Matt King



WRIT 101: Introduction to Writing StudiesFall 2018Policy Statement – 2 Schedule – 5Assignments – 7 WRIT 101: Introduction to Writing StudiesFall 2018Professor: Matt King (he, him, his; more on pronouns here and here)Email: mrking@sbu.eduPhone: 716.375.2457Office Hours: Wednesday 1:30-4:30 and by appointmentOffice Location: Plassmann D6Class Website: and Creative Writing Major ObjectivesStudents will:Write effective texts in different genres and in multiple media to respond to a variety of professional and creative needs.Construct their own professional identities as writers, readers, and researchers who can make valuable contributions in a variety of professional settings.Interpret cultural, political, and historical situations using specific theories from rhetorical, literary, and writing studies.Display the ethical commitment of writers to improve society.Course DescriptionThis course serves as an introduction to the basic terms and skills necessary to complete the Professional and Creative Writing Major and thus familiarizes students with basic principles of effective writing in several genres. Students will acquire skills in producing and analyzing professional, literary, and rhetorical texts, in developing an effective writing process, and in giving feedback and editing advice to other writers. (3 credits)Course GoalsStudents successfully completing this course will be able toWrite effective short works in several genres: rhetorical, literary, professional, creative;Employ basic methods of rhetorical and literary analysis;Develop an effective writing process grounded in insights from composition studies;Give useful and supportive feedback to peers on their writing;Produce structurally sound prose at the sentence level;Attend to concerns of modality through the production and remediation of print and digital texts;Demonstrate an awareness of the broader ethical implications of writing as a social activity.All class texts will be made available online as needed.GradingAnalysis Paper20%Creative Writing – Poetry 10%Creative Writing – Flash Fiction15%Nonfiction Writing15%Remediation Project15%Electronic Portfolio20%Participation5%TOTAL 100%Late Work. Excessive or unexcused late work will not be acceptable, and I reserve the right to penalize late work in such circumstances (generally, such penalties will be a letter grade for every day an assignment is late). If circumstances prevent you from being able to submit an assignment on time, you should discuss the situation with me ahead of time.Attendance. You should arrive to class on time with all assigned readings and papers for the day completed. You are allowed six absences throughout the semester without a grade penalty (although missing class can affect your participation grade and your ability to succeed in the class generally). If you have 7-8 absences, you cannot receive higher than a C for your semester average. If you have 9-10 absences, you cannot receive higher than a D for your semester average. If you have 11 or more absences, you will receive an F for the semester. For every 3 instances of tardiness, you will incur 1 absence. If you only have 0-1 absences, you will receive a 1/3 letter grade bonus on your semester average.For athletes, students who provide documentation for absences related to athletic competitions will be excused for all such absences. Student athletes can also miss two more class periods throughout the semester without a grade penalty. If you have three or more unexcused (non-athletic) absences throughout the semester, then all of your absences will be counted toward the attendance policy.+/- Grades. Plus and minus grades will be used in awarding final grades for this course. Paper GradesSemester AverageA+ = 98.5A = 95 A- = 91.5 93-100 = A 90-93 = A- B+ = 88.5 B = 85 B- = 81.5 87-90 = B+83-87 = B 80-83 = B- C+ = 78.5 C = 75 C- = 71.577-80 = C+73-77 = C70-73 = C-D+ = 68.5 D = 65D- = 61.5 67-70 = D+63-67 = D60-63 = D-F = 55Less than 60 = FStudent Success CenterRevising and responding to feedback will be an invaluable and necessary part of your development as a writer this semester. Toward this end, you are strongly encouraged to visit me during office hours and to visit the Student Success Center on the first floor of Plassmann Hall to meet with a writing tutor. Bring your work with you to your appointment.Academic IntegrityAcademic dishonesty is inconsistent with the moral character expected of students in a University committed to the spiritual and intellectual growth of the whole person. It also subverts the academic process by distorting all measurements. A list of unacceptable practices and procedures to be followed in prosecuting cases of alleged academic dishonesty may be found in the Student Handbook and here.Students with DisabilitiesStudents with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to contact the Disability Support Services Office, Doyle Room 26, at 375-2066 as soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. Documentation from this office is required before accommodations can be made. Please see the official SBU Student with Disabilities policy here.EmailEmail will serve as an official means of communication for this class, and you should check the email account you have registered with the university regularly. Feel free to email me with your questions and concerns.Title IXTitle IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender are Civil Rights offenses subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, etc. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can find the appropriate resources at the Health and Wellness Center or at the Campus Safety Office. For on-campus reporting, see the Title IX Coordinator (Sharon Burke, Director of Human Resources) and Residence Life Staff (RAs, RDs, and other professional staff). The University's policy and procedures regarding gender-based and sexual misconduct can be found online.In the event of an emergency, call Campus Safety at 716-375-2525 or contact Nichole Gonzalez, Residential Living and Conduct, 716-375-2572, ngonzale@sbu.edu. Be aware that most university employees are mandated reporters.Other ConcernsIf you have any other concerns that affect your ability to succeed in this course – for example, affording costs related to the class, having regular shelter and food, dealing with mental health issues, etc. – please let me know, and I will do what I can to help.WRIT 101 – ScheduleDateMajor Due Dates; Homework (due day listed); In classM 8/27Introduction to CourseW 8/29Read Burke, Frost (Moodle); NotesF 8/31WordPress Assignment due; NotesM 9/3Read Jamison (.pdf on Moodle)W 9/5Read Coates; Discuss passagesF 9/7Read MogelsonM 9/10Short Analysis due?W 9/12Read Nabokov (Moodle), Gay, and?haiku activityF 9/14Read Kelly (and here and here), Ellis; Notes On Close ReadingM 9/17Literary Analysis due; Analysis SamplesW 9/19Read “Writing Poetry” handout; bring draft of Analysis Paper to classF 9/21Analysis Paper due for peer reviews in classM 9/24ConferencesW 9/26ConferencesF 9/28Analysis Paper revisions dueM 10/1Write draft of poem and read Guidelines for WorkshoppingW 10/3Poetry workshopF 10/5Poetry workshopW 10/10Poetry workshopF 10/12Creative Writing – Poetry due; Look at Flash Fiction OnlineM 10/15Read from the October issue of Flash Fiction Online (Baker, Cadwallader, and McKimm) and begin writing your own flash fiction; NotesW 10/17Bring draft of flash fiction to class; Flash Fiction Invention ActivitiesF 10/19Flash fiction workshopM 10/22Flash fiction workshopW 10/24Flash fiction workshopF 10/26Flash fiction workshopM 10/29Creative Writing – Flash Fiction due; WordPress Activity and NotesW 10/31Read Febos here and here; NotesF 11/2Read Chaffee; NotesM 11/5Bring draft of Nonfiction Writing to class for invention activityW 11/7Nonfiction Writing due for peer reviewsF 11/9ConferencesM 11/12ConferencesW 11/14Nonfiction Writing revisions due; Discuss remediation (video and interactive fiction)F 11/16Read first “Interview with William S. Burroughs” and read about Fair UseM 11/19Complete draft of Interactive Storytelling with Twine; Discuss Electronic PortfolioM 11/26Complete outline for A/V component of the Remediation Project (should include the text you will remediate and the images and audio you will incorporate); A/V workshop; discuss ZainoW 11/28Work dayF 11/30Work dayM 12/3Remediation due for peer reviewsW 12/5ConferencesF 12/7Remediation due, Electronic Portfolio dueWordPress AssignmentThis first short assignment will require two steps. One of our main assignments this semester ("Electronic Portfolio") will involve developing a website that you create and use specifically for this class. I will ask you to use the same platform I use for my website: WordPress. (You can potentially use a different platform, such as Weebly or Wix, but I won’t be able to offer as much support for these.)To get started, think about what you would like to name your site. You don’t necessarily need to share this site beyond our class, so you are welcome to use a name that is mainly functional or fun. You might consider using this as the foundation of a professional site (something you use beyond this class), and in that case, it would help to use your name for the site or something else that captures your professional identity.Once you have decided on a name, register your own WordPress site. For our class purposes, there is no need to pay for anything, although you are welcome to do so for your own purposes if you would like to register your domain name or get more functionality. You can start playing around to your heart’s content (this overview might help), and we’ll discuss WP together soon.The second step of this assignment asks you to create a new page or post on your site. This short writing (500-900 words) asks you to reflect on our readings from Burke and Frost. Your thinking should address the following prompts and questions. Feel free to take advantage of the functionality offered by WordPress (adding links, embedding images or videos, etc.) however you are inspired.Kenneth Burke's thinking on "orientation" helps us consider how our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and values shape and constrain our ways of encountering and responding to the world around us. These "bundles of judgments" help us see the world in a particular way, but they also function as "trained incapacities" that limit our perspectives. How would you describe your orientation? What are some of the main influences shaping your thinking about the world, whether familial, educational, social, political, religious, personal (coming from within), or otherwise? What attitudes, values, and beliefs have these influences instilled in you? In what ways does this orientation function as a trained incapacity? What types of people, experiences, or perspectives are you less likely to listen to or seek out or recognize because of your orientation toward the world?More specifically, how would you describe your orientation toward writing? What role does writing play in your life? What does writing mean to you? What makes writing unique as a mode of communication, expression, or connecting with others?Following Frost's thinking, what metaphor would you use to describe writing? What is writing like? Where does the metaphor work, and where does it break down?Short AnalysisFor this short assignment (700-1000 words), you should analyze one of our class readings from last week: Jamison, Coates, or Mogelson. Submit your work by adding it as a post or a page to your class site.Our efforts toward analysis here should aim for "closeness" as Frost understands the term. We want to better understand this author's thinking, how they put this and that together, how they say one thing in terms of another. We're also interested in Burke's understanding of "orientation," so we want to get at the author's orientation and how the text embodies judgments, beliefs, and attitudes. Toward this end, your work and writing should address the following prompts and questions. You don’t have to address every specific question, but you should address each bullet point in some way.First, pick one of the readings and identify what you consider to be the main aim or purpose of the text (we could say main argument, idea, or theme here as well). What is the author interested in, and why? What do they have to say about this topic? What perspective do they offer?Next, identify a specific aspect of the text that you find significant in some way. This could be a specific word or sentence; it could be a series of related words or sentences; it could be some aspect of how the author develops their thinking or argument; it could be related to structure or style. Explain why this aspect of the text is significant, how it adds to the text and how it contributes to the author’s purpose. What is this aspect of the text doing? How does it contribute to our understanding of the text?Next, assess the uses and limits of the text. What makes this text valuable, useful, or interesting? How does it contribute to a larger conversation about the topic? Do you see any limits in the text, anything it misses or any ways it could be developed further?It will likely help to include quotes from the text, and you should incorporate citations if you do (either MLA or APA). The following prompts might also be helpful. You are not required to address them, but you can if they help you develop your ideas and analysis further.Why do you think the author wrote this text? What interests them about this topic? What is their orientation toward the topic? What do you learn about the author’s orientation in general through this text?What did the author have to do to produce this text? What do they draw on in terms of experience, ideas, research, etc.? What aspects of the writing do you think were challenging or easy for the writer, fun or difficult?Who do you think the author wrote this text for? Who would be interested in this text and why? What sort of effect might this text have on readers?How does this text compare to other things you’ve read about this topic?Literary AnalysisFor this short assignment (500-800 words), you should analyze one of our literary readings: the Gay or Ellis story or a Kelly or Frost poem or a haiku.Our efforts toward analysis here should aim for “closeness” as Frost understands the term. We want to better understand this author’s thinking, how they put this and that together, how they say one thing in terms of another. Like Nabokov, we want to fondle the details to feel in our spines what sort of world the author has created. Toward this end, your work and writing should address the following prompts and questions.First, pick one of the readings, and then find some aspect of the text – an image, a passage, a sentence, a word, a pattern of words or images – that you think is important (even if you’re not sure why it’s important yet).What’s going on in this aspect of the text? Why is this particular use of language significant? How is the author using language in a particular way? How does it shape our orientation toward and understanding of the text?How does this passage contribute to the text overall? How does it help create the world of the text? How does it work to support a theme, idea, or effect of the text?Again, our goal here is closeness, so you should thoroughly and precisely explain what aspects of the passage are important and how so. We should end up with a better understanding of what the passage is about and how it contributes to the text overall.Analysis PaperOur first substantial paper (1400-2000 words) asks you to build on our close reading practices from the Short Analysis and the Literary Analysis. You are welcome to use your work from one or both of those papers as the foundation for this Analysis Paper, or you can analyze a different text. Either way, we will be working toward further developing our close reading and analysis skills, and we will still be addressing the questions and concerns we addressed in the short assignments.So, as you analyze the text, you should still ground your thinking in the close reading of specific passages and make connections between these passages and the larger purpose or meaning of the text. This paper can build on your work from the Short Analysis or the Literary Analysis by addressing one or both of the following sets of prompts and questions:Address other passages from the text. Do a close reading of the new passage(s) and then put this work into conversation with your thinking from the short assignment. How do the passages connect? How are they similar or different? How do they both contribute to the larger purpose of the text? Do the passages reinforce one another, expand on each other, or take our thinking in different directions?Put multiple texts into conversation with one another. What do we learn by looking at the texts together? How do they offer us different understandings of or approaches to a particular idea or concept? (For example, all of our articles take up questions of how and whether we should identify with people, how we should address suffering. Kelly's poems all take up human concerns like loneliness and love with reference to animals.) What happens when we apply one reading to another, when we look at one reading through the lens of another?Again, our goal here is closeness, so you should thoroughly and precisely explain what aspects of the texts are important and how so. We should end up with a better understanding of the specific passages you address and how they contribute to the text overall.You should include a list of references or works cited at the end of your writing, and your work should be posted on your class site.Creative Writing – Poetry This assignment consists of three parts: a poem, a reflection on your work and the revision process, and a formal response to a classmate's poem. The poem and reflection should be submitted on your class site. The formal response will be submitted as a hardy copy in class.PoemYour poem should be 5-30 lines. If you want to write haiku or other short poems, you should write multiple poems to get to the minimum line requirement, and there should be some sort of thematic or narrative connection between the poems. The maximum line requirement applies as well, both for the sake of our available time to workshop our poems and so that you can better focus your attention and ideas. If you write more than 30 lines, we might need to focus on part of the poem in our workshop.There are no particular constraints on the subject matter or language of your poem, but please be mindful and respectful of your classmates in terms of what you are asking them to read. For further thoughts and activities to help you develop your poem, see this handout.ReflectionYour writing in the reflection (400-700 words) should address the following prompts and questions:What were you hoping to achieve in your poem? Did you want to tell a particular story? Capture a particular feeling or experience? Create a particular mood? Convey a particular message? To what extent did you achieve this goal? In what ways was your poem most successful? What are its main limitations?Explain your choices about your use of language. What words in the poem are most important to you? Why did you choose them? How about things like line length, rhythm, and rhyme? Why did you craft the poem in the way that you did?What changes did you make to your poem through the revision process? Why?Which poem(s) from your classmates did you find most successful? What did you like about the poem(s)? What was most successful - engaging, moving, insightful, beautiful, etc. - about them?ResponseThe expectations for your response to a classmate are detailed here. On the day that you offer a formal response, you should bring two hard copies of the response: one for your classmate and one for me.Creative Writing – Flash FictionThis assignment consists of three parts: a short story (flash fiction), a reflection on your work and the revision process, and a formal response to a classmate’s story. The story and reflection should be submitted on your class site. The formal response will be submitted as a hard copy in class.Flash FictionYour piece should be 300-1000 words. This range is strict - if you are under, you need to add to the story; if you are over, you need to cut it down. You are welcome to take your story in any direction as long as it is appropriate and respectful (but it's okay to assume we're all adults; in this sense, profanity and dark subject matter would be okay, but racism and misogyny aren't). Your story will benefit from attending to a range of concerns, including character, story, theme, structure, dialog, voice, and style.ReflectionYour writing in the reflection (400-700 words) should address the following prompts and questions:What were you hoping to achieve in your story? Did you want to tell a particular story? Capture a particular feeling or experience? Create a particular mood? Convey a particular message? To what extent did you achieve this goal? In what ways was your story most successful? What are its main limitations?Explain your choices about your use of language. What words in the story are most important to you? Why did you choose them? How about things like narrative, description, and dialogue? Why did you craft the story in the way that you did?What changes did you make to your story through the revision process? Why?Which stories from your classmates did you find most successful? What did you like about the stories? What was most successful about them?ResponseThe expectations for your response to a classmate are detailed here. On the day that you offer a formal response, you should bring two hard copies of the response: one for your classmate and one for me.Nonfiction WritingFor our purposes, “nonfiction” writing will involve a combination of personal narrative or storytelling with reflection and analysis. This is a variation on “creative nonfiction” and “memoir” writing. In this sense, you will be drawing on actual events and experiences, but you will not be simply reporting them (as with journalism) or just describing your experience (as you might with a personal journal). We want to take up our experience as something we can reflect on and learn from, something that allows us to address bigger concepts and questions. Our readings from Febos and Chaffee offer examples in this direction.Your work on the Nonfiction Writing paper (minimum 1000 words) should address the following prompts:Your writing should in some way draw upon your experience, taking up things that have happened to you, things you’ve done, things you’ve witnessed or observed, or things that have been related to you. The experience you focus on could be personal, difficult, or traumatic; it could be more mundane or ordinary; it could be a shared public experience (think of how Chaffee draws on national events). Part of your writing should involve describing and discussing this experience.Your writing should in some way reflect upon this experience to see what sorts of insights we gain from it. You might gain insights into yourself as a person, into some aspect of our society and culture, or into some idea or concept or question (Febos, for example, helps us think about how our attitudes toward stalking emphasize the desires and internal lives of men rather than the threat to women). You should thus move from your specific experience and observations to broader questions, insights, and conclusions.This is not a requirement, but you can also look for opportunities to make connections with other texts, events, or examples (again, Chaffee connects her experience to national tragedies; Febos draws on other authors, movies, and interviews). These sorts of connections can help add context to your experience and thus help you further analyze it and situate it in a broader conversation.Post your work to your class website before class the day it is due. If you do draw on outside sources, be sure to cite them at the end of your writing.Remediation ProjectThis project asks you to use digital technologies and platforms to remediate other texts. The notion of remediation helps us think about how new media forms and technologies draw and extend on older technologies, simultaneously producing something new and allowing us to see previous technologies and texts in a new light. We will practice remediation by drawing on tools and technologies related to audio and video production and then interactive storytelling, giving you the opportunity to transform and rework texts that you produced earlier in the semester or texts from outside of our class.This project has two parts, each of which should be accessible on your class site in some way. For the A/V component, you have two main options. First, you can post your video to YouTube or Vimeo and then embed the video or include a link on your website. Otherwise, you can submit your video through a class folder on Dropbox and then include the Dropbox share link on your site. NOTE: In order to upload your video to YouTube, Vimeo, or Dropbox, you will need to produce it as an .mov, .mp4, .avi, or similar file. It will not work if you try to use the iMovie or Final Cut Pro or other program file, as this file opens up your work in the program rather than a stand alone video.To submit your interactive storytelling work from Twine, you will need to "publish to file" from the menu on the lower left corner of the screen in order to generate an html file. You can then upload this file to a site like philome.la so that your work is playable/readable for others, and you can then post that link to your site. (Philome.la requires a Twitter account; if you don't have one, you can use the class account: mrking@sbu.edu, password = bonaventure .)A/V WorkThis aspect of the project involves producing and editing audio and video. The first challenge is choosing a text to remediate. I would recommend working with your flash fiction or poem or nonfiction writing, although you could also work with one of our other assignments or something written by someone else. For the audio aspect, you can record yourself reading the text and/or incorporate background music; for the video component, you can have the words of the text on the screen (if this works better than reading and recording the text) and/or images and video footage. In this sense, how can you use images and audio to enhance the original text, to create contrast or tension, to highlight a particular element of the text, or to comment upon it in some way?This handout offers an overview of resources and technologies you can draw on to produce your video. This example could help you develop ideas for this part of the assignment.Interactive StorytellingThis component involves working with Twine to produce a text with hyperlinks so that the story unfolds over multiple screens and in different ways depending on the reader's selections. Again, I would recommend working with your flash fiction or another story or poem you have written, although you could potentially work with one of our other assignments or a work written by someone else. For example, you could use Twine to annotate or comment upon another text as a means of performing rhetorical or literary analysis. Your use of Twine will likely take one of two approaches: you will either have one main text that appears on one screen with other pieces branching off (for example, "Not So Once Upon a Time") or a series of screens that take the reader in different directions, like a choose-your-own-adventure story (for example, "Beautiful Dreamer"). The main question here becomes, how can you create opportunities for the reader to interact with the text and shape its development in meaningful ways?Extra CreditOne of challenges we face when writing in digital environments and drawing on the work of others is addressing concerns of fair use and accessibility. You will get a 1/3 letter grade bonus on your project if you include a written component that addresses these concerns. To address accessibility, you should provide a transcript of your video. You can find an overview of best practices for transcription here. Note that transcriptions go beyond just transcribing words to include descriptions of music, images, or other textual elements. Here’s an example. To address fair use, you should write a paragraph or two commenting on your use of outside materials. Where did you incorporate the work of others into your project? How would you defend your use of these materials with reference to the principles of fair use?Electronic PortfolioThe electronic portfolio includes two components. First, your class website itself will be considered in its totality: your completion and inclusion of all assignments on the site and then any efforts you make toward exploring and developing the site's functionality and visual appeal. In terms of functionality and visual appeal, you can attend to concerns like theme, layout, site organization, use of embedded content (links, videos, images, etc.), widgets, and additional pages or components that further develop your online persona and/or professional identity. While there is not a set requirement in terms of what all you include on your page, your portfolio grade will benefit from evidence that you have put time and effort into developing your site.Next, your portfolio submission should include one last post, page, or attachment that reflects on the site and your work throughout the semester. Your reflection should be at least 700-1000 words, and it should address the following prompts and questions (not necessarily every last question, but every bullet point in some way).How have you developed as a writer this semester? Where has your work been most effective this semester? Least effective? How so? How has it most improved?How would you describe the similarities and differences between the different types of writing we have done this semester - rhetorical analysis, literary analysis, creative writing (poetry and flash fiction), nonfiction writing, and digital writing? How do they open up different possibilities for critical thinking, persuasion, expression, and creativity? How has your understanding of writing changed this semester? What are the main points or insights you will take away from the class?Comment on your site itself. What have you tried to accomplish through developing its functionality and visual appeal? What sort of effect are you going for? How do you hope readers will engage with and respond to your site? Is there any way you would like to develop your site further if you had more time and/or technical expertise? What about your site are you most happy with, most proud of? ................
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