101 Professor Megan Paonessa, Session 1, 100% distance learning
Course Title: Structures of the Short Story
Fulfills English Major Requirement: ENGA and ENGW writing elective requirement and ENGL major elective requirement.
Course Description: This course is the study and application of the craft of the short story, which offers students the opportunity to write their own short story as well as study the form and function of fiction. Each week, students will explore a concept of craft alongside a story that exemplifies or challenges the shape and techniques of craft. Each story will be examined critically for its form as well as its representation of social, cultural beliefs and values, economic or global conditions, and environmental circumstances. Students will investigate how the form supports the expression of story within its formative context. Every student will produce their own creative short stories and participate in response to their peers鈥 work in a workshop format, which allows for an active discussion of student work.
Readings: Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin; Story Prize Anthology, by Larry Dark, editor; and supportive essays from other authors and craft sources.
Assignments: Students will participate in leading class discussions and write craft exercises, a critical craft essay, workshop reviews, and several original short stories in different forms.
102 Professor Katherine Zlabek, Session 2, 100% distance learning
Course Title: Crafting the Short Story
Fulfills English Major Requirement: ENGA and ENGW writing elective requirement and ENGL major elective requirement.
Course Description: Students will produce fresh, original writing that appeals to an audience鈥檚 imagination in this intermediate-level journey into short fiction. In it, we will be discussing the various elements of fiction, including concrete and specific detail, voice, atmosphere, and plot, to name a few. Students will explore the formal elements of writing alongside fiction that exemplifies or challenges these formal elements. Each story will be examined critically for its form as well as its representation of social, cultural beliefs and values, economic or global conditions, and environmental circumstances. In a workshop setting, we will critique one another鈥檚 creative writing, and discuss strategies for revising creative writing effectively.
Readings: Stories and craft essays will be posted on D2L.
Assignments: Thoughtful attention to published work, and the work of peers; considerate workshop participation; short stories; outside reading and short presentation; final portfolio.