Mar 29, 2024  
2018-2019 Undergraduate Academic Catalog 
    
2018-2019 Undergraduate Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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HU 490 - Creative Nonfiction

2 lecture hours 2 lab hours 3 credits


Course Description
Literary nonfiction borrows from fiction: strong character development, well-developed, nuanced scenes, and a tangible narrative arc. It also bears the hallmarks of good journalism: thorough secondary and primary research, live reporting, and a writer’s intelligent stance. This course meets directly at the intersection of fiction’s energy and journalism’s integrity. The course is also designed to introduce the techniques of storytelling to nonfiction prose pieces, including personal essays, features, commentaries, reviews, reports, journal entries and memoirs. Together, the instructor and the students offer support and critical feedback about each student’s work. Weekly class discussions and writing assignments focus on story principles-such as plot, tension, scene and dialogue-that increase the readability of the work and form the students’ material into publishable pieces.

  (prereq: junior standing, GS 1001 , GS 1002 )


Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  • As a result of taking this course students will:
    • Learn the discipline of the daily writing process;
    • Understand the difference and overlap between fiction and nonfiction;
    • Produce a significant amount of original work;
    • Understand how to edit on macro and micro levels;
    • Learn through the practice of reading, annotating, and discussing the work of their peers;
    • Develop the vocabulary and critical skills necessary for revising creative nonfiction;
    • Learn how to publish nonfiction prose. 

Prerequisites by Topic
  • None

Course Topics
  • Introduction to the genre of creative nonfiction (3 class) 
  • Generating ideas (2 classes) 
  • The difference between fiction and nonfiction (2 class) 
  • Writing about what is true (2 class) 
  • Developing a written voice (1 class) 
  • Finding an audience based on voice (1 class) 
  • Learning to write both qualitatively and quantitatively (3 classes) 
  • Dealing with obstacles such as writer’s block, writer’s discipline, and writer’s doubt (1 class)
  • Stretching authorial limits (2 classes) 
  • Macro-editing (1 class) 
  • Micro-editing (1 class) 
  • Revising, editing, and proofreading (3 classes) 
  • Appling feedback (3 classes) 
  • Knowing when it’s finished (3 classes) 
  • The publication process (3 classes) 

Coordinator
David Howell



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