Creative and Literary Nonfiction
Honors English 11-12: 2015
Mrs. Glennon
Couse Goals and Objectives:
This course is designed to approach critical inquiry through the lens of creative nonfiction, a
genre that examines conventions of voice, storytelling, persuasion and audience. You will gain
competence with creative nonfiction's primary components: voice, point of view (POV), conflict,
figurative language, scene and exposition, stylistic choices and narrative arc. You will utilize
critical thinking and examination of literary texts as a model of written expression. As with any
Honors course, you will learn to engage with advanced-level texts, conduct effective research,
understand genre, and examine your own work with a critical eye. You will learn to use point of
view and understand the constructedness of the “I” in your work.
Course Requirements:
This course is process-based and will involve daily reading and writing, revising drafts of your
essays, and giving as well as receiving and incorporating group feedback. With guidance from
the in-class exercises and workshops you will compose three short personal essays in different
modes, incorporating relevant experiences from your lives and engaging questions of audience.
You will write many freewrites from prompts. You will also develop one extended essay.
You will find the appropriate form and voice for each piece of writing. You will also write
numerous critical responses to your readings and a final reflection. Together, these items
comprise your final portfolio of work. The later portion of the course will be spent learning
about ethnographic writing and research. You will conduct your own ethnographic study and
submit your findings.
Throughout this creative nonfiction semester, certain essential questions will guide us:
1. What is “creative” about “creative nonfiction?”
2. When does the “creative” part become fiction?
3. What are the ethical considerations writers must take into account?
4. What writerly techniques are most effective in this genre?
5. How do writers effectively structure pieces in this genre?
6. How do we characterize a strong “voice” in this genre?
7. How do we overcome inhibition while writing in this genre?
8. How does a writer gain access to memory? How can this memory be represented both
accurately and aesthetically?
9. How do writers incorporate research in creative nonfiction?
10. Why are personal stories interesting to others? What makes them “universal?”
11. How do we read published nonfiction writers as models for our own work, and learn
how to read our colleagues’ writing with authority, compassion, and insight?
12. How do we interact effectively in writer’s workshop, so that we may develop our own
reading/writing groups in college and beyond?
* What are your particular questions about creative nonfiction?
Reading Selections:
1. Numerous selections of creative nonfiction essays from: Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining,
and Publishing Creative Nonfiction, Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola (Anthology)
2. David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One Day (Collection of Personal / Humorous Essays)
3. David Small’s Stitches (Graphic Memoir)
4. John Backderf’s My Friend Dahmer (Graphic Memoir)
5. Adam Shepard’s Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
(Ethnography)
6. Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
(Ethnography)
7. Elijah Anderson’s Readings from The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday
Life (Ethnography)
Spring 2015 Teaser: In April, we will begin our field study research--our
ethnographies. We will read some ethnographic studies: Scratch Beginnings, Gang Leader
for a Day, and selections from The Cosmopolitan Canopy. What subculture do you find
fascinating: Gamers? Skiing enthusiasts? Pokémon players? Foodies? Atheists? Vegans?
Teachers? Are you an outsider or an insider? How will you access this group? What
group strikes you as different than you and what makes this so?
In-Class and Out-of-Class Writing:
About every other class, we will do in-class writing exercises designed to help you
generate ideas, begin new pieces, and/or revise existing work. Some of these may
remain fragments or beginnings; others may wind up as complete short essays in
themselves. You must write for the entire time given for the exercise. We will write in
class or in the lab, only. Bring your laptop or device on these days.
Kick-off:
Course Overview, Critical Response One-Pagers, Creative Writing Exercises (Writer’s Craft
Days), Readings, The Portfolio
Rough Schedule: Subject to change based on life as we know it at YCDS.
DAY
Day 1
TOPIC
Conceptions/Preconceptions about Creative
Nonfiction
DUE TODAY
“Good Writing in Any Form”
(Chapter 1)
LOOKING AHEAD
Begin reading: My Friend
Dahmer and Stitches
“Death of a Moth”
“The Death of a Moth”
Response: One-Pager
Day 2
Day 3
Writer’s Craft
The Particular Challenges of Creative
Nonfiction
“Fourth State of Matter”
“Challenges of Nonfiction
Discuss: “Fourth State of Matter”
Response: One-Pager
Day 4
Day 5
Writer’s Craft
The Body of Memory
“Metaphysical Memory”
(Chapter 3)
“So Long Ago”
“So Long Ago”
“A Postcard Memoir”
Response: One-Pager
Day 6
Writer’s Craft
Begin reading: “Notes on a
Native Son,” as is it a bit
long.
Day 7
HWICYMIY—Workshop 2 Pages
Day 8
Writing the Family
2 Pages Due of First Nonfiction
Piece- Extension of a prompt.
“Writing the Family (Chapter 4)
“Notes on a Native Son
“Notes of a Native Son”
“Permission to Speak”
“Permission to Speak”
Response: One-Pager
Day 9
Writer’s Craft
Day 10
The Personal Essay
Day 11
Memoir and The Graphic Memoir
“Why I don’t Meditate”
My Friend Dahmer and Stitches
Dahmer and Stitches
Response: One-Pager
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Sections of The Personal
Essay/Memoir (Chapter 5)
Continue Discussion: Dahmer and Stitches
Personal Essay/ Humor
Introduce Sedaris
Writer’s Craft
The Personal Essay
“The Clan of One-Breasted
Begin Reading: David
Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty One
Day (Collection of personal,
humorous essays)
Women”
“Becoming What We are Called”
“Afternoon of an American Boy”
Response: One-Pager
Day 15
Day 16
Writer’s Craft
HWICYMIY: Writer’s Workshop
Day 17
Lyrical Writing: Finding the Container
2 Pages Due of Second
Nonfiction Piece
“The Lyric Essay” (Chapter 10)
“After Yitzel” (Braided)
“My Children Explain the Big
Issues” (Collage)
“Nine Beginnings” (Hermit Crab)
“How to Become a Writer”
Day 18
Lyrical Writing
Response: One-Pager
“Three Fragments” (Lyric)
“Three Voices” (Lyric)
“My Children Explain the Big
Issues” (Collage)
“Reading History to my Mother”
(Braided)
“The Fine Art of Sighing”
(Hermit)
Response: One-Pager
Day 19
Writer’s Craft: Collage Essay
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Writer’s Craft: Braided Essay
Writer’s Craft: Hermit Crab Essay
Creating Trust with the Reader
DISCUSS: BIG ISSUES AND TRUST
One of these pieces of
writing will develop into
your extended essay.
“A Pact with the Reader”
“Creating Trust”
“Cueing the Reader” (Chapter
2)
“The Coroner’s Photographs”
Day 23
HWICYMIY: Writer’s Workshop
Day 24
Day 25
Writer’s Craft
Writer’s Craft
Response: One-Pager
2 Pages Due of Third
Nonfiction Piece
Day 26
Personal Essay: Sedaris
Day 27
Narrator Personal/Autobiographical Act /
Sedaris
Day 28
Writer’s Craft
Day 29
HWICYMIY-Writer’s Workshop
Day 30
Day 31
Writer’s Craft
HWICYMIY-Writer’s Workshop
Day 32
Day 33
Writer’s Craft
HWICYMIY-Writer’s Workshop
Day 34
Day 35
Writer’s Craft
HWICYMIY-Writer’s Workshop
Day 36
Day 37
Writer’s Craft
HWICYMIY-Writer’s Workshop
Day 38
Day 39
Writer’s Craft
Revision Workshop / Portfolio Assembly /
Discuss Assembly—Table of Contents, etc.
Portfolio Due- Showcase.
Day 40
Me Talk Pretty One Day
Response: One-Pager
“The Autobiographical Act”
(Chapter 2)
Begin reading: Scratch
Beginnings or Gang Leader
for a Day (Preparing for
Field Work /
Ethnographic Writing)
Revised-Complete Draft of 1st
Short Piece
Revision work / peer review
Revised-Complete Draft of 2nd
Short Piece
Revision work / peer review
Revised-Complete Draft of 3nd
Short Piece
Revision work / peer review
First Large Essay Due 3-4
pages (Expansion of a Lyric
Essay-prompt or other)
Revision work
Large Essay Due: Completed,
Rough Draft
Revision work
Revision and assembly of
portfolio.
All Writings are due with a final
reflection.
Portfolio Requirements
1. Title page
2. Table of Contents
a. An organizational system / Dividers
3. Writer’s Craft Prompts
a. Include at least 10
4. Readings with Annotations
a. Highlighting, notations, notes, etc.
5. One-page reactions to readings
6. Three short essays
a. Rough Draft (for each)
b. Final
7. One extended essay
a. Rough Draft
b. Final
8. A final reflection