ENGL& 236 Creative Writing I

5 credits

This course provides students with a multi-genre introduction to the principles and techniques used in creative writing. Students will read contemporary examples of short fiction, poetry, and short plays/screenplays to understand more clearly how different writers employ specific techniques and will write their own original works. Students will “workshop” their stories, poems, and plays to provide regular feedback on their classmates’ work, analyzing and comparing how different literary structures and strategies are used in each genre.

This course meets the Humanities general education distribution requirement. This course can also satisfy the Written Communication general education distribution requirement (though it cannot be counted towards both within the same credential).

Prerequisites: ENGL 99 (or placement into ENGL& 101 or higher)

Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to:

Explore idea-generating techniques and genre conventions to develop stories, poems, and plays/screenplays.
Identify and employ writing techniques in fiction, poetry, and plays/screenplays, such as:
- Theme
- Plot, story, and pacing
- Showing rather than telling
- Description, images, and sound
- Developing scenes
- Creating believable characters
- Creating and sustaining tension
- Creating a particular tone, mood, and voice
- Structure and form
- Dialogue and dialect
- Use of persona, character, and point of view
- Integration of symbols
- Figurative language and repetition
- Syntax and diction
Collaborate to improve writing through the process of constructive criticism, revision, and self-assessment.
Demonstrate effective writing process/productive and sustainable writing habits

College-Wide Learning Outcomes
This course teaches to the college-wide learning outcome of Communication, the ability to engage effectively in verbal, non-verbal, written, and/or symbolic expression.

This course teaches to the college-wide learning outcome of Information Literacy, the ability to recognize when information is needed, to choose the appropriate tools to locate the required information, and to effectively gather and evaluate the information.

Total Hours: 50 Theory (Lecture) Hours: 50