#1 Creative Non-Fiction Essay

Overview: You’ll begin preparation for this paper by completing an Adventure Report, an assignment that will encourage you to stretch your boundaries in the non-written world.  Your Creative Non-Fiction Essay will be derived from the experience you choose for this activity.  The more engaging your experience, the better your writing will be. Don't just catalogue a series of events. The more sensory details you include, the more your reader will feel as though they are right there with you. Even the most grammatically correct writing falls flat if it doesn't come alive for the reader.  Make sure you consider carefully the implications of your narrative. One of the things that distinguishes creative non-fiction from other sorts of narrative writing is that you're not only telling a story but also reflecting upon it in some significant way. Don't just tack a moral on the end. Instead, try to interweave your larger argument throughout, moving back and forth between the offering of vivid details and a discussion of why those details are important to you and your reader.  The final paper should be around 750-1250 words.

Outcomes: The expected outcomes for First-Year Composition in the Georgia Tech Writing and Communication Program can be found here.  The primary goal of this assignment is to develop your critical thinking abilities through making keen observations about yourself, your surroundings, and culture.  While we will be working in a somewhat unconventional genre, the freedom that creative non-fiction allows will force you to be particularly savvy in your argumentative approach, rhetorical strategies, and audience awareness.  Your essay will progress through several drafts, and you will analyze the work of your peers and your own work at each stage.

PART 1:  Adventure Report

This assignment will encourage you to stretch your boundaries in the non-written world; to explore the world in a writerly, playful way.  Henry David Thoreau writes, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”  As writers, it is our job to look.  To look unflinchingly.  To look creatively.  To look intentionally.  And to practice looking.

    To this end, you will complete an Adventure Report (of approx. 500 words), which you will later expand into a Creative Non-fiction Essay. To complete this report, you must fashion a way to engage the technological or non-technological world, an experience that has you engaging with the questions we’ve been discussing thus far--about what it is to be human, about the relationship between humans and their environment, about the relationship between us and our technology. Your report should include an account of the adventure itself and how the adventure affected you. The practice itself is meant to get you to look at something you wouldn't normally look at.  Look, observe, engage, and report. That's what writers do.

    Try to include lots of sensory details in your descriptions.  I recommend working on your report soon after your experience so that it is still fresh in your mind.  You might even take notes during the experience itself, as long as that doesn’t get in the way of having the experience.  Try to revise your writing so that it is polished, but (at this point) you don’t have to worry about having a beginning, an end, an introductory paragraph, a conclusion, a thesis statement, etc.

PART 2:  Opening Paragraph

As you approach this part of your finished essay, you’ll want to start thinking about how you’ll adapt your adventure report into a creative non-fiction essay.  The main distinction here is that you’ll move from describing an experience to reflecting upon the social, political, personal, or philosophical issues the experience raises for you.  Creative non-fiction is all about carefully calculated tangents, allowing your personal experiences to inspire your own thinking about a topic.  For example, if you wrote about being blindfolded for a day, your final paper might discuss that experience as a way of talking about how our culture tends to privilege sight over all the other senses.

    For this assignment, compose a draft of the opening paragraph for your finished essay.  There are many options for how you might begin.  Take a look at my notes on beginnings for some ideas.  Feel free to experiment.  The only rule for this assignment is that you don’t waste your first sentence.  Make sure it’s intentional, well-crafted, and that it forces us to keep reading.  We’ll be workshopping opening paragraphs as a group.  I’ll be choosing a few of your opening paragraphs for us to look at together, so be prepared to have some of your work discussed by the whole class.

PART 3:  Rough Draft

This will be a rough draft of your entire essay that you’ll workshop with a small group of your peers.  Make sure your work has a title and that it is your best first stab at the creative non-fiction essay.  Shoot for around 750-1250 words, the suggested length of the final draft, but don’t worry if you have a little more or less than that at this stage.  You’ll be working in groups of 3-4, so please bring 4 printed copies of your work to class on the due date.

PART 4:  Final Draft

First, the description of this course insists that writing is never done, never really finished.  My hope is that you’ll find cause in your lives or academic careers to return to the work you do here.  So, by “final draft,” I mean the last draft you’ll submit for this class and not some all-mighty, be-all-end-all, utterly perfect piece of writing.  Think polished, revised, a draft you’re content to send out into the world.  E-mail the final draft to me at Jesse.Stommel@lcc.gatech.edu.  As usual, you’re welcome to use an attachment, but please also cut and paste your work into the body of the e-mail.  Make sure your paper has a title, that you’ve incorporated the feedback you got during the peer review, and that you’ve proofread your work. 

PART 5:  Writer’s Letter

Along with the final draft of your paper, you’ll also submit what I am calling a “writer’s letter,” an informal letter that responds to, discusses or questions your experience so far in the class.  This is also a chance for you to write specifically about the paper you are submitting, how you feel about your process, what you think of the final results, what is working, what still needs work, etc.  You are welcome, though, to speak your mind about anything going on in class.  You have creative license in the letters, as well, and may respond in any style, voice, or genre that you find best suited to the task.  The letters are your chance to make the course content personal.  Since we will hopefully discuss your work at one or more stages before I receive the final draft, I will frame my comments to you as a response to this letter, so if there are particular things you’d like me to address about your paper, your writing, etc., this is the place to let me know.  The writer’s letter is due along with the final draft of your essay.  Please include your writer’s letter right at the top of the e-mail you send with your essay.

    As part of your writer’s letter, I am also asking you to offer a self-evaluation and grade for your own work.  Please carefully explain the reasoning for the grade you are giving your work.  Don't be overly modest, but don't be grandiose either.  There should be a reasonable correlation between your other remarks in the writer’s letter and the grade you offer.  Ideally, I would give everyone the grade they give themselves, but I reserve the right to raise or lower grades as appropriate.  If you find yourself having difficulty assessing your own work, you might find the Writing and Communication Program’s rubric useful.  Note that not all portions of this rubric will be equally relevant for each assignment.

#2 Illustrated Argumentative Essay

Overview:  For this assignment, you’ll construct an essay that uses both images and words to make an argument about a subject we’re discussing this semester. 

    The parameters for this assignment are fairly wide open.  You should take some photographs or create new images specifically for this project; however, you can also use existing images (photographs you’ve taken previously or even images from magazines).  When using existing images, I encourage you to manipulate them in some way (with collage, superimposition, captions, etc.)--in order to make them your own.  As the due date approaches, we’ll discuss questions/topics to consider as you’re working, suggestions for possible formats for your illustrated essay.  You should include a short artist’s statement analyzing your own work -- explaining how your project addresses issues we’ve been discussing and drawing connections to one or more texts/films from the course (using direct quotes where possible).

    Here’s the catch:  For this project, you should use only your hands, found objects/art, and non-digital technology.  So, you can use pens, pencils, paintbrushes, hammer and nails, typewriters, polaroids, other non-digital cameras, etc., but you can’t use computers, printers, digital cameras, etc.  Since much of this course is about digital technology, this limitation will force you to engage the analog for this particular assignment.

Outcomes: The expected outcomes for First-Year Composition in the Georgia Tech Writing and Communication Program can be found here.  The primary goal of this assignment is to develop your use of (and analysis of) visual rhetoric.  You will particularly consider the interaction between text and image.  Your visual essay will progress through several drafts, and you will analyze the work of your peers and your own work at each stage.

PART 1:  Sketch or Work in Progress

You can choose to do one of these two things, combine them in some way, or do something else that fulfills the spirit of this assignment.  The idea here is to get you working on your next project.  If you decide to work with a group, you’ll also want to think about how you’re going to work together and/or delegate the various parts of the project, etc.

Things to consider:

1. 1.What angle will you take on your subject?  How will you narrow the focus?
   

2. 2.What’s your tentative thesis?  What are you trying to argue with your work?
   

3. 3.What medium is best suited to your subject. 
   

Sketch:  Map out the visual aspects of your work and write a short paragraph that discusses what you are trying to achieve with your work.

Work in Progress:  Bring a rough draft of your work for the illustrated argumentative essay.  Write a brief description or summary of the various elements of your project.  Think about use value here and with all of these options.  What will your work be about?  What will it argue?  Feel free to incorporate this writing into your artist’s statement.

PART 2:  Final Draft and Artist’s Statement

Bring the final draft of your illustrated argumentative essay to class on the due date.  You should also include a 1-page artist’s statement that reflects on the work and the argument it makes.  In this statement, consider the various rhetorical strategies you use in your work, thinking about both the form and content -- the intrinsic and instrumental value of your essay.  You are welcome to incorporate the artist’s statement into the work itself.

PART 3:  Writer’s Letter

Same as before, although this time you may also want to consider your progress from the first unit of the course to this one.  This is a chance for you to write specifically about the project you are submitting, how you feel about your process, what you think of the final results, what is working, what still needs work, etc.  Remember, though, you are also welcome to speak your mind about anything going on in class and about your performance in the course as a whole.  You have creative license in the letters and may respond in any style, voice, or genre that you find best suited to the task.  If there are particular things you’d like me to address about your work, this is the place to let me know.

    As part of your writer’s letter, offer a self-evaluation and grade for your own work.  Please carefully explain the reasoning for the grade you are giving your work.  Don't be overly modest, but don't be grandiose either.  There should be a reasonable correlation between your other remarks in the writer’s letter and the grade you offer.  Ideally, I would give everyone the grade they give themselves, but I reserve the right to raise or lower grades as appropriate.  If you find yourself having difficulty assessing your own work, you might find the Writing and Communication Program’s rubric useful. 

    In addition to bringing your work to class for this assignment, please send me an e-mail with your writer’s letter and the text of your artist’s statement.

#3 Multimodal Final Project

Overview:  The goal of your final project is to use various composition technologies to investigate one of the important subjects of this course.  There will be two components of the final project: a creative component and an analytical component.  The degree to which these overlap is up to you; however, I would encourage you to integrate the two elements as much as possible.

The creative component can take any of a number of forms, including but not limited to a web page, a Flash animation, a YouTube video, photographs, Powerpoint, an installation, a manufactured device, etc.  The idea here is for you to do a bit of creative work yourself, investigating one or more of the subjects of the course, using whatever style/form/medium you find best suited to the task.  We’ll consider examples together as the semester proceeds.

The other component of the final project will be an analytical paper.  The length of this paper depends on the nature of your creative work.  For example, if you do an elaborate creative project, you might write a short analytical work, drawing connections between your creative work and one or more of the texts we’ve read.  On the other hand, you might write a longer analytical paper about a particular text (or film we’ve watched), accompanied by a more simple creative project that helps illustrate your points.

You are encouraged to collaborate on this project.  In addition to displaying/presenting your work on the final day of class, you should also find a way to create a home for whatever you make on the web.  (You could create a Flickr gallery, upload a video to YouTube, design a web page, display the project on your blog, etc.)  Since we engaged the analog (and analog tools) in the previous project, you might consider ways you can engage the digital (and digital tools) with this one.  You might also consider repurposing your last project for this one.  For example, is there a way to use your analog project as raw material for a digital work that engages similar questions? 

PART 1:  Annotated Bibliography

Compile an annotated bibliography including around 4-6 sources relevant to your final project (at least two of these should be sources that we have not looked at together in class).  In a conventional annotated bibliography, you would include the bibliographical reference (using a format such as MLA or Chicago Style) and a short paragraph discussing how the source is (or will be) important to your work, perhaps including a brief summary and/or pulling out specific points that you find particularly meaningful or relevant.  The final project isn’t a research paper, so how you end up using the various sources in your work will be up to you.  You can analyze them in your work, use them to support the points you make, as a model for the style of writing you do, or as inspiration for the visual component.  Feel free to think outside the box with regard to how your annotated bibliography looks.  If you decide to do something really unconventional with your final project, your annotated bibliography may end up looking equally unconventional. 

PART 2:  Final Project

On the final day of class, you’ll display both components of your project so that we can all read, examine, and interact with each other’s work.  You will simultaneously submit both components of your work to me via e-mail.  Depending on the shape your final project takes, this might be in the form of a link, a photograph of your work, screen shots, a video file, etc.

Rules for the final project:

    1.  It must make an argument, one that people will care about.

    2.  The argument must be supported with compelling textual/visual evidence.

    3.  Your work should investigate something relevant to one or more subjects/texts we’ve considered in class.

    4.  It must draw on, cite, or be inspired by other outside sources.

PART 3:  Final Writer’s Letter

Write a short evaluation of your performance in this class (about 1-page), addressing the following sorts of questions:  How many absences did you have?  How many blog entries did you produce?  Were you prepared for each class?  Did you do all of the required assignments?  How would you characterize your overall effort, interest, commitment to the class?  Did your engagement increase or decrease as the semester went along?  Also, write a brief evaluation of the work you did for the final project.  Finally, what grade do you give yourself for the semester and why?  (Don't be overly modest, but don't be grandiose either—there should be a reasonable correlation between your answers to the previous questions and this one.  Ideally, I would give everyone the grade they give themselves, but I reserve the right to raise or lower grades as appropriate.)

PART 4:  Final Portfolio

The above parts (1-3) are all due on the last day of class.  This part, though, must be uploaded to T-Square anytime before or during the final exam period scheduled for our course.  More details on the portfolio will be coming soon.  The gist is that you will choose representative examples of the various kinds of work you’ve done in this course.  You will compile at least two drafts of a visual artifact, two drafts of a written artifact, and two drafts of an electronic artifact that you’ve produced.  You will also write narrative reflections on each of these artifacts and on your performance while leading class discussion.  This is a programatic requirement and separate from the writer’s letters that you produce for me; however, you are welcome to cut and paste anything from your writer’s letters into these reflections.  You will discover that you have completed 90% of the work for this portfolio by the time you reach the end of the course.  Submitting your portfolio will primarily involve compiling the work you’ve already produced and writing short reflection statements about that work.