ENG310: Professional Writing
Fall 2011

Schedule

Policies

Objectives

Find additional materials on BC-Moodle.

Textbooks:

• Forché, Carolyn, and Philip Gerard, eds. Writing Creative Nonfiction. Story Press, 2001. ISBN-10: 1884910505
• Miller, Brenda, and Suzanne Paola. Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction. McGraw-Hill, 2004. ISBN-10: 0071444947
• Gutkind, Lee, ed. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction. W. W. Norton, 2004. ISBN-10: 0393326659

Additional reading may include book excerpts or essays on reserve or online.

Course Requirements: 

Portfolio, 65% (about 20-25 pages):

• Personal essay
• Persuasive text
• Blog
• Review of a work of creative nonfiction
• Critical review of a work of your choice

Writer's Notebook, 25% (about 50-60 pages)

• Personal narratives, writing exercises, freewrites, comments on readings, analyses of structure or voice or style
• Reflections, reading responses, "factoids" or quotations (information you can use in your writing)

Preparation, participation, presentation, 10%

• Responsibility for leading and participating in discussions of reading; group presentation on a writer's life (daily practices), attendance

The Guiding Questions:

• What is professional writing?
• What is creative nonfiction?
• What practices are common among those who write professionally? What does it take to get published?
• What topics, genres, and media are most accessible for publishing today?
• What is the relationship between reading and writing?
• What should writers pay attention to in revising their texts?
• What role does feedback play?
• What constitutes "good" writing in essays, blogs, persuasive texts, and reviews?