs you out--that hurts the writing.

When setting a scene, don't go crazy with adjectives. "The busy, sprawling mall with its happy crowds of overdressed shoppers and screaming bratty kids was the place where the worst moment of my young life occurred due to the disgraceful behavior of the handsome man who had been my crazy heart's only focus for seven exhilarating years."That's not good writing! It's heading off in a thousand directions.

This is more effective: "I watched as long as I could, but finally Joe's back disappeared into the crowds of Christmas shoppers. Busy shoppers, every one too busy to notice me, sobbing on the bench where my life had just ended."A lot is left unsaid, a lot is left up to the reader to fill in. We've all been at busy malls before Christmas: we can handle it.

Doing dialogue is a real art. You might have the touch, might not. It's not simply a question of making people sound like the really sound in real life because in many cases that would be, "So, ferchrissake, who gives a, I mean who who hoo hoo hooooooo like care... cares, oh shit I'm sorry I don't know why I'm.... Arright I'm okay really but like what fucking difference does it care I mean make anyway, uh really, he doesn't know and uh really care either so what am I supposed to do when he comes crawling back like if he did I'd give a shit anyway, the big--ah, what's the use you don't want to hear this but he is, he is a just a big go ahead say it he's an asshole he's always been an asshole, even if I do love him. I'm so stupid."
I confess that, having written this, I kind of like it, even though it was supposed to be an example of bad dialogue (monologue, actually!)Let's clean the tape up a little. Journalists do this all the time without being accused of being novelists! Notice that what I'm aiming for is the tone, the essence, the truth but not the whole and exact truth that a tape recorder would catch: "It doesn't make a fucking bit of difference whether he knows or cares how I feel. All I know is that I won't give a shit-- I won't care, I swear it, I won't, I won't--not if he came crawling back on his hands and knees. He's an asshole, that's all he is, it's all he's ever been. I fell in love with an asshole, okay?--so what does that make me?"

I think the second version is tighter, tells the reader more, but it's more speechy, which isn't what you necessarily want. But I'm not revising today. I'd call that a teensy slip off the tightrope. Yes--you're walking a tightrope, creating a scene and some dialogue.

So, you know to avoid too many adjectives. What about action verbs and adverbs?

The student snarled nastily, "This course sucks."

I retorted hotly, "Nunh-unh!"

The student glared angrily at me and tittered mockingly, "It does too and so do you!"

I stared back coldly and snapped briskly, "You're out of here, pal."

Ain't that awful? (Hint: your answer begins with a 'y.') That's bad writing. It's often attractive to people who aren't sure they have really done what they want to do, and it's something to school yourself away from.

The dialogue should read:
The student said, "This course sucks."

"Nunh-unh."

"It does too and so do you."

I said, "You're out of here, pal."

If that sounds too plain, well, too bad--all that other stuff, those action verbs and adverbs, make the writing look like a military humvee painted pink and decked out with flowers. Just silly.

Hey, class, let's take a lecture break!I wrote the above material this past summer. Now (6/26/05) supper is over, the missus and I toasted our just-sold car we called 'Whitey'--we bought him new in '92) in cheap champagne. You want scenes & dialogue? How about silly champagne toasts?

We're sitting on the porch in near darkness, killing a bottle, surrounded by dogs who wonder if they are ever going to get a post-supper walk.

Me: Go with God, Whitey! (sip)

Missus: I'll drink to that (sip sip). Happy trails! (clink)

Dogs (in unison): Sober up, you guys--for the luvva pete, when do we head out?

That was just an intermission--now back to your regularly scheduled lecture: This course is about using the tools of fiction in writing non-fiction. You don't know as writers which of your tools are sharpest until you try using them, and once you find what you're sharpest doing, there still are no guarantees. On any given day, your muse may be out visiting buds and not be there to inspire you.Me, I am pretty good with dialogue, pretty poor with description--know thyself!

Most popular fiction is written like a movie treatment: quick scene setting , lots of dialogue, lots of visuals, and finding what you can do to transfer some of this to your nonfiction is what's up this week. PS: You'll notice I'm using the word 'dialogue' when actually I have only a single voice, a monologue! My bad! You can have more than one speaker!

Week 3 Prompts: scene-setting and dialogue

2012-01-28T07:11:00.001-05:00

Prompts 9-12, Week 3. Don't forget scene in your rush to do dialogue--and don't forget new paragraph for each new speaker.... Post three on your blog.

9. Writers have to listen to themselves; writers ought to always be talking to themselves. Try a conversation between you and yourself. Sometimes arguments are fun.

10. Go to a crowded public place (not one of your classrooms, though) and be a fly on the wall. Just listen. Can you pick out conversations? Write down a little of what you hear, maybe as dialog (he said--, she said--)
11. Try an I-said, he/she said conversation. Set the scene somehow.

12. Go to a crowded public place (not one of your classrooms, though) and be a fly on the wall. Just watch. What's going on? Set that scene.

Night table survey

2012-01-21T16:33:00.000-05:00

Night-table survey 1

Week 2 Theme: Perspective--you don't need a lot of miles on your odometer to do week 2!

2012-01-21T09:32:00.001-05:00

A lot of you aren't done your journals (and a few haven't even started!) That's okay: keep the journal for the next few days while you also get to work on week 2. The journal is NOT a semester project; it's a warm-up exercise. When it's done, put it out of your mind.... Here's the week 2 lecturette:

You've kept a journal for a few days, a lot of stuff shooting off this way and that, depending on the kind of days you were having and what you decided you wanted to pluck from the whirling stream and put down on paper. Now, you're going to continue the focus of the first week on yourself. (Why yourself? Because you're the world's greatest expert on only one thing: what you've seen, done, experienced, felt, heard, tried, grasped, and touched. This course aims to link you to your sources of strength.)

This week you will write about yourself in history, about you passing through the larger world, on you embedded in bigger things. Post it on your blog as Theme Week Two.

Here's a sample I wrote which follows me through one decade of my life. I offer some of the big names and events and my connection (or not) to them, and then, not exactly sure why, I focus on my history and evolution in the sixties as told through my shoes. But that's just my weirdness. You don't have to write about your shoes!!!

Here it is:

I crash on the couch and catch the History Channel with a remote in one hand and a bottle of Ballantine Ale in the other. On the screen is JFK: “Ask not what your country can do for you--,” he says in that Boston accent like no other Boston accent I ever heard growing up in Boston. His hair blows in the January wind and the voiceover says a new youth and vigor had come to Washington.

Then it’s Castro and the missile crisis and, whoops, we nearly blew up the world! But it didn’t quite happen so on we go to…

Martin Luther King, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, dreaming his dream, his voice still lifting the hairs on the back of my neck. A little balance needed so we’re given Malcolm X. on some street corner ranting about the white devils which segues into…

The motorcade in Dallas. The horse with the backward boots and no rider. The country in mourning, but not for long because here come the four lads from Liverpool in skinny pants and jackets with no lapels and those sappy harmonies.

Ringo’s drumming turns into distant explosions, machine gun fire and dim figures in the jungle. We get a little ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ for background music, just in case we don’t get the point.

Suddenly, some turkey with a beard to his ankles, tie-dyed tee, and granny glasses is flashing a peace sign. His old lady with indescribably filthy bare feet and center-parted hair says, “If the people would only come together.”

Watts burns, more distant explosions in the jungle, mud at Woodstock and more hippies standing around VW buses talking about peace, justice, and dope. And that’s pretty much the end. See ya, sixties, and hello disco, long gas lines, and Jimmy Carter.

I finish my beer, flick the remote, and lie there in silence, annoyed. That may be tv’s sixties.

It’s certainly the same film footage I saw on tv in the sixties. But it wasn’t the sixties for me. I wasn’t in any of that footage. I didn’t live in those sixties, in some history channel footage with musical backgrounds. My sixties are mine and private and don’t belong to just anyone with a remote.

My sixties begin with white ankle socks and a pair of Weejun penny loafers. They’re just called penny loafers, of course—only a jerk would actually stick pennies in there! My mother fought against buying me those loafers all through the late fifties—did I realize they wouldn’t support my ankles? They’d give me flat feet? That gravel would get in them? That the stitching would tear and the backs would run over. Lace shoes were what I wanted. No, I did not, ma, and finally I got my way.

Of course, it was the early sixties and that meant your parents were generally right, and indeed, my ankles hurt, my stitching tore, and my backs ran over. But I ran with the crowd finally and nothing was cooler or more casual than sitting in school, arching one’s foot and letting the heel of the loafer dangle in the breeze.

However, by the time in the sixties I was ready for college, penny loafers no longer did it. Downstairs in Levine’s Store for Men and Boys on Main Street in Waterville were Maine-made, hand-stitched Bass moccasins—kind of a deconstructed loafer with a rawhide lace running through grommets. All the drawbacks of a loafer and even less distance between me and the road. My mother moaned when she saw them, gave me up as a lost soul. I wore those puppies into the ground, resoling them, restitching them, and when they’d finally head in, heading myself down to Levine’s with my $7.95 for a new pair.

I never gave up on mocs, but the sixties hit me pretty good in 1964 and I got a yen for the pointy toed, elastic sided, stack heeled black boots the Beatles wore. Winkle-pickers, they were called, or Mersey boots. They squeezed a man’s toes like high heels squeeze a woman’s. My mother took one look and sat me down for a serious talk about orthopedics, spinal alignment etc etc etc. Sorry, ma., I said. They’re cool, they’re me, and that’s that.

Except a funny thing happened by 1969. Others might have been running around barefoot or in sandals, but I started working outdoors jobs and when I wasn’t at work I got interested in hiking and being in the woods and swamps around Old Town, and the mocs and winkle-pickers really didn’t fit the bill any more. I found myself in orange-colored Georgia Giant waffle-stompers at work and play. They were comfy, practical, and if they weren’t cool…well, who needed cool? When my ma saw them she cocked her head as if to say, ‘I wish he was in something a little more stylish, but at least these will give him that vital ankle support he hasn’t had since 1959.’

Yes, the sixties began with an impractical 15 year old, trying to look cool and knowing everything and ended with a married man of 25, trying to be practical and wondering what would come next. Man and boy, heel and toe, I walked every step of my way from Dec 31, 1959 to Dec 31 1969.

And here's a corker, same idea, from ace student marciamellow:

Wow..the state basketball tournament is such a high for this little corner of the county, it almost makes us forget about the nightly news… for just a minute. I take the letter off the sweater, and fold up my cheering uniform for the last time while listening to Walter Cronkite tell us about the latest battle in Khe Sanh. The politics aren’t real to my 17 yr old brain, but the pictures of flag draped coffins will never leave my head. I regularly write to friends in the Army and Navy, and pray nightly that they don’t have to go to Nam. I love the biting humor of the Smother’s Brothers, and the silliness of Laugh In. My white sneakers with nylons are absolutely The thing to wear to school…no pants allowed, and skirts must fit the “kneel on the floor” rule..so of course I wait until I get out of sight, and roll the waistband so my knees will show….Cher, the original, is our hero..our fashion maven..I try every cure I read about for my cursed curly hair…Ironing it, using soda cans for rollers, taping it down while it drys…nothing works. At this time in my history, I’ve never heard of Farrah Fawcett, and have no idea that in 10 years, my hair could be the envy of those around me….alas…I won’t be a teenager then, so what does it matter?

The summer brings more California sounds. We all want to be part of the surfer crowd... quite a feat for kids in central Maine, but out comes the “Summer Blonde” for our hair, and huarache sandals too. (they were, after all, in the song) The summer spent at the camp on the lake, drive in movies, roller skating, and dances. Listening to Janis Joplin, and the Mamas and the Papas at the submarine races. Summer ends too soon. My boyfriend leaves for basic training. Two months later, a quick trip to North Carolina for a wedding..not your Bride Magazine , maids in frilly dresses wedding, but one in the judges chambers..the groom’s best friend, also in uniform, standing beside him. The brides older sister, with her. Niece and nephew in the back of the room being fed crackers lest they disrupt the ceremony. Months later, we are so thankful that hubby is sent to Korea, instead of Viet Nam…but he lands there the day the Pueblo is seized by the North Koreans. My closet is showing more flowers, more flowing fabrics. Caught between the idealistic, ‘flower-child-wannabe’, and the wife of an MP. A cap and gown is traded for smocks and a diaper bag. My hospital stay coincides with the funeral of Bobby Kennedy. Later that summer, we watch the news again to learn of King’s death. We move to Maryland during their hottest summer in 50 years. Short shorts and flip flops..Who can believe men are walking on the moon? Going back to Maine, getting caught in a traffic jam on the N.Y. Throughway…what’s with all these hippies in long dresses and dirty hair? The only “Woodstock” I know is in Canada..How confusing!

New closet…new clothes… a fringed vest and hip hugger pants…Kent State on the news …A divided country…I go to work in a shoe factory for the longest 9 months of my life. My clothes always look dirty with shoe cement…always smelling like leather.. For years after, the smell of leather jackets in a store, will turn my stomach. When the July vacation bonus comes, I walk out. Call this my notice. I won’t be back after vacation. I spend the week working on a roadside cleanup of cans and bottles..hot into the environmental movement..

New suit, job interview, no time for vacation..I’m a bank teller. Shorter skirts and higher stacked heels. I can’t imagine now how it must have looked, leaning over the counter of the drive up window. The little old ladies must have clucked their tongues and shook their heads. Saturday nights spent listening to Waylon and Willie..dances at the Red Barn. The end of the 70s brought me the same fashion as the end of the 60s. I had survived a decade of polyester, and was once again pushing a stroller, and watching Sesame Street..Slightly older, wiser and far more settled. Definitely better.

Then there's this from Marlon. Despite being poetry, which is utterly and totally forbidden in 162-land, it is a corker too:

The memory of my history is all about my culture. I miss it the most while I am up here in Maine. Donald Byrd, Ronnie Laws, Confunction, Parliment..........anyways

I'm Black Like:

Playing dominoes and a game of spades
it's night time and I still wear shades
Eatin' watermelon with a fork and some salt
drag my feet every where that I walk

Cook my bacon and I save the grease
even my baggy jeans gotta have a crease
Lettin' the phone ring when somebody's calling
sleepin in and never seeing the morning

Wearing slippers and I bent the heal
seasoning salt, paprika, and a box of cornmeal
Pancakes with a side of scrapple
fried bologna, fried bananas, and fried apples

Ashey skin and my lips get all chapped
my uncle's outta jail, next week he's going back
You think I'm good at every sport
you think that all I smoke is weed or Newports

I'm Black Like:

Saturdays and the Kung Fu flicks
grandad using scissors to get the toe nails clipped
Do rags, hair grease, and straightening combs
pigs feet, cornbread, black eyed peas and neckbones

My Kool-Aide is always to sweet
always wearing socks and never showing my feet
Whiskey and honey makes everything feel better
my corns are singing and I can smell the weather

Never knowing how to end a song
being in church on Sunday and staying too long
Baked macaroni and eatin' a sammich
saying I'm getting money because my hands itch

At the movies always running my mouth
all my cousins live somewhere down south
I'm black like...You can't say that word but I still can
I'm black like..."Who dis?" and saying words like
Daaayyyeeeem!!!!

Week 2 Prompts

2012-01-21T07:31:00.001-05:00

Choose a prompt. Use it as a springboard for a free-standing piece of writing of your own (this isn't a test and you're not answering some question). Post that writing on your blog.

Do that with three of these four prompts.

Week Two Prompts:

5. Those who forget history are forced to relive it, first as tragedy, then as farce.

6. The stuff I've collected over the years in my little box/bureau drawer/keepsake chest marks every step of my way.

7. Looking in that photo album, I see--

8. It was the first, but not the best--or was it?

New survey

2012-01-19T11:31:00.001-05:00

Annual Canada Survey

Student Profile 1

2012-01-08T09:28:00.001-05:00

Student Profile 1

English 162 Survey

2011-12-21T11:55:00.002-05:00

EMCC English Survey

Getting started with ENG 162

2011-08-27T17:55:00.002-04:00

Getting started in ENG 162-95--online students only! Are you ready? Because ready or not, next week, here it comes--online English.

If you're taking online ENG, make sure you know what you're getting into:

* An online course does not take less of your time than a live-class course. The time you save not going to class, you then spend by teaching yourself from written lecture material and through trial-and-error.

* Taking a course online does not mean you can do the work whenever you want. Yes, you can do it at 3 in the morning; and, yes, you can do it wearing your pajamas or nothing at all. But, no, you can't let it slide for a week or two and expect the teacher won't notice or worry. That's a little too much 'whenever.'

* Taking a course online is a lonely job. If you need other people to sit next to and chat with in order to get yourself motivated, an online course will be tough sledding.

* Taking a course online means having to deal with the instructor...a lot. If you do best by sitting in the back of the room, keeping your head down, keeping your mouth shut, and never asking questions, you may find yourself hating life online. It's very interactive.

* If you're planning on taking an online course and do not have easy internet access, you're living dangerously.

* If your best method of learning is NOT by reading, you might not want an online course.

Okay, that's the tough stuff. If you're still reading, here's the good news: You have an instructor who's ready, willing, and able to help you. I've taught these courses for many years, and I know the kind of difficulties with writing and with blogs you might be having. I'm patient, I'm (nearly) tireless: we will solve or overcome problems together!

The only time I'm not just an email away is if my ISP has problems. (That occasionally happens.) You're going to write this semester--that's what it's all about--and I'm going to work with you on your writing to make it even better than it is. Okay, so what's next?

1. Take a look around this site.

http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/

All your semester assignments and lecture materials will be here, as well as links to handouts, samples, and other course materials. You'll see that your syllabus is here, as well as a list of all assignments for the semester, as well as lectures and explanations for the first week's assignments.

If you're still with me at this point, it's time for:

2. Create your own blog. Your writing this semester will go on this blog where I can read and comment on it.

Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and follow instructions.

Some additional advice from me: First you have to create a google account if you don't already have one. You can use any email address for a google account--it does not have to be gmail.

If you have a google account, sign in. If you don't, click 'Create a blog.'

There's a bunch of stuff there to fill out, and I'm going to let you struggle through it on your own. It might be pesky but persevere. Be sure, double sure, to remember the name, email, and password you type in. If you forget those, you will be hating life later.

You are about to create your blog!

Pick a name and address and, again, do not forget the address. Write it down! You can change the name later, but not the address.

Choose a template. That can be changed later so don't agonize.

And there, bingo, you have a blog. *

Click 'Start blogging' and put a message into the box and hit 'Publish Post.'

Now hit 'View Blog'! Pretty darn cool, eh?

You are almost done.

Email me mailto:johngoldfine@gmail.comwith your name and your blog address which is at the top of your screen. Copy and paste it into your email. (Do that by clicking on the address. It should go all-blue. When it does, right-click your mouse, hit copy, then go to your email, position your cursor, right click again and hit 'paste.' )

Mail that to me because without the address we can not do business.

* PS: When your blog is set up, go to settings/comments and make absolutely sure

that 1. 'anyone can comment'

and that 2. comment moderation is 'never'

and that 3. word verification is 'no '

Please do not screw up 1, 2, 3!

Week 1, Part 1, Autobiography of the writer as a writer

2011-08-27T17:50:00.001-04:00

What's the story?

I need to know something about you as writers, so why not post a writer's autobiography (an autobiography of you as a writer) on your new blog, describing your writerly triumphs, tragedies, hopes, disappointments, dreams, fantasies, strengths, weaknesses, projects, course expectations, and so on.

Tricky part: do it three different ways.
Write it in the first person ('My head rested on my folded hands, which were wet with the beads of blood, sweat, and tears I was shedding at the idea that I had to write an essay in 45 minutes....").

Then write it in the second person ("You love to write, you sit for hours with your imaginary friends spinning stories, until Monday comes and back in school, you face the dragon in her lair, Mrs. Jones, the fourth grade teacher, writhing up to you hissing, 'Have you finissssshed your writing?' You want to split her skull with an ax, but the school you have been exiled to frowns on such things....")

Then write it in the third person ('She was a quiet student, a student who from the outside seemed in control, obedient, eager to help. But this was her mask, her public face. Secretly she was gathering material for the expose that would blow the lid off the Middle School forever....")

Go ahead and post it on your own blog where I promise I will read and comment on it. If you want, but it's optional, post a reaction to this assignment here, below, in comments.

Week 1 theme: know thyself...know thyself?

2011-08-27T17:49:00.001-04:00

Theme Week One: a journal of daily life and living.

You will keep a journal for a week. Keep your journal online on your own blog and also comment or react right here on this blog to this assignment. Okay? Two different items.--journal on your blog, reaction to theme here.

Hint: I don't get upset when people express dislike for or confusion about assignments in a reaction. Nothing is less interesting than "Wow, great assignment idea. I've been keeping a diary for years anyway, so I'm gonna hit the ground running on this one. Already majorly looking forward to doing this."

How about a dark or oddball approach to a comment instead, something I can't predict: a reaction in the form of an Uncle Henry's ad ("FS, Course diary, barely used....") or a political speech ("We all as good Americans cherish the values enshrined in our diaries, the values of honesty, sincerity, and love of self....") or as an argument with yourself (Me: Oh crap, he wants a diary. Yourself: Handle it, jerkface--what's your flippin' problem? Me: It's so pre-dict-duh-bul!)

So, you start the semester with a journal. Just one week! (I've had people in the past who kept it for weeks, people who thought they were supposed to do it all semester....)

Journal comes from Latin and is related to the word 'diurnal' or 'daily.' A journal is traditionally a daily thing, and teachers love that aspect because if you, the student miss a day, they get to shake their finger and say, "It doesn't work unless you do it daily, you know."

Maybe they've got journal-keeping confused with other things, which if they happen daily are nice but are no threat to body or mind if they don't. In other words, many teachers see journal-keeping as a part of their character-building mission, the part where the teacher inculcates good habits in bad-habited students (as if two seconds doing the forbidden bad thing isn't enough time to destroy two years of habituation to the boring old good thing.)

I'm not asking you to keep a journal this first week because I think it will give you the habit of writing regularly or daily, though if a miracle happened and it did, I would be the first to sing praises to heaven.

Journals do this, or ought to: they focus the mind on the present, the here-and-now, the actual, the real, the temporal, the nitty gritty.Maybe it's just my own taste, but I can't imagine good writing--or good student writing anyway--that doesn't at least start with stuff. Stuff--the stuff you know, you see, you experience, you cope with. Start small and build outwards is the way to go for most student writers, though exceptions come along.

Journals also demand another thing that is essential to all writing: sorting. Every day a thousand million things bombard your eyes, mind, brain, skin, ears, heart, and soul. Okay, which ones do you choose to write about? You have to sort through stuff and make some choices. All writers have to do that, because no writer can ever tell the truth, the whole truth. There's too much truth, too much of it trivial, to ever tell the whole truth. Writers lie in order to tell the truth.At the very least, they lie by leaving some stuff out. If your religion forbids that sort of lying, prepare for extensive journal-writing. A week of writing, 24/7, will not be enough time to relate everything you experience in a week.Or a minute, if you open your eyes and mind to it.

The third thing a journal ought to do is introduce you to you. If you don't think your stuff is worth telling about, how are you going to do this course, because creative non-fiction is the opposite of the just-the-facts encyclopedia, which is non-creative non-fiction. In creative non-fiction, the reader almost always is aware of the writer lurking behind the words.So, maybe the journal will help you to meet that writer and come to some understandings with him or her about what you like to write about, how tough you're going to be on yourself, what terrain you want to or dare to explore.Write a journal, however you interpret that word.

Please don't ask me The Questions: how long do you want it? What if nothing happens to us? How much detail do you want? Does spelling count? Are we supposed to write every day? There are a million of those questions out there, but you, the writer, have the answers. I don't.

And, last thought--just because you're starting this semester with a journal doesn't mean that this is a course where you diarize for 15 weeks, where you go on and on about each and every second of your story. You will use your stuff perhaps, but for a higher purpose, I hope, than merely venting, merely confiding stuff to 'dear diary.' That's where the creative part of the course comes in.

Week 1 Prompts: Know thyself....

2011-08-27T17:48:00.002-04:00

Prompts 1-4, Week One. (Revised Instructions)

React to three (3) of these on your own blog, not here.

React to the weekly theme material however you like; shoot from the hip.

But deal with the three weekly prompts very differently--they're a big part of the course; they're where you strut your stuff, show your goods, and blow us all away with your prose, insights, wit, wisdom, madness, clarity, logic, poetic feeling, or whatever else it is you bring to creative non-fiction.

Don't take the prompts too literally: they aren't test questions or punchlines; they are springboards for your writing. Each week's prompts are an attempt to figure out a way to help you get into the week's theme, which this week is you. It's pretty hard to do anything with the prompts below without using yourself as a source and tool.

Take a step back from your daily hassles and concerns. That's why I start you alone in a room, however unlikely that is in your real life. So that you will stop, think about you inside and the world outside, and then imagine a response that involves and does justice to both.

What do the prompts remind you of? What feelings do they bring up? Are they like something else? Is there a story you remember, an incident? Or what--? But again and again, and all semester again, --these are not test questions and I'm not looking for answers.

Prompts 1-4. Choose three.
1. Alone in a quiet room. Listen. What do you hear?
2. Alone in a quiet room. What do you see?
3. Alone in a quiet room. How did you get here?
4. Alone in a quiet room. But what's really happening?

And, dirty little secret:

Some of you had Eng 101 with me and if you did, you have seen all these prompts already.

In ENG 101, the dirty little secret is that, although I read and commented on each prompt, I only assigned them as warm-ups, as exercises, as a way of forcing you to write something regularly. In themselves they were not the meat of the course but more the parsley on the steak kind of thing.

But in ENG 162, they are different. First of all, the prompts are meant to match up to the week's themes. They need a little thought. Second, they (and the weekly theme) are the real meat of the course. They're your shot at writing creative non-fiction. I have expectations and hopes for them and hope that you do too. I will certainly comment on each one, and I may kick them back for more work.

So, if you had ENG 101, you will have to overcome the old mindset from that course and get into this new course and its demands.

Spring 2012 syllabus for English 162:

2011-06-29T15:29:00.003-04:00

Catalog Course Description: ENG 162 Creative Non-Fiction Writing:

Uses a non-workshop approach - no peer editing or critiques. Students will read short creative non-fiction, explore developing non-fiction material using fictional techniques such as dialogue and narrative voice, and write their own pieces. 3 credits.

WHO I AM: I'm John Goldfine, your EMCC writing instructor.

CHANGES: Nothing in here is carved in stone. Changes happen—that’s the only thing I know in advance won’t change.

PHONE: I'm available for conversation on writing at 1 800 286 9357 x 4648 (work) and 338-3080 (home) (not after 9 pm or before 6 am, please.) If you don't reach me and want to leave a message, that's fine, but, unless you tell me it's an emergency, please DON'T leave your phone number and ask me to call you back--phone tag is a waste of everyone's time, and I won't return calls that aren't emergencies. EMAIL me instead, okay?

EMAIL: My email address is johngoldfine@gmail.com . Don't use a subject line because that might send your email to my junk mail folder, which I only read when I need muscle enlargements, a million dollars from a Nigerian bank, cut-rate V*agra, or cheap inkjet cartridges. That would be never.

E-mail me anytime. I will respond to email within 24 hours unless my computer is fried by lighting or another icestorm knocks out my power for two weeks....

Please be sure to include your real name and email address with any emails.

OFFICE HOURS: I can be reached by phone or email. I will be in or near my office (Room 155 Maine Hall) MWF, office hours on the door, unless my car breaks down or I have a meeting with my boss--that sort of thing. I’ll be glad to meet with you other times if needed. Online real-time chatroom conferences or skype converstations are also possible.

MATERIALS: No textbook. On http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/ there will appear week-by-week assignments, lecture material, syllabus, links, and sample essays you can download onto memory stick or home computer. That’s your text. Free.

COMPUTERS: each of you will have your own blog with all your stuff on it (here's how to create your blog). That's a permanent record of your work.

But, stuff happens. You'll want to back up your blog. Save your stuff somewhere else--on disk, hard drive, flash drive, on another website. I will probably make mistakes recordkeeping, and I want you to win the discussion when I say, 'I don't have a record that you did that assignment.' How do you win? By showing me the assignment. So, have that backup updated.

You can have blogger automatically send all your posts to an email address, if you go to your blog's settings/email/fill in blogsend address.

VIRUSES: If you send me material online and include a virus, I won't read any of your online stuff until we've talked and you've assured me you have an anti-virus program, you have updated your protections, and you are clean. If you send me a second virus, I will sadly but surely drop you from my list of valued correspondents. Generally speaking I want anything you send me electronically to be copied and pasted. I only open attachments under extreme duress.

DISABILITIES, HARASSMENT, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION:
The school’s policies outlined in the school catalog—policies on affirmative action, disabilities, sexual harassment, and grievance procedures—apply to this course.

If you have a documented disability, talk to the ADA coordinator, Elizabeth Worden, right away so we can plan reasonable accommodations.

The school’s EO/ADA policies are included at the end of this syllabus.

If you simply dislike something I say in the course of my teaching, conferencing, or lecturing but if what I've said does not seem like any sort of harassment, then you ought to discuss it with me first before going to Authority.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m a total dub when it comes to recordkeeping. I wish it were otherwise, but it isn’t and I’m not going to improve a whole lot at this point.

That means I'm going to make recordkeeping mistakes. When I make mistakes, I'll gladly eat them and correct my goofs and apologize, as long as you can document your side of the story. In other words, please hang onto your writing all semester and hang on to my replies, reactions, and writer’s checklists. Don't change your blog or delete or erase entries without checking with me.

If you need a teacher who is perfect and who has all the answers and is always right and who gives you that feeling of total security you haven't had since kindergarten, bail out now 'cause it ain't me.

WHAT YOU'LL DO in 162: I've taught this course on line many times before, but I'm still (and always) just feeling my way. There may be changes.

* You will come to http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/ and find weekly prompts. You will use a prompt to write a short piece and you will post that prompt piece on your own blog. Your post will be open for everyone in the class to read if they choose to, not to mention everyone in the universe with a computer and internet access. Each week you will do three prompt reactions and do them as three separate posts--makes my record-keeping life easier.

Just write your own, post it, read any of the others you like. I will comment on new material three times a week. The prompts sometimes look like questions but don't go into student mode and think I want answers--I want creative nonfiction writing.

* Each week I will also post some very brief lecture material on creative nonfiction on http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/. If you have a reaction to what I write or questions, post them as comments, and I will see and reply, also as a comment. That's optional on your part.

* On your blog, you will also write a piece based on the week's theme.

I will post the theme and explanatory material on http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/.

Understand: you will be using the theme as a key to get into writing stuff you want to write. The theme isn't a test--it's a springboard for your writing.

Some of you may have long-term projects in mind. You want to use this class to work on them. Fine, let's talk about that and negotiate how the themes will tie into your stuff, whether assignments can be combined, and so on.

Your theme assignments will be open to the class to read and to comment on.
Once in a while you might write something in a theme assignment you don't want anyone in the class to see. That's okay--email it to me.

* You can also use your blog to keep a journal. You want to keep writing, pecking away at stuff, putting down ideas, impressions, bits of overhead conversations, things happening--the blog is the place. But this part is completely optional.

Overall, you'll explore ways of developing material—using such fictional techniques as dialogue, scene-setting, character development, controlled ambiguity, narrative-voice variations, metaphor, vignette —and then create your own pieces. You'll get a lot of writing practice, see each other’s work, and get detailed attention from the instructor.

WHY YOU'LL DO IT: writing is always a test of character. How do you cope with being naked in public, everyone’s worst nightmare? When given the chance, do you stand tall by climbing onto a pile of former friends’ egos you have just finished crushing? Both of these character questions often arise in workshop-based writing classes, which this class isn’t. Yes, this class will be different.

You’ll all be writing. You’ll all try to wow each other (one of the big motivators for writers!) because you will have the class as audience. But you'll be nice to each other and won't need to find something clever or devastating or 'helpful' to say about someone else's piece. You’ll all get faster, slicker, cleverer, cockier, as you find you can too write everything demanded in the time allowed. Writer’s block? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Again, writing is always a test of character, and when this course is done, your friends will come up and say, “There’s something different about you these days. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but I like it, whatever it is….” You will show a spouse or lover a piece you’ve written, and they will smile at you the way they haven’t for years. You'll have a hard time remembering the poky old you before you took English 162

WHEN YOU'LL DO IT: online means flexibility, but week by week assignments have to be done. The prompts ought to be done the week they're given.

I can offer a little leeway on the themes, but not much. Here's why: Writing improves with practice, lots of practice, lots and lots of practice. Practice has to be spread out over the semester--this is NOT a course whose goal is to crank out writing, any writing, squeeze-it-all-in-at-the-end-who-cares. The goal is to try new things in your writing over an extended period.

If you start missing a lot of weeks or assignments, I may give you a formal snail mail official warning, as well as an informal email heads-up. Two weeks missed of any one of the types of assignment listed above (prompts and themes) would probably trigger a warning, and if within a week after the warning, you aren't caught up, I might drop you from the course.
BEHAVING YOURSELF: You (online students) will be using blogger, aka blogspot, when you write. The school’s server is not involved, and you (everyone) can write anything you like, as long as you do your best to write it well and don’t violate any laws of libel, treason, obscenity, and so on. Generally, don’t write anything that would get you in trouble if the police happened to read it, but if your mom reads it and yells at you for not telling her you’re engaged or lost your job or you’re hungover, maybe it’s time she had a wake-up call anyway!

My only interest is helping you improve your writing, not taking charge of your opinions, morals, attitudes, or behavior. If you write about not washing the dishes for a week, I won’t nag you to clean up and I won’t tsk-tsk. I will work hard at making sure your writing details every greasy dish in the sink, squashed-out ciggie butt in your mother’s best coffee cup, and every cockroach that skitters under the fridge when the light goes on in the kitchen.

ANONYMITY: Online students can post stuff all semester under the name ‘Honeygoodstuff’ or ‘BoredwithFord’ or 'Barbieklone' or whatever handle you want (but only one handle per semester--if you choose one, you're stuck with it.) If you want to write about some cutie you know or some situation you screwed up, it might go easier and write better if you know you won’t be signing your name. And you can comment on other people’s stuff using that same handle.

The only thing is—and it’s a big thing—you won’t get credit for the course, not even a little, if I don’t know your handle! I mean, I can’t send the grade through as ‘Studmuffin Slickster gets an A.’

So, if you want, you can be anonymous to everyone but me, but if you’re flaming people behind your mask or using the anonymity to be a pain in the neck or, god forbid, harass someone, I’ll be on your case.

Of course, if you want to sign your name, that’s perfectly okay. I do that myself and find it makes me braver, not less so. You can certainly switch from Anonymous to a name at any time.

Comments on classmate's posts: Online students: Feel free to read and comment on other people's writing, politely and tactfully. You can learn from other people's ideas! Not part of your grade though—

HOW YOU’LL GET YOUR A:

Grading:
If you miss no more than three prompt, reaction, and theme assignments (three altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for, you will receive an A.

If you miss four, five or six of the prompt, reaction, and theme assignments (six altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for, you will receive a B.

If you miss more than six of the prompt, reaction, and theme assignments (more than six altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for, you will receive an F.

Evaluation:
How papers are evaluated for acceptability: I’ll be looking for
• Personal voice
• Consistent tone
• Imaginative approach to deciding on and developing topics
• Coherence
• Structure that is unobtrusive but real
• Writing geared to an audience and that matches the week’s theme

If a paper is not accepted, I’ll discuss its problems with the student, and the paper can be rewritten as often as the student wishes before the semester deadline for rewrites.

COURSE OUTCOMES:

1. “Demonstrate understanding of artistic work (writing) or craftsmanship…that reflects an understanding of the level of skill, effort, and thought that went into the piece being evaluated.”
• Students will do this by reading works of art (writing), discussing the art and craft of the various writers, and finally by creating their own works of words.

2. “Demonstrate the ability to evaluate a problem and develop a solution or a clear explanation of the problem….”
• Students will do this by seeing all their writing as a series of decisions about ways to solve problems in expressing themselves.

3. “Synthesize new ideas from existing facts.”
• Students will do this by using the facts derived from observation, research, memory to create original writing.

4. “…[E]ffectively state opinions”
• Students will do this by writing effective essays based on their opinions.

5. “Use…writing to convey ideas.”
• Students will do this by using their ideas to inform their writing.

6. “Demonstrate the ability to comprehend, evaluate, and interpret what they have read, seen, and heard.”
• Students will do this by writing essays, which will incorporate ideas presented in class lecture and in class readings.

Assessment:
• tba

ATTENDANCE POLICY: this is an online course, and you can come and go as you please. But if you're going to be away from a computer for a while, better talk to me about it. Feel free to come to class in your pajamas.

SCHOOL AND JAIL:

Some of you have come from a place where authority figures watch your every move. They check your name off to make sure you’re where you’re supposed to be every second of the day. They get angry if you wear forbidden clothes or carry contraband or eat certain foods at certain times and places. They are always on the lookout for drugs. They worry that you’re trying to manipulate the system, take over and run the place, form cliques. If they don’t like your attitude, they may write you up, put you in solitary, send you to Supermax, deny you privileges, threaten your future. And, of course, all this is being done to make you a better person.

After a few years of being treated this way, all you can think about is the day when you’re sprung and can hit the streets, free!

Prison? Nah, all too often that’s public high school I’ve just described. You’ll notice I said nothing about learning anything. Students and teachers are so busy hating each other, doing numbers on each other, hassling—they sometimes forget why they’re supposed to be there.

It can be comforting to be in prison instead of school because learning is hard and so is teaching. If you approach this class expecting that I’m going to hassle you about your appearance, your lateness or absences, your food and soda, your homework coming in late, and so on—you’re going to be disappointed. You may get mad at me for not providing you with the discipline you need. Tough! Provide your own! This ain’t high school!

The only thing I claim expertise in is writing. I can’t make you a better person. I’m not going to try. Naturally, I want you to be neat, clean, polite, punctual, organized, friendly, chem-free, hardworking, and cheerful. But the only thing I’m going to talk to you about is your writing.

When we get to the writing, I’ll have a lot to say.

THE WRITING FACTORY:
If one thinks of an English course as a Writing Factory, it doesn't really matter much when material is comes in; after all, the teacher is the shop foreman and all he cares about is seeing that the production schedule is met. He checks off the assignments and lets the Big Boss know that all is chugging along well on the shop floor.

Many English courses are run that way. Essays have to be so many words long and have a certain look to pass quality control and that's that. You get your grade, punch the clock, and go home.

You must believe me when I tell you that my time as a steel fabricator on the shop floor at Lasko Industries in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the late sixties turned me off forever to factory work.

My job is not to ratify that certain assignments have been done. It is to help you improve your writing. You write, I read, I think, I react, you think, you react to my reaction, you rewrite--maybe we get somewhere.

So, you need to keep stuff coming regularly so I can react and comment. If I were a student and a teacher asked me to hand in a piece without offering a hand, I'd feel cheated. As it is, you're cheating yourself of the chance to learn and me the chance to teach if you slack off. You may not, but I feel cheated.

If you give me nine things to look at it, it's nine times more work for me than dealing with one thing, but it's exactly as useful to your learning as if you had given me one thing. One thing or nine--you still have to sleep on it and think about it.

So, ENG 101 or 162, please don't give me a bunch of saved-up assignments all at once.

WHY WRITING IS SUCH A PAIN: Writing improves over time with lots of practice, like any skill. For most of us it is a skill to be worked on, not some mysterious God-given talent. That means lots of blood, sweat, and tears.

GETTING HELP: Please let me do my job and help you if you’re having big troubles—or little ones. If you find yourself, late some night, up against a deadline, tired, out of ideas, desperate, panicky, and tempted to submit work that isn't yours--the thing to do is forget the deadline and get some sleep. In the morning, get in touch with me. I can cut you slack on deadlines, help you with ideas, and generally buck you up. This is my job. Let me do it!

CONFUSION: A certain amount of confusion always happens at the beginning of any course while you sort out what you need to do and not do--and so do I. Be prepared for that mentally, and don't let it steamroller you. I'm sympathetic and it will pass, I promise. We’ll all make mistakes until we find our groove—me as well as you. Be patient with my mistakes and I'll return the favor!

And help me do better by letting me know the good and bad stuff when I survey you! Or any time!

Swine flu policy:

The school has policies and procedures that describe what has to happen if a student or faculty member has or appears to have swine flu.

In addition:

If you have to be out of school for swine flu and are too sick to continue to work online, you must email me (johngoldfine@mainelywired.net) or call (338-3080) and let me know so that we can figure out what's next for you. If you do not email or call, I will assume you are simply cutting classes and may give you a performance warning or performance drop from the course.

"What's next" will depend on your progress in the course up to the point when you go out sick, how early or late in the semester it is, whether you already are dealing with a performance warning from me, and how sick you are. Generally, I'll be bending over backwards to make sure that swine flu only makes you miserable physically and that it does not screw up your success in my course.

If I am out with swineflu, the course will continue as usual. It's possible that if I'm very sick, my online responses might be slowed down.

All assignments for the course will continue to appear weekly on the course website. Online students will continue to post material in the appropriate places.

In addition, if I am out with swine flu, I will have a chatroom here:

http://pub15.bravenet.com/chat/show.php/1203544920

and will post on the course blog a set time where every day I will try to be there to answer questions.

There is also a forum for questions or problems here:

http://pub15.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=1203544920&frmid=449&msgid=0

Other announcements as needed will be on the course blog http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com

Assignments. Detailed descriptions will show weekly on the course website. These are the topics:

Week 1: Journal; Autobiography of writer as a writer

Week 2: You and the world, you and history

Week 3: Scene-setting and dialogue

Week 4: Fact and fiction

Week 5: Narrative

Week 6: Place description

Week 7: Character

Week 8: Vignettes

Week 9: Linked vignettes

Week 10: Distance, framing, alienation

Week 11: Irony, symbolism, suggestion--when words mean something beyond themselves

Week 12: Taking risks: humor, exaggeration, juxtaposition

Week 13: Perspective: large to small, small to large

Week 14: Using yourself differently; finding a voice without first-person

Week 15/16: Some choices: focused journal, revision, bigger future project, self-evaluation, assemblage/collage

ADA/EO BOILERPLATE:

NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATION

Eastern Maine Community College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities. Inquiries about the College’s compliance with, and policies that prohibit discrimination on, these bases may be directed to: Affirmative Action Officer, President’s Office, Rangeley Hall, 354 Hogan Road, Bangor, Maine 04401, telephone number 974-4633, voice/TDD 974-4658, fax number 974-4888, nlundy@emcc.edu, http://www.emcc.edu;

United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 33 Arch Street, Suite 900, Boston, MA 02110, telephone 617-289-0111, TTY/TDD 617-289-0063, fax 617-289-0150, e-mail OCR.Boston@ed.gov internet http://.www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html?src=oc;

Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC), 51 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0051, telephone 207-624-6050, TTY/TTD 207-624-6064, fax 207-624-6063, internet http://www.state.me.us/mhrc/index.
shtml: and/or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 475 Govern-ment Center, Boston, MA 02203, telephone 617-565-3200 or 1-800-669-4000, TTY 617-565-3204 or 1-800-669-6820, fax 617-565-3196, internet http://www.eeoc.gov/.

The College also does not discriminate on the basis of sexual preference or marital, parental, or veteran’s status. Inquiries about the College’s policies that prohibit discrimination on these bases may be directed to the Affirmative Action Officer or MHRC identified above.

Eastern Maine Community College is an equal opportunity institution and complies with the requirements of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (34 CFR Part 106), Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (34 CFR Part 104), and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and its implementing regulations. Discrimination on the basis of race; color; national origin; gender; sexual orientation, marital, parental or military status or disability in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its educational policies and programs, and in the recruitment and employment of its instructional and non-instruction personnel is prohibited. Sexual harassment of either employees or students is a violation of state and federal laws. It is the policy of Eastern Maine Community College that no member of the College community may sexually harass another. Inquiries concerning Title IX, Title VI and ADA may be made to Affirmative Action Officer, at Eastern Maine Community College, 354 Hogan Road, Bangor, Maine 04401, (207) 974-4633; inquiries regarding Disability Services may be made to the Section 504 Coordinator at the same address, (207) 974-4658 (voice/TDD). Questions, concerns, complaints and/or grievances about discrimination in any areas of the college should be directed to Eastern Maine Community College’s Affirmative Action Officer; or to the Maine Human Rights Commission, State House Station 51, Augusta, Maine, 04333-0051, (207) 624-6050 or the Office of Civil Rights, J.W. McCormack, POCH, Room 707, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 1-617-223-9662.