English 10 Creative Writing (3 units)
Summer Session I 2006
Professor: Ray Liedlich (Redbud 4, 588-5237)
A Brief Course Outline
(The only prerequisite for English 10 is English 1A or equivalent.)
This course is designed to provide instruction and practice in writing autobiographical essays, fiction, and poetry. (Screenwriting may also be an option.) You may choose to focus on one particular form. The class employs a writers’ workshop format.
II. Course Goals and Objectives
A. Goals
1. To explore the relationship between our writing and our self and our world.
2. To examine the creative and critical processes involved in literature as an art form.
3. To practice writing with a passion and with a commitment to open our heart as well as our mind.
B. Objectives
Upon completion of this class you should be able to demonstrate through specific examples of your writing:
1. That you understand the similarities and differences among the various literary forms.
2. That you can work with the elements and structures appropriate to these forms to create original works of your own.
3. That you are able to share with other writers both the crative process and its products to enhance our understanding and appreciation of literature as an art form.
III. Textbooks
Murray, Donald M. Crafting a Life in Essay, Story, Poem.
(You will also need to have easy access to a dictionary and a handbook of English for writers.)
IV. Methods
Our basic learning method will be an ongoing writers’ workshop were we write daily out of class and share the results with our peers in class. (We may also have some opportunity to write in class.)
V. Grading
Your final grade will be based on the quantity and quality of the work you submit at the end of each week (twenty percent per week).
We will discuss and clarify the role of class attendance and participation at our first two sessions.
VI. My Commitment to You
I’ll do everything that I can within reason to help you succeed in this course as long as you’re making this same kind of effort yourself. In this spirit, I invite you to meet with me in my office or call me anytime you have questions or concerns or simply want to talk. (Please do not use email for this purpose.)
Successful students generally spend about two hours working outside class for every hour in class. If you’re spending more than two hours, you’re probably not working as effectively and/or efficiently as you can. Come and talk with me about it.
If you feel you want or need to drop the course for any reason, please stop by my office and talk with me about it or call me at 588-5237. If you are unable to do this, you must go through the formal drop procedure with the Admissions and Records Office. Failure to assume your responsibility in this matter will result in an automatic “F” in the course.
Except when in
class, I’m usually in my office from
I’m eager to get to know you personally and to work with you to make this class a meaningful and memorable learning experience for all of us.
“The best teacher lodges an intent not [only]
in the mind but in the heart.”
Ann Michaels, Fugitive Pieces