Welcome to COM107. I’m Mike McGuire, your professor. This is the course syllabus, the most important document of this course. It is this document that lays out all the official policies and procedures of the course. You should really read this document carefully before coming back to our second class meeting, and if you cannot live by what is written here, you might want to reconsider taking this class. Having said that, though, I do hope you’re willing to ride along with me over the next 17 weeks. It’ sure to be a hoot.

What is this course about and who is it for (or not)?

This is a 100-level course in writing literary fiction. It’s an introduction, so if you’ve never tried writing literary fiction before you ought to feel comfortable here. You’ll also feel at home if you’ve been writing for a long time but never have studied the subject formally. This 100-level course is probably not right for you if you’re solely interested in getting feedback and editing advice on your novel from a professor. This course is not really the place, either, for you to work in non-fiction; although you can certainly hone key skills that will help you greatly in that genre, the work you submit for this course needs to be fiction. Furthermore, this course may not be right for you if you want to write “genre fiction” like fantasy, sci-fi, romance, horror, mystery, and so on. While genres certainly can blend with the literary, this is a course in literary fiction, not genre fiction. Distinctions between these will be made early in the course. And finally, this course is not for you if you are not interested in trying new things. It is not a place solely to get affirmation on your work as a writer—work that you don’t plan to revise. You will write and revise in this course; egos shouldn’t get in the way of experimenting.

So, the upshot is you will be asked to write a lot and sometimes very quickly in and out of your comfort zone, to share rough writing with the class, to revise heavily even when you may not want to, and to take and give criticism graciously and with an open mind.

See the “Course Goals” and the “Expected Outcomes for Student Learning” below for more information.

Instructor Information

  • Mike McGuire
  • Office: D115
  • Hours: MW 2:30-3:30 and TR 3:30-4:30
    (note that the Wednesday office hour will be held in the Writing Center – A258)
  • Mailbox: D108
  • Office phone: 708.974.5770
  • e-mail: mcguirem72@morainevalley.edu
  • Personal Web page: writing101.net
  • Course Web page: scribbler.writing101.net

Course Identification

  • Credit hours: 3 semester hours
  • Total contact hours: 3 | Lecture: 3 | Lab: 0
  • Course meets: MW 1:00-2:15 in D230
  • Prerequisite: COM101 with a “C” or higher grade or appropriate placement score
  • Corequisite: none

Textbooks/Materials

The following materials are required for this course:

  • Burroway, Janet and Ellizabeth Stuckey-FrenchWriting Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft. 7th ed. New York: Pearson, 2007. Print.
  • Egan, Jennifer. A Visit from the Goon Squad. New York: Anchor-Random, 2010. Print.
  • Stern, Jerome ed. Microfiction: an Anthology of Really Short Stories. New York: Norton, 1996. Print.
  • Strout, Elizabeth. Olive Kitteridge New York: Random House, 2008. Print.

The following text is optional but recommended:

  • The Five Obstructions. Dir. Jorgen Leth. Perf. Jorgen Leth, Lars Von Trier. Koch Lorber, 2004. DVD.

You will also need the following materials:

  • working e-mail account
  • a willingness to use a computer with Internet access to retrieve course documents as needed, to submit work electronically when requested, and to participate in an online conversation forum as an extension of our regular class meetings
  • an open mind, curiosity, and a desire to learn
  • notebook, pens, etc. (the standard student stuff)
  • sturdy pocket folder to hold your work and everything I hand out in class
  • stapler, as no loose sheets will be accepted (I don’t care if you actually own a stapler; just never turn loose sheets into me and never ask me if I have a stapler with me in class because I won’t. Give me the impression that you spent some time composing and and collecting your work for presentation to me. Not having it ready to offer to someone (complete with a staple as needed) gives me the sense that you were putting it together at the last minute.)
  • some secure means to save and easily transport electronic copies of all your work (e.g. disk, jump drive…)
  • One more thing, I may ask that you bring photocopies of your work for the class and/or print off copies of your peers’ work on workshop days, so factor that in as part of the cost for this course.

Course Goals

This course is a place for serious language play. Specifically, we will pursue the following goals:

  • To get into the habit of reading fiction and considering how stories are crafted. That means you’ll come to understand the techniques writers employ to achieve certain effects.
  • To discover some fiction writing “moves” as well as some strategies for beginning, developing, revising, and editing story drafts; be ready to experiment with different approaches and try new things.
  • To get comfortable with membership in a community of writers, which means you’ll share your work with others and learn to critique texts as well as work with criticism you receive. You will also practice presenting your fiction formally and learn to join the community of writers beyond the classroom.

Expected Outcomes for Student Learning

By the end of the term the student should be able to:

  • interpret works by various writers
  • acquire a working vocabulary with which to discuss fiction
  • recognize a range of possible genres
  • analyze the connections between story elements and ideas
  • generate ideas using a variety of techniques
  • make choices about the presentation of the elements of fiction
  • revise drafts at the thematic level
  • polish drafts for errors in grammar and mechanics
  • assess feedback gained in a workshop setting and plan revisions in response to feedback
  • research and analyze potential markets for one’s work

Policies and Procedures

General Information: The General Information Sheet contains standard institutional policies, procedures, and key dates. (Click the link.)

Withdraw Policy: A student who does not withdraw officially from a course may receive a grade of “F,” depending on course progress or course attendance, which will become a part of the students permanent record. The official final withdraw date for this course is listed on the General Information Sheet.

Final Exams: The exam is taken during the final week of the course as listed on the course outline/schedule. It is schedule in accordance with the official Final Exam Schedule.

Attendance and Participation Policy: Students are expected to promptly attend, thoroughly prepare for, and actively participate in class meetings. If you are regularly absent, you are not taking the course and you should withdraw or you will earn a failing grade. Attendance and punctuality are mandatory for this course. The attendance policy is straightforward: if you miss 4 classes the highest grade you can hope to earn in the course is a C (see the grading contract below for more information); if you miss 6 or more classes you will not be able to earn anything more than a F for the course. As always, feel free to communicate with me regarding any extraordinary challenges you are having, but note that, barring extraordinary circumstances, there are no excused absences.

On time arrival is also required for this course. It is very disruptive to the learning environment when students come in late for class. It disrupts instruction, distracts other students, and creates unnecessary difficulties in trying to integrate late arriving students into the class activities already underway. Arriving late is disrespectful, disruptive, and immature. Late arrival will not be tolerated. Two late arrivals to class (less than 15 minutes) will count as one full absence. (Early departure will be treated like a late arrival.) If you miss more than 15 minutes of a class meeting, it will count as a full absence. Just don’t be late. Life is so much easier that way.

Academic Responsibility: Good academic work must be based on honesty. Students who are guilty of an act of academic dishonesty such as plagiarism or cheating will fail the assignment. A student is guilty of plagiarism, intentional or not, if he or she copies material from any source without identifying and acknowledging it. Plagiarism constitutes a major violation of the rules and conventions of academic writing; it will at the very least result in failure for the assignment and will quite likely result in failure for the course. The instructor reserves the right to deal with plagiarism and other acts of academic dishonesty on a case-by-case basis.

A Few Additional Notes on Plagiarism: One commits plagiarism whenever one submits a paper he or she has not actually written, or when the individual presents information that comes from a source without crediting it with both a in-text citation and a works-cited page entry at the end of the paper. Specifically, plagiarism occurs under the following five conditions:

  • When a paper written by someone else is purchased, borrowed or stolen and is submitted as the writer’s work.
  • When someone else is hired to write an assignment and then this purchased work is claimed as the writer’s.
  • When someone else writes the paper for no pay, and then the work is claimed as the writer’s.
  • When a writer copies specific words, sentences, paragraphs, and/or graphics, pieces them together without crediting the actual sources, and then submits this cut-and-paste exercise as a “researched” paper.
  • When the writer commits any of the shoddy documentation errors the umbrella term plagiarism is commonly considered to cover: uncredited factual detail, uncredited graphic aids, inadequate paraphrase, incorrect quotation technique, incorrect or improperly documented source, misrepresented or manipulated source.

I have a zero tolerance policy on plagiarism. If you wish to avoid the severe penalties associated with plagiarism, you must properly handle and document any information that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

As your instructor, I also reserve the right to request that you present to me all source material that you’ve used for a given paper. Upon such request, if you fail to clearly present to me all source material by the next class meeting so that I can readily evaluate your handling and documentation of it, you may receive an F for the assignment. So, document your sources meticulously and be prepared to present them clearly for evaluation if asked.

If you have any concerns about your use of sources, ASK me right away. I am here to help. Ignorance is no excuse. If you don’t ask, you have only yourself to blame.

Code of Conduct: Each student is responsible for adhering to the Code of Student Conduct as stated in the college catalog.

Cell Phone/Pager Policy: Telephones and pagers may not be used and must be silenced during class. Any students who fail to adhere to this policy will be asked to leave the class. The college policy regarding cell phones and pagers is included in the General Information Sheet.

Revision Policy: Revision is essential to the creative, writing, and thinking process. However, as we are faced with certain real-word constraints in our academic environment, we have to work with the time we have. This course is set up to allow you plenty of time to revise prior to offer any polished work for assessment. We will workshop early drafts in class, you will have the opportunity to conference one-on-one with me regarding your developing work, and then you will submit the bulk of your work as part of a portfolio project. Given these opportunities, I will not allow you to revise your work for a revised grade once the final work is submitted. Again, however, I am willing to meet with you to discuss any of the major assignments before they are due. In fact, I encourage this. I would be happy to discuss your draft work with you and give you as much feedback as possible. This kind of feedback, though, may require a meeting outside of regular class times. If at anytime you’d like to have such a meeting, let me know.

Late Assignment Policy: Assignments are due as scheduled on the course schedule. All reading and written work must be completed on schedule. I will not accept work that is late.

Policy Changes and Amendments: The instructor reserves the right to make changes to any of these course policies if needed. Such changes would be announced in class; the student is responsible for noting such changes.

Understanding How You Earn Your Course Grade

Grading is my least favorite part of this teaching gig–truly, as I think it has little to do with teaching and learning. I’ll spare you my philosophical turmoil on this matter (unless of course you want to talk about it), but suffice it to day I want to try to separate this notion of grading as much as possible from the writing, reading, and conversation we will have in this class. I want you to be able to think and write and explore without worrying about how “good” you are. I want you to be immersed in authentic learning. (I’ll do my best here, but you’ll have to do your part too.)

So, I’ve come up with a way of dealing with the necessary business of grading that I can live with for the moment and that will hopefully be liberating to your learning. It is based on my firm belief that if you engage fully in the writing, reading, and conversation of this course–if you give yourself fully to the process–your writing will improve and you will learn. With this in mind, much of your grade will be based on your level of engagement–of doing–not necessarily on how “good” of a writer you are. The grading system I’ve developed here rewards hard work (i.e. a strong work ethic) and your personal investment in your own learning and the learning of others in the class. Practically, this means two things: 1) You don’t need to be a natural born talented writer to do well in this course; you just need to engage fully and work hard. 2) Good writing alone won’t get you a strong grade in this course; you need to engage fully and work hard. The grading approach we’ll be using is a form of “contract grading,” which I have described below.

The Grading Contract: Your final grade for this course will be based on two things: your participation in class according to the contract outlined below, and the quality of the writing you include in your final portfolio. If you follow the contract for the entire semester, you will receive a B for the course. If, in addition to this, the writing you include in your final portfolio is exceptionally strong, your final grade may be higher. Contract grading is intended to shift your focus productively: it assures you that, if you work hard and complete the contract, you will receive a grade that is above the average. I hope this will permit you to concentrate on improving your writing and engaging fully in this course experience, rather than fretting about grades. Here are the contract details:

To earn a B in this course, you must do the following:

  1. Draft Work—Complete all draft fiction work thoughtfully as assigned and on schedule.
  2. Peer Review Commentary—Complete all peer review commentary thoughtfully and thoroughly as assigned, on schedule, and for at least three of your classmates’ drafts during each peer review week.
  3. Scribbler Contribution—Post under “Playbook Entry” on Scribbler once a week, as assigned and in accordance with requirements made available in class. (These “Playbook Entry” posts should be focused on your literary readings for the course and do not include other postings you will make to Scribbler, i.e. open conversation, work for review, peer review essays, and so on.)
  4. Self-assessments—Complete all self-assessments as assigned, thoroughly and thoughtfully.
  5. Class Activities—Participate in all class activities as assigned beyond regular drafting/revision, peer review, and Scribbler posts.
  6. Conferences—Schedule and keep at least two conferences with the instructor to discuss your writing one on one. One of these conferences must be completed by week 8, and the other by 14. These must be writing conferences, where you come prepared with a draft and are ready to discuss your writing. (Other meetings with the professor are welcomed but do not constitute a writing conference.)
  7. Attendance/Punctuality—Miss no more than three class meetings over the the course of the entire semester. Two late arrivals or early departures of less than 15 minutes each equal one absence. Missing 15 minutes or more of any course constitutes a full absence.
  8. Revision—Use the feedback provided by your instructor and your peer review team to improve your writing. You do not have to make every change suggested by your readers, of course, as readers will sometimes disagree. But you must take all feedback seriously, and your fiction should show evidence of your careful consideration of your readers’ suggestions. In other words, revise thoroughly and thoughtfully. Revision means substantially clarifying your ideas, reorganizing your piece, rethinking your artistic and narrative moves, sharpening your language, adjusting your style, and/or reimagining your relationship to your audience. Even if you have not received thorough feedback from others, make at least one substantial revision for each of your drafts before including the final version as part of your course portfolio. This contract term will be assessed largely after you turn in your final portfolio.
  9. Proofreading/Editing—Proofread final drafts to eliminate distracting surface errors, typos, and careless mistakes. Final drafts should be polished. If you are having trouble regarding matters of mechanics and the like, seek help by talking with a classmate, using a writer’s handbook, and/or meeting with me. This contract term will be assessed after you turn in your final portfolio.
  10. Respect—Show due respect to your classmates and the instructor by using respectful language, taking each other’s ideas seriously, and engaging civilly in the conversation of the course.
  11. Leadership/Helpfulness—Demonstrate leadership and/or helpfulness in the course by offering support, answering questions, and/or providing insight that will help others improve their writing and better understand the course material. This kind of leadership and helpfulness can be demonstrated both in the classroom and through our Scribbler conversation site.
  12. Final Portfolio—Submit a complete “evolutionary portfolio” that meets all the outline requirements by the due date.

Thus you earn the grade of B entirely on the basis of what you do—on your conscientious effort and participation. The grade of B does not derive from my judgment about the quality of your writing (apart from an assessment of demonstrated revision and proofreading). Grades higher than B, however, do rest on my judgment of writing quality. To earn a higher grade you must produce writing—for your final portfolio—that I judge to be of exceptionally high quality (see the criteria below).

To earn an A in this course, you must do the following:

  1. Successfully meet all the terms of the B contract as outlined above
  2. Demonstrate exemplary writing in the final “evolutionary portfolio” for the course, as described by the following criteria:
For “A” quality work: The assignment’s requirements are met. The writing reveals the strengths of considered revision. The individual narrative works and related assignments included in the portfolio are completed with accuracy and depth. Specific and compelling insight is demonstrated from thoughtful reflection on one’s own work and process. The portfolio makes specific references to the hallmarks/characteristics of fiction as we have studied it and discusses how the portfolio collection embodies some of those characteristics. The analysis of work, as required, is expansive in places but demonstrates both depth and breadth overall. The total project gives the impression of serious thoughtfulness and care of preparation as a semester’s worth of writing and careful consideration of one’s own creative process.

To earn a C, D, or F for this course:

  • Fail to meet the “B” contract as described above (This will earn either a C, D, or F at the instructor’s sole discretion and professional judgment. I am being purposefully vague here, as I want your focus to be on the B. Everyone can earn it if they do the work. If you do the work, plus your writing is exemplary in the final portfolio project as defined above, you can earn an A. It’s pretty simple.)

To guarantee yourself an F for this course:

  • Fail to complete your course portfolio in its entirety. You cannot successfully complete this course without successfully completing the final portfolio project. A lack of portfolio or one with truly significant gaps may result in a grade of F for the course regardless of performance in other areas of the course.
  • Miss 6 or more class meetings (including the equivalent in late arrivals or early departures).

Note that once you violate the terms of the “B” contract at any point during the semester, it is no longer possible to earn a B or higher in the course. The best you would be able to hope for at that point would be a C. When possible, I’ll indicate that the B is “slipping” from your grasp, but once it has fully slipped, you cannot earn it back because the contract is broken. To avoid the possibility of one moving continually in and out of a “slipping” status, I will use a three-strikes-you’re-out rule. At the instructor’s sole discretion, one can “slip” two times with minor infractions of the grading contract and still recover to stay on track for the “B.” A third “slip,” however, will result in a definitive break of the “B” contract. Again, what constitutes a “slip” or a full and immediate break of the contract terms is left up to the instructor’s professional judgment. Your best bet, of course, is simply to stay firmly on track throughout the whole semester.

Note also that continuing past the first week of this course constitutes your acceptance of these contract terms. If you cannot accept these terms, you should seek a different section of this course.

Another word about grading: So, you may be wondering what makes exemplary work for fiction in general. This is a complicated and difficult question especially in a creative writing class. To establish a standard rubric of what makes for “good” fiction would be little more than an exercise of me imposing my particular writerly values and artistic sensibilities upon you and your work. Philosophically, I can’t come to terms with that approach.

This is an introductory creative writing course. My goal is not to make you write like I write or even to make you into the kind of writer I like to read. To do this, I fear, might squelch the enthusiasm which may have brought you to this class to begin with. That’s the last thing I want to do. I don’t want you to conform to one way, but rather to experiment with many different ways—to try new things, to take risks, to play with language, the craft and purpose of writing fiction, and above all to have fun with your writing.

I have learned from my experience as a teacher (and as a student) something that research also supports—students don’t learn from grades. It’s true; a letter at the top of your work will not teach you a thing. However, honest, thoughtful and developed feedback from actual readers will teach you plenty. That’s where we will keep our focus for the most part in this course. Ok, so where does this leave us on this grade thing?

You will earn a grade for this course, but the weight of this grade will not be on the “quality” of the fiction you produce, per se. It will be based on the terms of the grading contract explained above. Reflective practice is a huge part of your work in this course. You will be expected to demonstrate, through reflective writing, a growing awareness of your own choices as a writer and how your fiction comes into existence. This is an essential part of your final “evolutionary portfolio” (which is the determining factor between the “B” and the “A” in the course and described in the contract above and further in the paragraph below.)

You will write and revise plenty of fiction each week throughout this course and you will respond to the writing of others. Towards the end of the term, you will be asked to present an “evolutionary portfolio” (how a story comes to be) where you will not simply present a selection of your work but will actually walk your portfolio reader through your process of coming to this work. It will require that you keep a watchful eye on your own invention and revision process throughout the course, so you can document this for me (and others) to see and appreciate at the end of the course. Specific details on this project will be distributed in class.

Getting Feedback on Your Writing

In this course, grades and feedback on your writing are not the same thing. In most cases, there is very little to learn from grades. The section above explains how grades work in this course. Feedback, however, is a different matter. Writing is a social act. In many ways, it is about conversation. This is a major premise of this course in both content and structure. Feedback is a part of this conversation.

In this course, you will/can receive feedback on your writing in the following ways:

  • Periodically during this course, after each major draft due date, you will write and receive peer feedback on your draft work. This is a central part of our course experience.
  • There will be several opportunities throughout the course to participate in a whole class workshop experience, where your work will be the subject of the entire class conversation for about 15 or 20 minutes. This is a great opportunity for a lot of feedback if you want it.
  • The instructor is more than willing to offer feedback on your writing and to discuss it with you at length. However, to prevent the dangers of your adopting a passive stance on your learning and to avoid the possibility of my giving unsolicited feedback when you aren’t yet ready for it, I ask that you request such feedback from me if and when you want it. I will give you feedback in writing up to two times at your request, as long as my time allows. (Please note that if everyone waits to the last week or two of classes, it will be very tough to accommodate everyone). Of course more instructor feedback is possible–as much as you’d like in fact–if you want to seek it out in conference with me. (See below.)
  • By appointment, you can and should conference with the instructor to talk at length about your writing. I absolutely encourage this, as it can be very helpful to your growth as a writer. In fact, at least two such conference meetings are required as part of terms of the “B” contract.
  • As an option, you may visit the Writing and Speaking Center for readerly feedback on your writing. The Center is located A258 on campus. It’s a great resource with friendly and helpful people.
  • You can always seek outside readers to offer feedback on your work–either folks in our class but outside of your review team or trusted readers outside of our course entirely.

Miscellanea

A Workshop/Collaborative Model: In many respects, this course uses a collaborative classroom or workshop model, which means that much of the work you will do this semester will be in groups or teams. This is, in part, why attendance and active participation are mandatory. You will be working as an active member in a community of writers—writers who are depending on you for feedback during our many workshops. You are not just responsible for your own success but also for the success of your classmates.

Reading: This is a writing course. However, because reading and writing are inextricably connected with one another, we will be doing a great deal of both during our time together in this course. We can learn a great deal about our craft by studying the work of others. As a student committed to your own learning and responsible for your own education and the education of your classmates, it is your job to read widely, think deeply, and engage seriously in the dialogue of this class. You won’t regret the hard work you do here.

Scribbler Posts: Writing and thinking are connected. In fact, writing can be used to engage in a deeper kind of thinking on paper—to engage in a process of discovery through writing. Through the act of writing, you can make progress in sorting out ideas and in reaching a clearer and deeper understanding of something. In this course, you will be asked to play with this writing-thinking connection by participating in an online writing space (a kind of group microblog) that I call “Scribbler”. Sometimes I will give you a prompt to respond to, but mostly you will use the Scribbler space to think (through writing) about what you are reading. You will use it as an online reading log to capture your notes/thoughts through regular “Reading/Research Journal” entries. These are required. You can also use Scribbler to test ideas or prewrite in preparation for writing your formal pieces and research work for this course. Furthermore, Scribbler will be a place for us to connect beyond the classroom, to continue our conversations. Basically, Scribbler is your space to write what’s on your mind and to connect with your classmates, but you must at least write one “Reading/Research Journal” entry each week as assigned. Participation on the Scribbler site is one of the terms of the “B” contract.

In addition what is described above, we will also be using Scribbler on a very practical level to exchange (and respond to) each other’s writing in the course. This will be very helpful and it will minimize wasted paper as a result of excessive printing. (We all need to be thinking about a sustainable future :-) Note that posting your major written assignments and your peer review essays are not counted as “Reading/Research Journal” entries on Scribbler.

Being Prepared to Write Every Class: We will likely be doing some writing every class meeting. This means that you should come to every class with all the writing you are currently working on. Before each class, be sure to have a copy of your latest work with you each class. Not having your writing with you to work in class means you are not prepared for class; this will have a negative impact on your course standing.