Week One: Introductions
Welcome to Advanced Nonfiction! This week, you will be oriented to the course, meet your classmates, and compile a portfolio of the work you have done up to class to prepare a plan for the semester. |
This semester we will work together to revise work you have already done, add to existing work, and reshape our pieces to develop either 1) one longer piece (30 pp. for undergrads, 50 pp. for grads) or 2) a series of shorter works on a similar theme (same pages lengths). The goal is to revise with publication in mind.
In addition to revision, we will read works by four published authors to study the craft of writing. Because one cannot write well without reading well, we will read some of the most beautiful, sharply crafted, and funny work that the nonfiction world has to offer. To get started, watch this Week One Welcome Video and read the assignments below before jumping in to our work together this term. |
1.1 Introductory Discussion Board
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If you have taken an online course before, you will be familiar with the introductory discussion board.
For this introduction, I would like you to write the description that would go into your first nonfiction book. So, pretend that you are writing the blurb that your readers will read at the beginning or end of your first published piece. Imagine what you will write when you are ready to put your first longer work into print. To complete this discussion board:
This week's discussion board not only allows you to get to know your classmates; it also provides practice in completing the "engagement" portion of the discussion board requirements. I do not grade for a particular number of posts. Instead, I evaluate whether or not you are engaging with your classmates, responding to those who post to your initial thread, and engaging others on their threads. You don't have to comment on EVERY thread, but you do need to respond to others when they respond to you. Think of the discussion boards just as you would face-to-face discussion. If you were in an on-campus class, and you came in for the first 5 minutes of class, made a few comments, and then got up and walked out when others replied to you, you would probably be counted absent. Attending this class is showing up for AND participating in discussion. So use this discussion board to familiarize yourself with subscribing and with the practice of online engagement. If you have questions about how this discussion works, please post them in the Q & A Discussion Board (to which you can subscribe as well) so that the class can benefit from the question and my answer. |
1.2 Introductory Portfolio |
For your first "major" assignment of the term, I would like you to share your writing with me in a portfolio. You will use this portfolio to work from throughout the class. You will also use this assignment to set some initial goals for what you would like to accomplish in the class. My goal is to help you generate 30-50 pages of polished, publication-ready nonfiction. But how you get to that goal is up to you!
You can share nonfiction that you don't necessarily plan to focus on during the class. You might find that you will change your mind, or when I read it, I could find a hidden gem that you don't see as the author. If you are new to using Google Drive, please watch this tutorial to get started. To complete this portfolio: Step One--Add Previous Work
In a separate Google Document (see the above video if you have never created a Google Document), you will need to introduce me to your work. In doing so, please answer the following questions:
Finally, for the last section of your letter, set an intention for your term. For those who do yoga, this will be a familiar practice! For those who don't, setting an intention is basically laying out where you want to be at the end of the class. I will require that you polish/refine 30 or 50 pages (depending on whether you are enrolled in 4317 or 5317). But outside of that, what is YOUR intention for your work. Do you want to create a single, longer work focused on a particular individual? Do you want to create two, shorter pieces that take different perspectives on a single topic? Are you a graduate student preparing to write a nonfiction thesis that would like to get a jump-start on that work? Set your intention for the class as you would like. I will help to guide your path along the way. Step Three--Share your Portfolio with Me Once you have completed all of the above, go into your folder and click the 'Share" button. Be sure to share the whole folder and not just a single piece. For help with this step, see the video tutorial. |