Dear all,

I’m posting this now, but your work won’t come back until the office releases it, probably well after results are issued.

For those of you whose work has been returned, I’ve gone to town with the purple pen/pencil. Don’t worry too much; everyone’s work has the same number of scribbles all over it; for the best work I marked finicky things, for the less good work I marked the worst mistakes. These are the things I’d cut/change/rewrite if I was editing it for publication, and there would probably be more in a rewrite.

As I expected, the marking curve made things difficult, particularly at the lower end; some of you received passes when I would really have liked to give you H3s...in some cases where one piece of work was clearly better than the other, I’ve had to default to the lower grade; the individual comments generally reflect that.

Small things: Almost all of you need to watch out for apostrophe placement and homophones (new/knew, too/to): spellcheck doesn’t pick these up. Passive and active voice generally need work too; look out for the “which was”, “that was”, “whiles” – they generally indicate where a bit of punctuation and punchiness could be used. I found a lot of “that” where “who” should be used: it should not be “The fireman that broke the window”, but “The fireman who broke the window.” “That” is for objects: “The car that crashed.”

Often the things I’ve marked are cases of your having an image in mind, but not expressing it well. If you come up with a metaphor, it’s important to be sure it works. Sometimes the clarity of an idea in your mind can fool you into thinking that what you’ve written will communicate it well to your reader’s mind. Don’t assume that. You can waste good images/metaphors if you don’t rigorously test their expression.

Most of you have responded really well to the themes. This tells you that, given a framework and deadlines, you can come up with good piece of writing. The next step is to start coming up with themes, topics (and deadlines) for yourself, to develop what you’re interested in.

As you do that, you’ll also develop more of your own style; the difficulty I’ve found with teaching this subject is coming up with a “one size fits all” approach; everyone has a different way of getting it right, which has inevitably led to much of the focus being on what not to do. Read through your pieces again and focus on what did work, and try to do more of that.

Finally, I’ve realised that of all the creative writing subjects, this seems to be the most personal; almost all of you have workshopped and/or submitted folio pieces that talk about your own lives, sometimes intimately. This is great for developing your writing voice; it’s also been a privilege for me and the other students to be trusted with your thoughts. Thanks for that, and your participation this semester.

Jenny

hi all,

I'm hoping the lack of emails from you all the last couple of days means you're doing well with all your work.

if not: requests for extensions should be with me by 4pm Monday, with reasons, and preferably by Sunday night. I'm around on email on and off over the weekend, but possibly not during the day Monday.

work late without an extension loses 2% per day; ie, you can hand in late and still pass, but you may end up going down a grade because of that. work handed in after 4pm on Wednesday 15/6 without discussion won't be marked; I have to get the marks to the uni by Friday 17th.

If you hand in work after 4pm on Tuesday 7th, can you PLEASE email me when you've done so, preferably with the work attached? I'm not based at the uni and I will have to make special trips in to pick up late work; if I receive it by email that will help me enormously. (will still get the hard copy at some point).

and a final reminder: attach a stamped addressed envelope if you want your work back/comments. keep a BACKUP.

If possible, email me a copy of your work, but the hard copy is what matters.

Jenny

study break

hi all,

brief post re: the study break.

my email (again) is j.sinclair2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au

as before, I won't be reading whole drafts, but I am very happy to discuss questions of style, approach and un-knotting particular problems, by email or in person.

I am away from the morning of Friday May 27 to the evening of Monday May 30. I won't be on email during that time.

If you want to meet me on Tuesday 31 or Wednesday June 1, the available times are below. If you are coming on a day other than your usual class, please note the different room number. I'll be sticking to these times, ie 15 minutes, so please try to be on time and have an idea what you want to discuss. if you feel you'll need longer, get in touch.

DON'T email me re: booking a meeting time. use the comments function to reserve a time, after reading through the times anyone else has taken, (including previous comments).

You can send me outlines and short extracts ahead of the meetings, bearing in mind that for Tuesday I will only have read them earlier Tuesday morning (unless you get them through to me by Thursday afternoon.)

After Wednesday I'm not planning to be in at uni, but email me if you're having particular problems. For questions about the folio structure, please refer to the reader and other posts on this blog before emailing me; if you want comments back on your pieces, please remember your envelope and stamps.

happy writing and thanks for all your efforts and input!

Jenny

Tuesday: Room 216 A, second floor opposite office in John Medley West.

Available:
9.30
9.45
10:00 booked
10.15:
10:30: booked(I have a short meeting elsewhere in the building at this time)
10:45: booked
11:00 booked

Wednesday: Room 106, first floor John Medley West

9:30
9:45
10:00
10:15
10:30: booked
10:45: booked
11:00 booked

hi all,

a small correction to what I've said about the marking process. I am in fact allowed to give extensions for a short period after the submission date.

however, I would rather not, and I'd be looking for reasons such as medical certificates and other unforseeable events that cover a reasonable period of time. something going wrong for a couple of days just before the due date probably won't buy you more than another couple of days, as you are expected to have already done a fair amount of the work by then.

anything handed in late up until June 16 will be marked, with a reduction of 2% for each day late if no extension has been given. Anything after that will not be marked as the results have to go into the uni admin system. and if you simply hand something in ten days late without discussion with me, it's likely you'll get a mark but not much in the way of feedback.

if you do submit late, either with permission or not, please email me and tell me when you've submitted as I don't work at the uni and I won't be checking the pigeonholes that often. an emailed copy of your work at the time of submission would also be really helpful; that will allow me to mark it without physically picking up a copy first, although I will collect the copies at some stage.

thanks,

Jenny

Customer, sorry, student satisfaction survey

Dear all,

The usual hard copy in-class subject assessment survey has been replaced with an electronic thingie.

Although we don't have an LMS page for this subject, I'm assured that the subject will appear on your surveys on your student portal home page.

If not, this is a direct link to the survey module, which I think will open up surveys for all your subjects.

It should be a brief process, and the uni can always do with feedback on all aspects of coursework and teaching, so I encourage you to do it for all your subjects.

......

on other matters, the homework for Week 11 was to look at a disaster through the prism of Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and to try to write a short report on that

of course it's too late for the Tuesday class, but if you're a Wednesday person, here's an excuse to mess around on the Internet and call it work.

For Week 12, we will have a lot of workshopping, David Foster Wallace and cake. I'm also hoping to talk about the concept of the "star" writer, which DFW was, and to look at a couple of others. If you have any favourites you're crazy about, this is the chance to proselytize about them.

by the final week I will have firm times for me to be at uni to meet any of you who want to discuss your work. I'm hoping that will be more or less close to the usual class times. After class I'll post the remaining times here; please check back before emailing me asking for meeting times!

thanks,

Jenny

hi all,

just this week's homework for any who weren't there or didn't catch it: Using firsthand accounts on blogs/Facebook/Twitter as your source, write a short (very short - 500 words max) report of a natural disaster.

if the a/v cooperates I'll be showing a small part of a movie called When the Levees Broke, about Hurricane Katrina, so if you happen to have access to it and want to have a look before next week, please do.

For next Tuesday's class, please make sure you read the Chloe Hooper piece in particular as that's what Tim will be presenting on.

Jenny

homework for week 9/10

for those who weren't there, the writing exercise is to write for 10+ minutes on either: a musical event as an anthropological study (ie writing about people's behaviour, not the music as such)

or: a time when you were convalescing from illness or recovering from grief (ie not the event itself, but the process of regaining some normality, even a new normality)

we'll use these to kickstart next week's discussion, so it would be great if you brought it along ready to read.

Important folio info in post below.

thanks,

Jenny

folios and workshopping roster

folio outline recap: READ THIS PLEASE!

Due date is Monday June 6, 5pm. I can’t give extensions on this. If work is late, it will lose marks for each day late, and there will come a point during that week where it will be too late for me to mark it at all; I don’t have an exact mark submission date but it will be early the following week.

Special consideration is another matter that’s dealt with by the faculty.

Marks are going to be given on a standard curve, as with all undergrad subjects, spread across my two classes. This may mean some of you get lower or higher marks than the work warrants; my hands are tied on this one.

Folio requirements are in the reader, but to recap:

4000 words (I’ll allow +/- 10%)

Each piece can be between 1000 and 2500 words (each +/- 10%)

At least two pieces, maximum four (mathematically).

Submission needs to be through the office, with a cover sheet, but if you can manage it I’d also like electronic copies as text or .doc (NOT .docx, my software is archaic.) Email to j.sinclair@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au (and if you have real problems with submitting in person on time, you can do this to get it to me sooner, as long as the office copy goes in asap.)

Attach a stamped, addressed envelope if you want your work back. If you do this I’ll give you written feedback as well. If you don’t, the work goes back to the office but isn’t retrievable; it’s held for a while then binned. (if you forget, you can drop an envelope off marked attention to me by the start of semester two, and I can still get it sent back.)

Each piece must fit one or more of the themes in the reader. You must briefly nominate/justify the theme(s) – if you need more than a few lines to do this, contact me beforehand to make sure it’s not stretching it too far.

Each piece must have a different theme (though if a piece covers two themes, you can re-use

Titles and supplementary images etc are good but not essential; images etc don’t count towards marking unfortunately.

For poetry and other unusual approaches, please talk to me about word length etc.

If possible please talk to me before class or during the break, particularly on Wednesdays when I often have to go by 12.30.

I’ll be making times to see students in the study break week; probably close to existing class times of Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (you can come on a different day to your class), but check back here or with me to confirm that.

I can’t read drafts but I can discuss specific questions you find in your writing and try to help you break logjams.


workshopping: let me know if you don’t have a slot listed below.

TUESDAY:

week 10

Connor
Romina
Tim

week 11

Sam
Emily
Jessica
Claire

week 12

Gabrielle
Nathan
Hillary
Margaret

WEDNESDAY


week 10

Charles
Michael
Rebecca (was week 9)
Laura (was week 9)

week 11

Tom
Sasha
Kevin
James
Stephanie

week 12

Bridget
Ainslie
Ben
Lauren

ps: some of you are still to do your pitches, particularly on Tuesdays. we WILL get around to them. they really are useful, in terms of focus and practising “selling” your work.

for anyone interested in writing about music, there's a nice piece here reviewing two books about rap: one academic and one by Jay-Z

Home straight...

dear all,

I hope you had a good break. we have four weeks to go, then a very short study break.

This week or next I'll talk in some detail about the folios and submission etc, and post here, so if you have small questions, hold on till then (and read the course guide first please).

Questions about topics and other issues that could delay your work can be done by email (j.sinclair2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au) or after class (Tuesday) or preferably before class on Wednesday (I'll try to be there from 9.45, and if you contact me first I can meet from 9.15 on).

I'll also be available for meetings in the study break (first week of June), probably in class times (say 9.30-11.30 Tuesday/Wed) but I have to confirm the exact times.

What I will say at this point is:

the margin for word count is strictly 10% up or down. I won't read over that length, and I'll mark down for less.

I can't read drafts. Use the workshopping for that, but I will answer specific questions about how to get around issues YOU have identified in your work.

I have no flexibility on submission dates because it's end of semester and the results need to be sent to University Central or somesuch office; if you need special consideration there's a process for that, but that allows for lower standards of work, not lateness.

Monday June 6 is it.


----------------------

This week we'll be deciding who workshops when over the next four weeks, so have a think about that. I hope you've managed to do the reading and the short Christos Tsiolkas piece I handed out.

cheers,

Jenny

for those reading the Granta introduction: the current world population, updated in real time; an estimate of course but check how fast those last three digits tick over...

Week 7

Hi all,

for Week 7's nature writing, the extra stuff beyond the reader is basically just to read the four pages from the Weldon essay, which recently won a national nature writing prize. there are two extracts from the 11 pages, so don't worry that it isn't consecutive. you can hear an interview with Weldon here.

if you can either bring in the in-class writing you did (Tuesday) or the ten minutes' worth of homework on either a place you've been completely alone or in a crowd, that would be good for discussion.

for the pitches - I hope we'll get through everyone but depending on time we may split it between weeks 7 and 8. You do NOT need a piece of writing. the pitch is the very short description of your piece you give to an editor to see if they are willing to take it for their publication. you need to cover:

- a one sentence description ("adventure piece about a disastrous climb of Mt Everest")

- the target audience ("will appeal to people who've dreamed of climbing Everest", or more prosaically, a piece on national dishes of India might appeal to middle aged cook-at-home types)

- two publications you think might take it (say a specialist climbing magazine and a more general magazine like the Weekend Australian - the Indian piece might for instance go into Gourmet Traveller and/or Epicure/a newspaper travel section)

- the themes (not the topic) - in the case of Into Thin Air, personal responsibility, the question of whether commercial climbing has gone too far. this can cover the tone of the piece too: investigative, humorous, personal, interview-based.

- length (number of words)

- supplementary elements (images, graphics, breakout boxes (say a list of deaths on Everest in the past ten year, or prices and services offered by climbing companies)

and an "it's like" pitch; what articles in that publication it resembles, writers whose style you are trying to emulate, a wider debate you feel the piece buys into.

these are all things you need to have in a successful magazine pitch, in one form or another: they make it easier for the editor to picture the resulting piece, and to figure out how it will fit into the template of that particular publication. they also reassure the editor that you know their publication and will write to their style and audience.

if you end up not writing the piece you pitch, that's OK.

After the break we only have four more weeks; anyone who is ready to workshop a longer folio piece will be welcome to volunteer to distribute it in Week 8.

Jenny

Wednesday piece one

hi all,

Michael's piece for workshopping below; Rebecca's is pending...

all formatting strangenesses are blamed on the uni email system...

Jenny

By
Michael Berthelsen.



On Tuesday we
drove to Cowes in Zach’s Subaru listening to music and smoking out the window.
There were thirteen of us and we had been looking forward to this week for
months. There were nine cars, two storeys of house, ten beds, two ounces of
grass and fifteen tabs of acid between us. On Wednesday we’d sparkle.



Tuesday had been
hot but Wednesday was hotter. I remember waking up and looking through my
window across the street. It was eleven in the morning and the tin roof of the
house opposite ours resembled a barbeque hot plate. It caused the air
immediately above it to shimmer like so many horizons on so many rural highways
baked by so many hot summer days. The air inside the house clung to our skin
due to the combined effect of humidity and residual particles of spray-on
sunscreen still wafting through the hallways and rooms. The floor was no better
– its pine boarding sticky with the previous night’s party-jizz; a concoction
of beer, goon, fruit juice, Jack Daniels
and Coke. People had gone down to the
shops to buy breakfast and were now arriving back at the house. Murph was
sitting on the balcony with smoke trailing from the cigarette in his right
hand.



When we arrived there
was no furniture for the balcony. Our solution was a piece of improvisation
which would come to encapsulate the ensuing day. Most tables have four legs and
sport flower-filled vases as their centrepiece. Ours was different; our table
didn’t have four legs and its centrepiece was yellow stained bong filled with
stagnant brown water. Our table wasn’t even a table. It was an ironing board.
Around our centrepiece was a
Manhattan skyline of empty and half empty beer bottles. The board’s floral
cover was marked with streaks of cigarette ash. Perched front and centre
closest to Murph over one of the cover’s most elaborate floral illustrations
was an ashtray shaped like a pair of breasts which came to be known as The Titties.
And coming up to The Titties’ rim was a lake of cigarette
butts and Metcard roaches. The
ultimate Fuck Off to domestication.



This
piece is the beginning of what I intend to submit as part of my folio for end
of semester assessment. It is my own take on a true crime style of writing,
documenting a trip my mates and I made to Phillip Island during the summer
holidays. It will ultimately recount the day we took LSD and take a reflective
stance on what I perceive to be the artificiality of taking acid. The names in
the story are all pseudonyms, and the timeline of events has been collapsed to
accommodate the word constraints which bind the assessment of this subject.

workshopping for Wednesday

Dear all,

we're just having some small technical issues with the workshopping students getting material to me. please do check back say Monday night/Tuesday morning and it should be here.

for further reference, if you send me material, it needs to be body text in the email, or an older version of Word (not docx)

thanks,

Jenny

workshopping for Wednesday

Dear all,

we're just having some small technical issues with the workshopping students getting material to me. please do check back say Monday night/Tuesday morning and it should be here.

for further reference, if you send me material, it needs to be body text in the email, or an older version of Word (not docx)

thanks,

Jenny

workshopping for Wednesday

Dear all,

we're just having some small technical issues with the workshopping students getting material to me. please do check back say Monday night/Tuesday morning and it should be here.

for further reference, if you send me material, it needs to be body text in the email, or an older version of Word (not docx)

thanks,

Jenny

hi all,

this is really homework for Week 7, but if you get a chance to listen to it, there is an interview here with the author of the essay I'll be handing out in Week 6 to read for the Nature Writing week in Week 7.

for the Wednesday class, don't forget to check back here for the two workshopping pieces which I'll post as soon as they come in - I won't be online between Friday and Sunday evenings though.

Jenny

hi all,

for my Wednesday class: I won't be posting further workshopping here as foreshadowed; there may be another piece handed out on the day, but there's no need to check back here for it.

I'll mention these in class:

Voiceworks magazine is currently seeking submissions from writers under 25.

and you may find something of use to you at the Emerging Writers Festival at the end of May - it falls right on the end of semester which is unfortunate timing, but all the more reason to be organised with your assignments!

don't forget your homework: to watch and take notes on some sport you don't care about and have never watched before. the Grand Prix is on this weekend, speaking of such things... :)

Jenny

Week five looms...hi all, just for those who weren't there this week: please go along to (or watch on TV if you must) a sporting event you've never been interested in; this can be as simple as stopping by the women's cricket at the Brunswick St Oval (usually Saturdays I think, but there's Google...), or watching a golf match on late night TV; then write about the experience.

also, the writing exercise was to write a letter to a person from your "true crime" newspaper cutting, explaining why you'd like to write their story and what you plan to do; if you'd rather, you can also choose a potential biographical subject. we're going to briefly revisit that next week.

one person from Wednesday's class seems not to have brought in her writing to workshop next week; I'll be in touch with her but can that class please check back maybe Sunday night-ish in case I track it down and post it here?

thanks,

Jenny

Dear Wednesday students,

I'll try to email some of you tonight, but this is just a warning that I may be a few minutes late tomorrow. this is not good as it's a locked room and I apologise in advance if it happens; but can you tell the others if you've read this, and hang out in the corridor until I get there?

also, because of the personal stuff that's necessitated this, I'm hoping to finish the class by midday.

Jenny

dear Wednesday people,

this is Laura's piece for workshopping. if you're able to print it and make notes, please do; otherwise maybe write down comments so you'll be ready for workshopping next week. apologies it's taken a couple of days to put up; I have trouble with docx documents - plain text in the email is probably best for anyone else who's sending me material.

Laura's piece begins:

It was midnight and everyone in the Trafalgar Pub was pissed. Dozens of bearded, beer-gutted men hammered out Khe San and someone spilled Jim Beam on my dress. I half-walked, half-stumbled from our table to the bar, put on my best ‘I’m-not-drunk’ face and ordered Nick and I another beer. We were sixteen, it was our first night out and we thought we were the coolest. We were going to be eighteen soon; we were going to get out of this shithole and move to the city and leave all the hopeless drunks waiting to die amongst the cow shit on their farms. We were going to make a life for ourselves.

The alcohol was making me tired, and I was impatient for more. Chants of “fight” floated through the rumble of the pub. So with the promise of a real, live punch-up, I weaved my way through the throng and joined in the shouting. My head was all floaty and I wondered if the night would end with me throwing up in a bush somewhere. Then, through all the fog, I spotted Nick on the ground, blood on his face, mouth hanging open. Tim, a year twelve at our school, was bashing into him as though tenderising a steak. “Fuckin’ poof,” he spat out. “You want me cock up ya bum, don’t ya, you fag?” I felt sick. I stepped forward and grabbed Tim’s shoulder, but he shook me off. I stood there crying, and screaming unintelligibly at everyone around me. I was full of shame, scared that if I called the police I’d be arrested for underage drinking. So I just stood there, watching a man’s fist slam again and again into my best friend’s gay face.

#

for those interested in the Death and Illness theme: the latest Cultural Studies Review is nicely morbid. most articles available online.

Homework for Week Four - particularly for Tuesday class as i forgot to mention it. :)

in addition to the two short readings and the workshopping pieces (and the reader), please come in with a current news report, or a piece of material about a historical crime, and offer a few ideas on how you might research it in order to come up with a creative "true crime" piece.

and please bring in your in-class writing from this week, worked up into a longer piece if you like - we're still doing this on a voluntary basis at this point.

Jenny

Anna Funder reading from Stasiland on The Book Show's First Person.

When we were talking about diaries, I think I mentioned Samuel Pepys' Diary to the Tuesday class.

so there it is if you want to take a look.

Week 3 looks at Anna Funder. you can see more of her writing here at the Monthly's site, and see video of her speaking about courage and torture here.

hi all,

This is the seminar presenting/workshopping roster. If your name’s not on it or you know you can’t be there that week, please contact me asap. Please also look at the readings for the week you are assigned and choose a key reading you want to talk about – email me if possible, or be ready to tell me in class.

NOTE ON WORKSHOPPING: you are workshopping your piece in the week listed but you need to bring in your copies to hand out the week BEFORE. workshop pieces in the first round do not have to be on the themes, but if you have folio work ready, it's a good idea...

Workshopping for the second part of semester will be sorted out shortly – it’s fewer classes than the first half, but we’ll be spending more time talking about your actual writing. At next week’s classes I’ll ask for volunteers to workshop a piece for your folio in the first class after the break; ideally you’d have something ready in Week Eight, but if you need the break to write, we can do “first read” in class.

In Week Eight we’ll be doing “pitches” and discussion of your work, so you really need to have two and preferably three solid ideas ready by then – even better if they’re underway.

After that I’ll assign weeks with an eye to not having you present and workshop in the same week if possible.

s:= seminar
w: workshopping


1:

n/a

2:

T

s: Hilary, Jessica

W

s: Bec, Sasha

3: Ethics

T:

s:
Jack: Funder
Ramina: Ethics reading

w:
Jack
Tim

W:

s:
James: Funder
Annabel: Ethics reading

w: Kevin, Bridget, Charles

4: In Cold Blood

T:

s:
Terrence: In Cold Blood
Tom: Capote

w:
Tom
Sam
Claire

W:

s:
Tom: Capote
Michael: In cold Blood

w:
Morgan
Laura
Stephanie

5: Sport

T:

s:
Margaret
Connor

w:
Nicholas
Nathan

W:

s:
Lauren

w:
Ben
Lauren
Ainsley

6: Krakauer

T:

s: Emily

w:
Connor
Emily
Terrance

W:

s: Ben

w:
Tom
Michael
James
Rebecca

7: Nature:

T:

s:
Nicholas

w:
Ramina
Hilary
Margaret

W:

s:
Stephanie
Rebecca Hedley

w:
Bec
Annabel
Sasha


8: At Home

T:

s:Nathan

w:

W:

s: Laura

w:


BREAK

9: Music
T:
s: Sam

w:

W:

s: Morgan

w:

10: Illness

T:
s:Claire

w:

W:

s: Kevin

also: Bec Reardon on Oliver Sacks?

w:

11: disaster

T:
s:
Tim
w:

W:

s:Bridget
Ainsley

w:

12: David Foster Wallace

T:

s: Gabrielle ?

w:

W:

s: Charles

w:

the Calibre Prize is one of the best/best rewarded essay competitions in Australia; you can read past winners here - then start planning your entry for 2011?

For my Wednesday class: the books were Leadbelly, the TV series was Underbelly, at least according to that font of accurate information, Wikipedia. I stand corrected.

Dear all,

for anyone still needing a reader, Tony tells me they are now in the booksroom.

by the end of the weekend I’ll have fully sorted the presentation and workshopping weeks, including workshopping for second semester, and I’ll post that here.

please email me asap at j.sinclair2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au with your preferred reading for the week you’re on for – if you are clear on your date, don’t wait for me to post the roster, just let me know. This will also help me make sure everyone has been assigned a week.

I haven’t talked about consultation times. For the Thursday class, anything beyond a quick question needs to be raised BEFORE class – I will generally be in by 9.15 if you email me and let me know. For Tuesday, straight after class is good and in some weeks I’ll be around at uni between 11.30 and 2 on Tuesdays, but not always. Feel free to make a time with me before nine on Tuesday too, if you are ever awake at that hour.

I won’t be reading drafts apart from the workshopping, but if you have questions about particular issues – problems you are striking in your work, what you can submit for the folio and so on – all that is fine. Before the break we will have some sort of pitching session to discuss ideas.

The general homework this week is:

- do the set readings

- read the supplementary material I handed out on indigenous-non-indigenous relations

- read the workshop material you were given this week, and preferably make some notes on your copy to hand back to the writer.

- come up with something you think a non-fiction writer should or should not do, in terms of ethical behaviour, for class discussion.

have a good week,

Jenny

hi all,

by way of a first post, my email from last week that includes some of the admin info and what's expected re: workshopping and presenting the readings.

Jenny


Dear all,

as the LMS hasn’t been activated for this subject, this is a quick email
with admin matters and reminders; I would like to have some sort of Web
forum going so I’ll see if I can set up a site somewhere.

anyway… as a reminder, the homework for this week is to:

- do the reading. the theoretical pieces are very short, and the Hiroshima
piece is an easy read. Please also read the Jarhead piece I handed out.
Please also look at the small part of Week One’s reading that refers to
John Hersey (pp 35-37 of the reader).

- bring in a piece of nonfiction writing you like (or strongly dislike)
and be ready to say a very few words about why you like it, and if
possible the writer.

Presentations for next week are by: Hilary and Jessica (Tuesday), Sasha
and Bec (Wednesday), on the Zinnser piece and Hiroshima/Hersey
respectively.

The presentations only need to be 5-10 minutes, and it’s up to you if you
want to hand in a written summary. Basically they should be: an outline of
the main points; any relevant background on the author (eg if it’s a
writer talking about their practice, what sort of stuff do they write),
anything you want to add about writers referenced in the piece (for those
who may not be familiar with, say, Joan Didion), and most importantly:
questions about what the points in the piece mean for you as creative
non-fiction writers, things you disagree with, important points you feel
they’ve missed. Your job in this presentation is to get the others talking
if possible – the rest of the class’s job is to have read the piece in
question so they can respond.

Workshopping: if you are on for Week Three, in Week Two – the next class –
you need to bring in twenty copies of your 250-500 word non-fiction piece,
with a short outline or statement of aims for the larger piece. This piece
does not have to be relevant to the themes of the course; you will get a
chance to workshop folio work in the second half of semester.

Tuesday class:

Tim
Rachel

Wednesday class:

Charles
Bridget
Kevin

If you haven’t workshopped your own work before and aren’t sure what it
involves, do ask me. I’ll talk about workshopping etiquette next week and
before we actually start.

Thanks,

Jenny

ps: I am working from a class list sent out last Thursday. If you have
since changed times, please let me know and I’ll stop emailing you. But if
you are on to workshop/present and don’t plan to turn up, you MUST let me
know by the Monday evening, with reasons.