Links

• Moodle

Course Description

WRT 3086 is a creative writing workshop with emphasis on stories of real life, balancing artistry and accuracy. May include personal essay, autobiography or travel literature. Prerequisite: completion of the university writing foundation requirement. 4 credits. WRT 3086 general education attributes.

Required Texts

Readings will be provided.

Specific Course Outcomes

In this course, students will:

• Define creative nonfiction as a genre of prose and multimedia storytelling.
• Apply principles of effective creative nonfiction while producing critical analysis of creative nonfiction and authoring original creative nonfiction works.
• Engage with diverse storytelling traditions from traditionally non-academic cultures Learn to address social justice issues through memoir projects that engage with privilege, systemic injustice, and diversity.
• Learn to appreciate and employ linguistic diversity in nonfiction writing.
• Identify personal, professional, ethical, and societal implications of creative nonfiction.
• Identify their own strengths, motivations, processes, and revision strategies as writers of creative nonfiction and participants in writers’ workshops.
• Develop a range of strategies for evaluating and applying creative nonfiction techniques in a variety of contexts such as for personal reflection, social action, literary publication, scholarly publication, or high-risk situations (applications, grant proposals, certification tests, etc).
• Engage with the personal stories and storytelling traditions of diverse groups, including women, BIPOC, disabled, and LGBTQ+ authors.

Course Policies

• Late Assignments. All work should be submitted well before the deadline in order to avoid last minute complications. Major projects will be marked down by 10% for every day they are late, and if they are not submitted within six days (including weekends) after the deadline, they will receive an F. Weekly forum posts, responses, and quizzes must be completed by the deadline or they will be graded 0.
  
  That's the hard policy, but if we've learned anything from this pandemic, it's that sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. This is one reason why I'm trying out contract grading this semester: it gives you some room to miss assignments. You don't have to complete every assignment to earn a final grade of A in this class, and mistakes you make along the way aren't going to hurt your grade. You still need to do the work and turn it in on time, but if this class is causing you anxiety, please let me know. Anxiety isn't the goal here—creativity is.
• Course format. This is an online, writing-intensive course. In an online course, you are expected to participate in asynchronous activities, such as online discussions, web assignments, or quizzes. These are activities that don’t require the entire class to meet in the traditional sense; instead, you are expected to participate anytime prior to the deadline for that activity. Course homework will include reading assignments and the development of two major projects, which will be extensively revised. You will also be expected to keep up with and write critically about course readings. 
  
  Course work (class activities that might normally take place in a classroom) will include forum and journal responses where you will respond to texts (published and in-process works), develop drafts, and workshop ideas. Asynchronous online class work should account for just under 4 hours of your time every week. Homework assignments (readings and viewing assignments, as well as revisions of major projects) will be equivalent to about 3 hours of additional “out-of class” (home)work. 
• Attendance.  There will be no formal attendance policy in this class. Instead, your engagement will be measured by you completing all online class assignments by the deadlines. You are responsible for being aware of all due dates indicated in the course materials and for routinely checking Moodle for updates and announcements. Because this is an interactive class where peer response is a vital part of your learning, you are required to complete the online course work. 
• Academic Conduct Policy. Cheating on examinations; plagiarism; falsifying reports/records; and unauthorized collaboration, access, or modifying of computer programs are considered serious breaches of academic conduct. The Oakland University policy on academic conduct will be strictly followed with no exceptions. Please see the OU Undergraduate Catalog section “Academic Policies and Procedures” for more details. 
• Peer Review and Sharing Your Work. The grades you earn in your Writing and Rhetoric classes are confidential. However, the texts you produce in our online class may be shared with your classmates as a part of our regular peer review process. Always assume that the work you compose in our online class is public, not private.
• Social Practices. Social practices are rhetorical practices, and I expect you all to maintain the highest level of social, rhetorical, and ethical behavior in this online class. This includes
  • your contributions to online class forums, peer review activities, and group projects;
  • your commitment to submitting timely and complete work;
  • your ethos as a respectful citizen of the online classroom and as a thoughtful rhetor in all online class communications; and
  • your capacity for successful collaboration with others.
• Etiquette. Because this is an online class, it is occasionally possible to forget that you are dealing with other human beings when you respond to forum posts and paper drafts. While you will be required to respond with advice and suggestions to your peers, to keep the conversation going, and to contribute to one another’s learning in the class, you should also employ a few humanizing strategies before you respond to an online post. In this class, you should get into the habit of doing the following:
  • Read your classmates’ forum posts or paper drafts closely and without distractions;
  • Read those posts generously, imagining the work your classmate put into the post and their hopes for the way that work will be received by readers.
  • Read those posts carefully, because it can be easy to focus so much on what you want to write back to a classmate that you forget to pay attention to what they’re actually saying with their post.
  • Practice studied silence by setting aside enough time to read your classmates’ forum posts and, if necessary, take a break to reflect before you write back to them. This will give your brain an opportunity to process the work and lead you to write better, kinder, more engaged, and helpful responses.
  • Use your classmate’s preferred name and pronoun. Our identities are tied closely to our names and pronouns—they are how we interact with the world, how we are called into this world—so begin your response by finding out how your classmate prefers to be called (Jimmy or James, Betsy or Byron) and what pronouns they prefer that you use when speaking of them.
  • Set the right tone for response by starting and ending your response to a classmate with specific praise for their writing, research, ideas, or perspectives. You may offer some general praise (“Good introduction to your paper!), but that by itself isn't terribly helpful unless you follow it up with something specific (“Good introduction to your paper! I think your story explaining how you struggled in your anatomy class until the day you broke your leg and realized you wanted to become a doctor shows readers who you are and what happens when you are motivated to succeed.”)
  • Reread and revise your responses at least once, paying attention to your tone and the substance of advice or response you’re offering. In an online class, your classmates’ can’t see your facial expressions or hear the inflection in your voice. These are important cues in spoken discourse and without them, our readers may misunderstand our intent or be hurt by what we say. Feel free to use emoticons in your responses (smiley faces, laughing faces, etc) to ensure that your responses aren’t misread.
  • Similarly, you should avoid, at all costs, the following behaviors when responding to anyone in our online class:
    • Using ALL CAPS;
    • Using disrespectful language—no slurs, insults, profanity, abusive, racist or sexist language;
    • Appearing hostile;
    • Using sarcasm (it rarely works in written form and can be easily misinterpreted);
    • Failing to respect personal boundaries—while I hope we’ll all get to know each other this semester, you should avoid oversharing or asking others to share intimate details of their lives.
• Revision Policy. Each project you complete in this online class will develop over the course of several weeks. You will brainstorm, freewrite, sketch, or discuss early ideas for your projects; develop early drafts that your peers and I will provide you with feedback on; and revise those drafts to turn them in for a “final” grade. For your first major project in this class (Unit 1), you will also have the option to revise for a different final grade.
• Reflection Policy. For the two major projects that you complete in this online class, you will compose a reflection analyzing the process you used to develop that project, the ways you tailored your project to meet the demands of your audience, and how you incorporated (or chose not to incorporate) peer and instructor feedback into your final revision of that project. At the end of the semester, you will compose a final reflection analyzing the work you have done and what you have learned throughout the semester. 
• Add/Drops. The University add/drop policy will be explicitly followed. It is the student’s responsibility to be aware of the University deadline dates for dropping this course.
• Accommodations. Students with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations should make an appointment with OU’s Disability Support Services office by calling (248) 370-3266 or TTY: (248) 370-3268; faxing (248) 370-4989; or e-mailing dss@oakland.edu. The DSS provides Faculty Notification Letters detailing approved services. Students are responsible for delivering these letters to their professors and are encouraged to discuss specific arrangements for reasonable accommodations with their professors. Please see the DSS website for more information.
• Bereavement Policy. Oakland University and the Department of Writing and Rhetoric recognizes that bereavement is a difficult life event. The University and Department also recognize the necessity of taking time to grieve and fulfill social or family obligations, and not doing so may negatively impact students’ study and transition back to a normal routine. In the event of the death of certain members of students’ families or loved ones, please notify your course instructor and the Dean of Students office (in the OC) so that we may grant you necessary bereavement absences.
• Mental Health Policy. Oakland University is committed to advancing the mental health and well-being of its students. If you or someone you know is feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and/or in need of support, services are available. For help, contact the OU Counseling Center at Graham Health at (248) 370-3465. Student resources can also be found by clicking on Student Health & Safety Resources on the Dean of Students webpage.
• Religious Observances. Students should discuss with the professor at the beginning of the semester to make appropriate arrangements. Although Oakland University, as a public institution, does not observe religious holidays, it will continue to make every reasonable effort to help students avoid negative academic consequences when their religious obligations conflict with academic requirements.  See The OU Diversity Calendar for more information. 
• Preferred Name Policy. OU’s Preferred Name Policy ensures a student’s university records can use a name that reflects the student’s identity (abbreviated name, name change etc.). In addition, if you prefer to go by a different pronoun, please let me know. Names and pronouns are deeply personal, tied to our identities, and we will do a lot of personal writing in this class, so please let us all know the name and pronouns that you feel most comfortable with, and please respect your classmates' choices of name and pronouns. I (Dr. Nugent) prefer the pronouns he/him for myself.

Writing Support

Writing Center: The Oakland University Writing Center is open to OU students, faculty, and staff in all disciplines at any stage of the writing process. The center provides writers with an interested and supportive audience of well-trained consultants who help both novices and experts develop ideas and revise drafts into polished products. Students in WRT classes are strongly encouraged to visit the Writing Center. 

Students who wish to have additional support for their writing (in a writing and rhetoric course or any other writing or writing intensive course across the university) should consider registering for the 1-credit course WRT 1000: Supervised Study. WRT 1000 provides students with weekly one-on-one meetings with a writing and rhetoric instructor who can help them design their research, develop drafts, and revise. These meetings are scheduled for a time that is convenient for the student.

Grading

I will be using labor-based contract grading to assess all work in this class. This means that it will be within your power to determine what grade you wish to earn because, instead of relying on rubrics and grading standards to calculate your grades on our work together, I will be giving you either full credit or no credit for the assignments you complete. I have built in some missable assignments into the contract, so you will be able to choose your own path through the work and, more importantly, since this is a writing class, you will be able to take some risks with your writing without being penalized.

Later on, I will post resources explaining what contract grading is and why I prefer to apply this method in my advanced writing classes.  But for me, the best argument for using contract grading in a creative nonfiction class comes from a Ted Talk by Sir Ken Robinson titled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" While the entire video is worth experiencing, this line stands out to me as especially significant to the work we will do this semester: “We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it.” Grades play a pretty big role in educating the creativity out of us as we all work towards exactly the same standards and exactly the same outcomes. Rather than prioritizing standards and outcomes, we will pursue a number of course goals together, and you will also have the freedom to set some of your own goals for your writing in this class.

Contract grading will allow you to experiment, play, and take some creative risks without the fear of damaging your grade in this class or hurting your GPA overall. If you are someone who always worries about grades, this might be a difficult transition for you, but I hope you'll find contract grading more liberating as you focus on the goals you set for yourself and forget rubrics, evaluation criteria, and carefully parsed grades (for example, "Why did I get a 89% on this one weekly activity rather than an 93%?").

Here's how contract grading works. You and I will focus on your learning. You will complete a certain number of assignments (fulfilling the requirements for those assignments) to receive grades in each of the categories below (adding up to 100% possible). If you choose to complete fewer assignments or you don't fulfill the requirements for those assignments, you will receive a lower percentage. I will post a grading contract sheet in week 2, and I will ask you to post your own contract, shared just between you and me, by week 3. You may change your mind, adjust your own expectations for your work as the semester moves on, of course, but this initial contract will be something you can use to keep a check on how you're doing in the class. We'll meet one-on-one around mid-semester to discuss how you're doing with your grading contract and make any adjustments we both think are necessary for you to learn the material and grow as a writer.

The final grade will be weighted as follows:

Your grade for the online activities category will be determined by the number of missing or incomplete activities, which are worth 2, 3, or 4 penalty points depending on the nature of the activity.