Course Description: This course is an Introductory Poetry ...



210 Poetry 2

210 Fiction 3

210 Mixed Genre 4

218 Writing About Literature 5

310 Poetry 6

394 Special Topics 8

3XX Writing in Social Contexts: Cats and Dogs 9

3XX Writing in Social Contexts: Fitness and Nutrition 10

411 Poetry 11

412 Creative Nonfiction 12

335 American Poetry 13

210 Poetry

Course Description: This is an Introductory course with ENG 101 and ENG 102 as prerequisites. Our focus will include the careful study of successful poems, and a series of exercises that will help students approach writing as artisans—with attention to detail, attention to craft, and attention to the process as well as the product. Robert Frost once said, “No surprise for the poet, no surprise for the reader.” This introductory poetry course introduces poetic techniques that contemporary poets use to create their own surprises. A main goal of poetry is to allow the senses to overwhelm thought. We will study established poems to see how they make meaning through sensory images. We will also push ourselves to infuse our own writing with concrete details, careful choices, and delightful surprises.

Course Learning Goals: By the end of the course you will be able to recognize poetic techniques in published work and student work, and you will be well on your way to mastering those techniques in your own writing. We will focus on the following 10 poetic elements:

1. Titles: How do they add depth to the poem?

2. Speaker: Who is speaking? Do you believe them?

3. Characters: Who is in the poem & what is the relationship to the speaker?

4. Setting: Where and when does the poem take place?

5. Themes: What types of conflict occur in the poem?

6. Tone: What is the author's attitude towards the subject?

7. Structure: How does the poem's structure contribute to its meaning?

8. Imagery: What are the concrete images in the poem? What meaning do they make? How does the poem use visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, organic and kinesthetic nouns?

9. Figurative Language: What fresh significance has been given to words in the poem? How does the author integrate metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, synecdoche, metonymy, allegory, paradox, and allusion?

10. Musical Devices: How does the poem use language? How does it use alliteration, assonance, consonance, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, internal rhyme and slant rhyme?

Required Text:

Boisseau, Michelle and Robert Wallace. Writing Poems. 6th ed. Pearson: New York, 2004.

ISBN 0-321-09423-9

Required Work: This course requires you to not only practice your writing, but also to practice your reading and editing as well.

Reading – Worth 30% of your grade. Most weeks you will be assigned about a chapter of reading. You will then post a 300 word response to the reading and a 150 word response to another student (these are minimums). Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation. Reading Responses are graded as a percentage on a pass/fail basis. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Reading Discussion Board.

Workshop - Worth 30% of your grade. This Introductory course is set up as a workshop where students turn in writing and receive constructive criticism from other students and the professor. Students then use that feedback to revise their Portfolio for a final grade. Most weeks you will post an activity here. You will then post a response to the student whose post appears below yours. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Workshop Discussion Board.

Portfolio - Worth 40% of your grade. For the Portfolio you will gather some of your best writing from the semester. You will submit 8 polished poems. There is no length limit, but all work must be submitted in one Word document. Grades for the Portfolio are based on your ability to master skills discussed in the reading, and your ability to revise based on student and professor comments.

210 Fiction

Course Description: This is an Introductory course with ENG 101 and ENG 102 as prerequisites. Our focus will include the careful study of successful short stories, and a series of activities that will help students approach writing as artisans—with attention to detail, attention to craft, and attention to the process as well as the product. We will study established stories to see how they navigate the 9 elements of fiction: character, dialogue, voice, point of view, scene, plot, time, structure, and world. We will also push ourselves to infuse our own writing with concrete details, careful choices, and delightful surprises.

Course Learning Goals: By the end of the course you will be able to recognize elements of fiction in published work and student work, and you will be well on your way to mastering those techniques in your own writing. We will focus on the following 9 elements of fiction:

1. Character: What complexities do they reflect? What details of their lives move you?

2. Dialogue: Is the dialogue in tune with the characters? Does the dialogue ring true? Does it work on multiple levels (to characterize, inform, move the plot)?

3. Voice: Is the tone of the story consistent? Do the words and sentences suit the story?

4. Point of View: Is the point of view consistent? Is the right character telling the story?

5. Scene: Is each scene carefully rendered with sensory detail? Is there a better sequence?

6. Plot: What happens in the story? What moving action affects the characters?

7. Time: How much time is covered? Are multiple layers of time written clearly?

8. Structure: What is the logic behind the structure?

9. World: Where does the story take place?

Required Text: Denman, Margaret-Love and Barbara Shoup. Story Matters. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006. ISBN 0-618-47027-1

Required Work: This course requires you to not only practice your writing, but also to practice your reading and editing as well.

Reading - Worth 30% of your grade. Most weeks you will be assigned about a chapter of reading. You will then post a 300 word response to the reading and a 150 word response to another student (these are minimums). Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation.

Reading Responses are graded as a percentage on a pass/fail basis. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Readings Discussion Board.

Workshop - Worth 30% of your grade. This Introductory course is set up as a workshop where students turn in writing and receive constructive criticism from other students and the professor. Students then use that feedback to revise their Portfolio for a final grade. Most weeks you will post an activity here. You will then post a response to the student whose post appears below yours. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Workshop Discussion Board.

Portfolio - Worth 40% of your grade. For the Portfolio you will gather some of your best writing from the semester. You will submit two polished short stories. There is no length limit, but all work must be submitted in one Word document. Grades for the Portfolio are based on your ability to master skills discussed in the reading, and your ability to revise based on student and professor comments.

210 Mixed Genre

Course Description: This course is an Introductory Mixed Genre course with ENG 101 and ENG 102 as prerequisites.

In our poetry unit, your focus will include the careful study of successful poems, and a series of activities that will help you approach writing as artisans—with attention to detail, attention to craft, and attention to the process as well as the product. You will study established poems to see how they make meaning through sensory images. You will also push yourselves to infuse your own writing with concrete details, careful choices, and delightful surprises.

In our fiction unit, you will study established stories to see how they navigate the 9 elements of fiction: character, dialogue, voice, point of view, scene, plot, time, structure, and world. You will complete a series of activities that lead up to a polished short story.

Course Learning Goals: By the end of the course you will have a strong understanding of 10 elements of poetry:

1. Titles: How do they add depth to the poem?

2. Speaker: Who is speaking? Do you believe them?

3. Characters: Who is in the poem & what is the relationship to the speaker?

4. Setting: Where and when does the poem take place?

5. Themes: What types of conflict occur in the poem?

6. Tone: What is the author's attitude towards the subject?

7. Structure: How does the poem's structure contribute to its meaning?

8. Imagery: What are the concrete images in the poem? What meaning do they make? How does the poem use visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, organic and kinesthetic nouns?

9. Figurative Language: What fresh significance has been given to words in the poem? How does the author integrate metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, synecdoche, metonymy, allegory, paradox, and allusion?

10. Musical Devices: How does the poem use language? How does it use alliteration, assonance, consonance, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, internal rhyme and slant rhyme?

By the end of the course you will have a strong understanding of 9 elements of fiction:

1. Character: What complexities do they reflect? What details of their lives move you?

2. Dialogue: Is the dialogue in tune with the characters? Does the dialogue ring true? Does it work on multiple levels (to characterize, inform, move the plot)?

3. Voice: Is the tone of the story consistent? Do the words and sentences suit the story?

4. Point of View: Is the point of view consistent? Is the right character telling the story?

5. Scene: Is each scene carefully rendered with sensory detail? Is there a better sequence?

6. Plot: What happens in the story? What moving action affects the characters?

7. Time: How much time is covered? Are multiple layers of time written clearly?

8. Structure: What is the logic behind the structure?

9. World: Where does the story take place?

Required Texts:

Boisseau, Michelle and Robert Wallace. Writing Poems. 6th ed. Pearson: New York, 2004. ISBN 0-321-09423-9

Denman, Margaret-Love and Barbara Shoup. Story Matters. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006. ISBN 0-618-47027-1

Required Work: This course requires you to not only practice your writing, but also to practice your reading and editing as well.

Reading - Worth 30% of your grade. Most weeks you will be assigned about a chapter of reading. You will then post a 300 word response to the reading and a 150 word response to another student (these are minimums). Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation. Reading Responses are graded as a percentage on a pass/fail basis. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Readings Discussion Board.

Workshop - Worth 30% of your grade. This Introductory course is set up as a workshop where students turn in writing and receive constructive criticism from other students and the professor. Students then use that feedback to revise their Portfolio for a final grade. Most weeks you will post an activity here. You will then post a response to the student whose post appears below yours. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Workshop Discussion Board.

Portfolio - Worth 40% of your grade. For the Portfolio you will gather some of your best writing from the semester. You will submit one polished short story and 4 polished poems. There is no length limit, but all work must be submitted in one Word document. Grades for the Portfolio are based on your ability to master skills discussed in the reading, and your ability to revise based on student and professor comments.

218 Writing About Literature

Course Description: Advanced writing course requiring analytical and expository essays about fiction, poetry, and drama. For non-English majors. General Studies: L/HU ENG Note 1: Completion of the First-Year Composition requirement (ENG 101 and 102 [or 105] or ENG 107 and 108 with a grade of “C” [2.00] or higher) is a prerequisite for all English courses above the 100 level.

Advanced writing course focusing on the intersection of literature and rhetorical studies to discover the rhetoric of a particular genre, sub-genre or theme. Practice and study of selected literary and non-literary texts.  Although the subject matter is literature, the course’s main concern is writing.  Students will learn how to write about literature, as well as how to respond to and write about all sorts of texts--literary and nonliterary, verbal and nonverbal. Throughout this course, students will:

Course Learning Goals: By the end of the course students will:

1. significantly improve their analytical prose writing;

2. understand and effectively employ various forms of persuasion as it pertains to literature;

3. understand and deploy effective rhetorical strategies in analytical discourse;

4. discover and evaluate the methods of persuasion used in the construction of literary texts;

5. read critically and analyze rhetorically writings and use those lenses to frame their own discourses;

6. write in the different forms and styles of a non-fiction prose discourse; and

7. develop techniques for conducting research on the Internet and with other electronic databases

Required Text:

Anderson, Daniel. Writing About Literature in the Media Age. Pearson: New York, 2005.

ISBN: 0-321-32953-8

Required Work: The work of the class consists of weekly reading, activities, and four major papers.

Reading – Worth 10% of your grade. Most weeks you will be assigned about a chapter of reading. You will then post a 300 word response to the reading and a 150 word response to another student (these are minimums). Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation. Reading Responses are graded as a percentage on a pass/fail basis. At the end of the semester you should have 24 posts total in the Readings Discussion Board.

Activities – Worth 10% of your grade. You will complete 6 prewriting activities that help you develop writing skills central to your major papers.

Paper 1 - Worth 20% of your grade. You will write a 4-6 page critical essay based on the readings.

Paper 2 - Worth 20% of your grade. You will write a 4-6 page critical essay based on the readings.

Paper 3 - Worth 20% of your grade. You will write a 4-6 page critical essay based on the readings.

Paper 4 - Worth 20% of your grade. You will write a 4-6 page critical essay based on the readings.

ENG 310 Poetry

Course Description: This is an Intermediate Poetry course with ENG 210 as a prerequisite. In his 1963 essay, “A Wrong Turning in American Poetry,” Robert Bly argued that, "Our poetry so far has nothing to give us because, like its audience, it drifts aimlessly in the outer world." However, in the many years since the essay's appearance, critics have argued that American poetry has turned too far inward--to the point of being dangerously near-sighted and self-centered. Part of our work in this course will be to define contemporary American poetry through the careful analysis of current writers, including an interpretation of how their voices interact with and respond to contemporary culture. We will also work to interpret student writing and its role in the landscape of American poetry.  The course will include readings, Reading Responses, writing assignments, and close workshop responses to student poems.

Course Learning Goals: This is an Intermediate level poetry course, which assumes that you have already been introduced to poetic elements such as titling, speaker, characters, setting theme, tone, structure, imagery, figurative language, and musical devices. We will continue to use those concepts to help us respond to and interpret poems. In addition, this Intermediate poetry workshop will ask you to accomplish the following goals.

1. Careful analysis of poems by contemporary American poets.

2. Thorough understanding of how student voices fit in with published American poets.

3. Mastery of invention, evaluation, and revision techniques.

4. Extensive and substantive comments on peer writing. 

5. Definition of contemporary American poetry based on readings and writings.

Required Text:

A. Poulin Jr, and Michael Waters. Contemporary American Poetry, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006.

ISBN 0618042997

Required Work: This course assumes that you have already been introduced to basic poetic elements. Therefore, the required work for the course is designed to give you a more advanced knowledge of contemporary American poetry, and the opportunity to further practice the artistry of poetry writing. A large part of your grade will also come for giving thoughtful and thorough responses to peer writing. Throughout the session you will complete Reading Responses, Workshop Responses, and a Poetry Portfolio.

Reading– Reading Responses are worth 30% of your grade for the semester. Our text includes work from 70 contemporary poets, representing poems published from 1960 and on. You will be expected to give a close reading to at least 20 of those poets throughout the semester. You will be asked to respond to readings during the session in an online Discussion Board. Then you will read and respond to other student responses. Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation.

Workshop - Workshop Responses are worth 30% of your grade. This Intermediate Poetry course is set up as a workshop where students turn in poems and receive constructive criticism from other students and the professor. Students then use that feedback to revise their poetry portfolio for a final grade. Unlike face to face workshop classes, where students bring in poems each week but only get feedback a few times a semester, this online section allows us to get online feedback for every poem every time. To accomplish this we use a Round Robin Workshop method that follows the order of posts in the Discussion Board. Each time a poem is due, you will log on after the deadline and respond to the 3 poems below your post. If your post is towards the bottom you will start responding to posts at the top. For this method to work, all poets must adhere to deadlines and pay close attention to post order on the board. When we keep the method working, each person gets 3 quality responses to each poem.

Portfolio - The Final Portfolio is worth 40% of your grade. For the Portfolio you will revise 5 of the 10 poems you have turned in throughout the semester. There is no length limit, but all 5 poems must be submitted in 1 Word Document. Grades for the Portfolio are based on your ability to revise based on student and professor comments.

394 Special Topics

ENG 394: Writing Creative Nonfiction is a Special Topics course designed to introduce you to creative writing techniques, help you polish a piece, and help you research markets for publication.

Creative nonfiction has become an increasingly popular genre, with many literary magazines devoting more room and resources to its publication. The journal Creative Nonfiction defines it this way, “Dramatic, true stories using scenes, dialogue, close, detailed descriptions and other techniques usually employed by poets and fiction writers about important subjects - from politics, to economics, to sports, to the arts and sciences, to racial relations, and family relations.”

This online, one credit hour, one week intensive course helps you choose one of your favorite, most compelling stories to craft into a masterful piece of creative nonfiction. We will workshop our writing using myASU Discussion Boards and reviewing features in Microsoft Word. We will end the workshop with an exercise on finding a market for your creative nonfiction.

Required Text:

Miller, Brenda and Suzanne Paola. Tell it Slant. McGraw Hill, New York: 2004. ISBN # 0-07-251278-4

Required Work:

Writing Exercises 25%

Workshop Responses 25%

Polished Essay 25%

Publication Packet 25%

ENH 3XX Writing in Social Contexts: Cats and Dogs

Course Description: This Special Topics Writing course is a writing workshop with a special focus on Cats and Dogs. Throughout the course you will study published work on the relationships between humans and Cats and Dogs. You will produce drafts of essays, stories, and poems about Cats and Dogs. You will receive feedback on this work from peers and the Instructor, and you will revise your work for a final portfolio.

Course Learning Goals: This writing workshop will ask you to accomplish the following goals:

6. Careful analysis of published essays, stories, and poems about Cats and Dogs.

7. Ability to clearly articulate the relationships between humans and Cats and Dogs.

8. Experimentation across several genres.

9. Extensive and substantive comments on peer writing. 

10. Mastery of evaluation and revision techniques.

Required Texts:

Bass, Rick. The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had. Mariner Books: New York, 2001. ISBN 0-61-812736-4

Ciuraru, Carmela, Ed. Doggerel: Poems about Dogs. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2003.

ISBN 1-4000-4037-X

Cook, Ferris, Ed. Yowl: Selected Poems about Cats. Diane Publishing: New York, 2004.

ISBN 0-756-7776-58

The Editors of The Bark. Dog Is My Co-Pilot: Great Writers on the World’s Oldest Friendship.

Three Rivers Press: New York, 2003. ISBN 1-4000-4053-7

Grogan, John. Marley and Me. William Morrow: New York, 2005. ISBN 0-006-081708-9

Piercy, Marge. Sleeping with Cats. Perennial: New York, 2002. ISBN 0-06-093604-5

Required Work: Your grade will be made up of three types of required work: Responses to the reading, workshop responses, and a final portfolio of polished writing.

Readings – Worth 30 % of your grade. Each week you will be asked to post a 500 word response to the reading.

Workshop - Worth 30 % of your grade. Each week you will read and respond to peer writing.

Portfolio - Worth 40 % of your grade. At the end of the semester you will compile your best revised work into a final portfolio.

ENH 3XX Writing in Social Contexts: Fitness and Nutrition

Course Description: This Special Topics Writing course is a writing workshop with a special focus on writing about Fitness and Nutrition for magazine publication. Throughout the course you will study published writing in the fields of Fitness and Nutrition. You will brainstorm topics for nonfiction essays, you will write the essays and receive feedback from peers and the Instructor. At the tend of the term you will revise your work, identifying potential markets.

Course Learning Goals: This writing workshop will ask you to accomplish the following goals:

1. Careful analysis of published essays about Fitness and Nutrition.

2. Brainstorming of strong topics for essays about Fitness and Nutrition.

3. Extensive and substantive comments on peer writing. 

4. Mastery of evaluation and revision techniques.

5. Identification of possible markets for publication.

Required Texts:

Bugeia, Michael. Guide to Writing Magazine Nonfiction. Allyn & Bacon: New York, 1997.

ISBN: 0-20-526113-2

Hamilton, Nancy M. Uncovering the Secrets of Magazine Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide to

Writing Creative Nonfiction for Print and Internet Publication. Allyn & Bacon: New

York, 2005. ISBN: 0-20537631-2

Required Work: Your grade will be made up of three types of required work: Responses to the reading, workshop responses, and a final portfolio of polished writing.

Readings – Worth 30 % of your grade. Each week you will be asked to post a 500 word response to the reading.

Workshop - Worth 30 % of your grade. Each week you will read and respond to peer writing.

Portfolio - Worth 40 % of your grade. At the end of the semester you will compile your best revised work into a final portfolio.

411 Poetry

Course Description: This is an Intermediate Poetry course with ENG 210 as a prerequisite. In his 1963 essay, “A Wrong Turning in American Poetry,” Robert Bly argued that, "Our poetry so far has nothing to give us because, like its audience, it drifts aimlessly in the outer world." However, in the many years since the essay's appearance, critics have argued that American poetry has turned too far inward--to the point of being dangerously near-sighted and self-centered. Part of our work in this course will be to define contemporary American poetry through the careful analysis of current writers, including an interpretation of how their voices interact with and respond to contemporary culture. We will also work to interpret student writing and its role in the landscape of American poetry.  The course will include readings, Reading Responses, writing assignments, and close workshop responses to student poems.

Course Learning Goals: This is an Intermediate level poetry course, which assumes that you have already been introduced to poetic elements such as titling, speaker, characters, setting theme, tone, structure, imagery, figurative language, and musical devices. We will continue to use those concepts to help us respond to and interpret poems. In addition, this Intermediate poetry workshop will ask you to accomplish the following goals.

11. Careful analysis of poems by contemporary American poets.

12. Thorough understanding of how student voices fit in with published American poets.

13. Mastery of invention, evaluation, and revision techniques.

14. Extensive and substantive comments on peer writing. 

15. Definition of contemporary American poetry based on readings and writings.

Required Text: A. Poulin Jr, and Michael Waters. Contemporary American Poetry, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006.

Required Work: This course assumes that you have already been introduced to basic poetic elements. Therefore, the required work for the course is designed to give you a more advanced knowledge of contemporary American poetry, and the opportunity to further practice the artistry of poetry writing. A large part of your grade will also come for giving thoughtful and thorough responses to peer writing.

Reading Responses – Reading Responses are worth 30% of your grade for the semester. Our text includes work from 70 contemporary poets, representing poems published from 1960 and on. You will be expected to give a close reading to at least 20 of those poets throughout the semester. You will be asked to respond to readings during the session in an online Discussion Board. Then you will read and respond to other student responses. Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation.

Workshop Responses - Workshop Responses are worth 30% of your grade. This Intermediate Poetry course is set up as a workshop where students turn in poems and receive constructive criticism from other students and the professor. Students then use that feedback to revise their poetry portfolio for a final grade. Unlike face to face workshop classes, where students bring in poems each week but only get feedback a few times a semester, this online section allows us to get online feedback for every poem every time. To accomplish this we use a Round Robin Workshop method that follows the order of posts in the Discussion Board. Each time a poem is due, you will log on after the deadline and respond to the 3 poems below your post. If your post is towards the bottom you will start responding to posts at the top. For this method to work, all poets must adhere to deadlines and pay close attention to post order on the board. When we keep the method working, each person gets 3 quality responses to each poem.

Poetry Portfolio - The Final Poetry Portfolio is worth 40% of your grade. For the Poetry Portfolio you will revise 5 of the 10 poems you have turned in throughout the semester. There is no length limit, but all 5 poems must be submitted in 1 Word Document. Grades for the Portfolio are based on your ability to revise based on student and professor comments, and your ability to define your voice as compared to contemporary American poets.

412 Creative Nonfiction

Course Description: Creative Nonfiction has become an increasingly popular genre, with many literary magazines devoting more room and resources to its publication. The journal Creative Nonfiction defines it this way, “Dramatic, true stories using scenes, dialogue, close, detailed descriptions and other techniques usually employed by poets and fiction writers about important subjects - from politics, to economics, to sports, to the arts and sciences, to racial relations, and family relations.” This section of Creative Nonfiction will focus on the composition of essays that combine reflection, research, voice, and storytelling. We will study published essays, discuss issues of craft, and identify markets for publishing polished work.

Course Learning Goals: At the end of the session students will have acquired the following:

1. An understanding of the role of voice in Creative Nonfiction.

2. The ability to incorporate research into creative writing.

3. Mastery of storytelling techniques such as dialogue, character development, narrative pace, and description.

4. The ability to match form to subject matter.

5. Identification of markets for publication.

Required Text: Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz. Writing True: The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006.

Required Software: Microsoft Word 2003. We will exchange our online comments using the Reviewing Features in Word. Therefore all students must have access to a computer with Microsoft Word 2003. To download a 60-day trial version of the software access the Microsoft website at .

Required Work: The work of this course will include the creation of polished original Creative Nonfiction, as well as writing exercises, peer workshop responses, and a publication packet. Work is due Tuesday night at midnight, Thursday night at midnight, and Sunday night at midnight. I grade early in the morning on Wednesday, Friday, and Monday. The following are summaries of the course assignments. More detailed assignments can be found in the Assignments section of our website.

Reading Responses – Worth 20% of the semester grade. You will be asked to respond to readings during the session in an online Discussion Board. Then you will read and respond to other student responses. Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation.

Workshop Responses - Worth 20% of the semester grade. Give thoughtful constructive comments to peer work using the reviewing features in Microsoft Word.

Polished Essay One - Worth 20% of the semester grade. Write an 8-10 page essay using techniques of narration, description, dialogue, and scene. Choose a form from the following seven: Memoir, Personal Essay, Portrait, Essay of Place, Literary Journalism, Stories of Craft, or Short Shorts.

Polished Essay Two - Worth 20% of the semester grade. Write an 8-10 page essay using techniques of narration, description, dialogue, and scene. Choose a form from the following seven: Memoir, Personal Essay, Portrait, Essay of Place, Literary Journalism, Stories of Craft, or Short Shorts.

Publication Packet - Worth 20% of the semester grade. Read the webpage “Publishing Creative Nonfiction” at Using techniques discussed on that page, do internet or library research to profile 2 magazines that would potentially be interested in your writing style.

335 American Poetry

Course Description: In his essay “A Poem is a Walk,” A.R. Ammons asserts that “Poetry is a verbal means to a non-verbal source.” Just as Ammons so deftly articulates, the great poems written in the last 60 years use language to access human emotion. This section of ENG 335 makes a close study of great poems of the late 20th century. Our reading of Contemporary poems will be supplemented with the study of essays by Contemporary poets. Through the lens of published essays on the craft of Contemporary Poetry we will examine the richly varied work of poets writing after 1945. Our aim will be to identify schools, trends, shared experience, shared imagery, and thoughts on form. We will also consider the roots of Contemporary American poetry in the Modernist movement. Finally, we will explore Contemporary American poetry as a “verbal means to a non-verbal source.”

Course Learning Goals: At the end of the session students will have acquired the following:

1. An understanding of the role Contemporary poetry in American society.

2. Identification of trends in subject matter, voice, and form.

3. Careful analysis of great poems of the late 20th century.

4. Definition of poetry as a powerful tool of communication.

Required Texts:

A. Poulin Jr, and Michael Waters. Contemporary American Poetry, 8th ed. Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 2006. ISBN 0-618-527-85-0

Donald Hall, Ed. Claims for Poetry. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 1982. ISBN 0-472-06308-1

Required Software: Microsoft Word 2003. We will exchange our online comments using the Reviewing Features in Word. Therefore all students must have access to a computer with Microsoft Word 2003. To download a 60-day trial version of the software access the Microsoft website at .

Required Work:

Reading Responses – Worth 25% of the semester grade. You will be asked to respond to readings during the session in an online Discussion Board. Then you will read and respond to other student responses. Please view this forum as an ongoing class conversation.

Polished Essay One - Worth 25% of the semester grade. Write a 6 page essay about a trend in Contemporary American Poetry.

Polished Essay Two - Worth 25% of the semester grade. Write a 6 page essay about a trend in Contemporary American Poetry.

Final Project - Worth 25% of the semester grade. Write an 8 page essay defining poetry as a tool of communication in American society in the late 20th century.

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