Non-fiction workship



Nonfiction Workshop

Class meetings: Thursday, 9-11.45 a.m., Bunting 433

Instructor: Paul Jaskunas, PJaskunas@MICA.edu, Bunting 413, 202.253.4977

Office Hours: Thursdays, 1-3

Books

The Best American Essays of the Century

Best American Essays of 2010

Elements of Style

Class work

In this class you will write six essays in response to as many prompts. The work you turn in should not be rough or partially finished. We are looking for complete essays with all usage and spelling errors corrected. All writing should be typed, double-spaced, in Times New Roman Font, size 12. Please staple or bind the work you turn in.

At least three times you will submit your work to the class for critique. For each student essay critiqued, another student will have the responsibility of starting our discussion by reading a passage and articulating how s/he understands the essay’s ambitions, its purpose and aspirations.

You will also keep a writing journal. The writing journal may be the most important part of the class work. I ask that you spend time writing in it at least three or four times a week. This is called practice. You can practice in any way you care to, as long as you do it.

Other tasks include: In-class and out-of-class exercises, weekly reading assignments, and one in-class presentation (see below).

Evaluation

I will collect your responses to all the essay prompts. I will not grade them but will comment. Your final grade will be based primarily on your essays, but other factors will come into play. Here is an approximate breakdown:

Essay assignments: 40 percent

Class participation: 30 percent

Writing journal: 20 percent

Presentation: 10 percent

By ‘participation’, I refer to your involvement in discussion, completion of reading assignments, responses to exercises, and critique of other students’ work.

The Prompts

Prompt 1. To press into action; incite. 2. To give rise to; inspire.

The prompts have been designed to nudge you toward discovering and developing your unique abilities as a writer. Most prompts will involve three stages—reading; journal writing and in-class exercises; and writing an essay. The end result should be a finished piece that demonstrates a thoughtful response to the assignment.

Remember that the prompts are not there to tell you what to write about. Rather, they are designed to provide you with a point of departure. Where you take the writing is entirely up to you.

prompt 1. On time; punctual. 2. Done without delay.

I ask that you turn in work on time. I have many students between the three classes I teach and many papers to read. Absent a genuine medical or family emergency, I will not generally allow extensions.

Presentation

Each student will give one presentation of about twenty minutes. The subject will be a writer of your choice. The talk should cover his/her life history, literary output, and significance to the nonfiction genre. In advance of the presentation, you must read at least one complete book by the author, research his/her biography, and sample some of the criticism that has been published about his/her work. A week in advance, you should provide the class with a sample of your chosen writer’s work. This requirement is a way for us to look beyond the confines of our anthologies and hopefully broaden our view of what nonfiction can be.

Attendance

Three unexcused absences will result in failure of the class. If you need to discuss your attendance with me at any time, e-mail me at pjaskunas@mica.edu

Mid-semester Conference

We will have mid-semester conferences in lieu of one class just before Spring Break. At the conference we can talk about your writing and where you want to take it.

Plagiarism Policy

MICA will not tolerate plagiarism, which is defined as claiming authorship of, or using someone else's ideas or work without proper acknowledgment. In addition, students may not submit the same work for credit in more than one course without the explicit approval of the all of the instructors of the courses involved.

Consequences

When an instructor has evidence that a student has plagiarized work submitted for course credit, the instructor will confront the student and impose penalties that may include failing the course. In the case of a serious violation or repeated infractions from the same student, the instructor will report the infractions to the department chair.  Depending on the circumstances of the case the department chair may then report the student to the Office of Academic Affairs or Graduate Studies, which may choose to impose further penalties, including suspension or expulsion.

Learning Resource Center ADA Compliance Statement

Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the instructor privately to discuss specific needs. Please contact the Learning Resource Center at 410-225-2416, in Bunting 458, to establish eligibility and coordinate reasonable accommodations. For additional information please refer to:

Health and Safety

It is the responsibility of faculty and students to practice health and safety guidelines relevant to their individual activities, processes, and to review MICA’s Emergency Action Plan and attend EHS training. It is each faculty member’s responsibility to coordinate with the EHS Office to ensure that all risks associated with their class activities are identified and to assure that their respective classroom procedures mirror the EHS and Academic Department guidelines. Each of these policies and procedures must be followed by all students and faculty. Most importantly, faculty are to act in accordance with all safety compliance, state and federal, as employees of this college and are expected to act as examples of how to create art in a way to minimize risk, and reduce harm to themselves and the environment. Faculty must identify, within each art making process, and require personal protection equipment use, by each student for each class, when applicable. Students are required to purchase personal protection equipment appropriate to their major. Those students who do not have the proper personal protection equipment will not be permitted to attend class until safe measures and personal protection is in place.

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