Finals Checklist

Intro to Creative Nonfiction/Finals Checklist

For your final requirements in our class, you’ll do two things:

1. Compile a folder/binder of the primary work you’ve done this term. These should be your original versions unless the assignment involved revision. Here’s a checklist of things that should be in your portfolio (arrange them in this order, please, and label accordingly):
• First writing prompt (from page 17 in text)
• First essay (illustrating the camera technique)
• Second writing prompt (from class blog/Firsts)
• Encyclopedia Blog entries (either print out or include a sheet with your blog addy)
• Prompt: The list of your essential firsts
• Festival coverage
• One Honest Essay
• Tiny Masters exercise/Revision exercise
• Research-based piece

2. EITHER one dramatic revision of one of the above pieces OR one new piece. Your revision or new work should indicate your understanding of the creative nonfiction techniques we’ve covered this term. Particularly essential will be your use/application of the following:
1. Scene
2. Dialogue
3. Color/Luminous Detail
4. Evidence of Research
5. Reflection/Musing
Your revision or new piece should be grammatically perfect, structurally sound, and reflective of the best possible work you can do. It replaces the need for a final exam in our course, so approach it accordingly.

In order to receive an A for the term, you’ll need to meet the following criteria:
• Consistent attendance and participation in class all term
• Complete portfolio
• Excellent final revision or new piece
Your grade on the Adderall Diaries exam will be factored into the above requirements as well.

Your portfolios and revisions are due in my office by 5 p.m. next Thursday, April 29. There will be a drop box outside of my office. If you’d like your materials returned, you can pick them up next semester.

Capstone Readings, Pendulum Launch, Guest Author Dave Newman -- All Next Week!

Googling Chickens (or The Joy of Research)

Using research is a great way to expand your voice and vision in creative nonfiction. So let's try this:

* Make a list of things you're curious about. The noun-ier the better.
* Choose one thing.
* Now: Google.
* Make of list of odd or interesting things you learned.
* Use the list as a launching point for a brief (750 words) essay.

We'll start this exercise in class. Your essay will be due in class on Thursday. You can post your brief essay to your blog or bring in hard copies for the class.

P.S. The chicken is the closest living relative to the T-Rex.

Brian O'Neill

Visit Brian O'Neill at http://www.parisofappalachia.com for backstory on the book, interviews, reviews and more.

To Live is to Fly -- And to Revise is to Write

What do poets think about revision? See some of their insights below. Then check out the book -- Seeing the Blue: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets, compiled by Paul B. Janeczko (Candlewick Press, 2002). It's not just for poets any more.


Naomi Shihab Nye: "Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!"

Georgia Heard: "To revise is a poet's life. To see and then to see again is what a poet's life is all about. I revise my poems not for the sake of revising, but to clarify what I see with my eyes and what's in my heart."

Nikki Grimes: "Good poetry requires a great deal of revision! Most of my poems go through ten drafts, minimum. (Groan.) That said, if you don't write honestly, no one will care what your poem has to say, no matter how cleverly written or technically competent it is."

Adam Ford: "It's always exciting when a poem tumbles straight from your head onto the page, but sometimes it still needs a little extra work. It's a rare poem whose first draft is as good as it could ever be."

Bobbi Katz: "Be prepared to revise. And revise. And revise."

Lillian Moore: "I tend to write poems slowly because I enjoy seeking the right word and revising until I think I have it. For almost every poem I have written over the years there has probably been a wastebasket filled with rough drafts. Most of all, I want a poem to say what I really felt or saw or heard--that is, to be true."

This Week in CNF

Workshop, workshop, more workshop. We'll discuss the revision exercises we started last week, then jump back to finish your honest essays. We'll review the writing you did for the festival week, too.

At Home: Apply your revision skills to work you've done this term. Think of this a a tinkering week. Keep reading Paris of Appalachia. We'll get to it next week.

Today in Creative Nonfiction

Hope you all enjoyed the festival! Today we'll do a festival re-cap, then discuss the art of revision.

For an in-class revision exercise, please be sure you have a copy of your Tiny Masters exercise. (If you don't have a copy, you can use a piece from your encyclopedia/blog entries, too.)

Some mysterious concepts to ponder between now and then:

Revision = re-vision.
Essay = from essais: French. Meaning to attempt or try out.
E.B. White: "Writing is an act of faith." Multiple acts of faith.

For Thursday: Bring copies of your festival-inspired pieces or post them to your blogs. Begin reading Paris of Appalachia by Brian O'Neill.