For this course students will need to continually interact with the course readings and discussions in two ways: one is the reader's reaction—analysis, interpretation, response; the other is the writer's reaction—craft, imitation, emulation. The vehicle for both these interactions with be the craft journal, a place where you write for twenty-five to thirty minutes about what you find in the texts and how you think the writer put it there. Another way to look at this it to think of the approaches you will be asked to take as both critical and creative, the spectator's role and the participant's role. We learn about literary forms and strategies by not only examining a text but also trying to create a similar text ourselves. Writing is like any other skill—it increases by repetition and rehearsal, by learning through trial and error.

For the first journal entry in the course let's shoot for a grounding of your experience with the literary forms of nonfiction and fiction. Over the next twenty-five minutes (and try to keep writing for that length of time rather than blurt everything out in a few minutes and then bide your time) write about your experience reading and writing nonfiction and fiction forms. What are the most recent or the most memorable or the most difficult works of nonfiction and fiction that you've read? When did you read then? How are they like or unlike the literature you usually read? What do you usually read? What kinds of nonfiction and fiction writing have you done? How do you learn to do that writing? What models influenced your work? Who do you think your writing is comparable to? What leads you to write in the forms you write in? What are your goals or aspirations as a writer? What do you hope to have written in ten years time?

Try to be as specific as you can in this journal entry; try to touch on both nonfiction and fiction, your reading and your writing. What you write may serve as the basis for class discussion of who we all are and where we're coming from in issues of writers' craft.

Link to Journal 2        Link to Journal 3      Link to Journal 4        Link to Journal  5       Link to Journal 6
Link to Journal 7        Link to Journal 8      Link to Journal 9        Link to Journal 10      Link to Journal 11
Link to Journal 12      Link to Journal 13    Link to Journal 14      Link to Journal 15      Link to Journal 16
Link to Journal 17      Link to Journal 18    Link to Journal 19      Link to Journal 20

Link to Course Description Writer's Craft