In this workshop course focusing on expressive nonfiction, students will explore how to craft nonfiction narratives of varying lengths from a half-formed idea or impulse. The focus will be twofold: first to generate ideas for pieces based on individual interests, with some suggestions, then to work with different scales and narrative strategies. (This kind of work might also serve as preparation for the Capstone.) Building on the elements of craft students have already explored at earlier levels (language, structure, research, revision), students will develop short and more extended pieces over the semester. Readings will cover a range of nonfiction narratives and writers’ reflections that serve as models of creative problem solving. Throughout the semester, we will grapple with a perennial writer’s question: I have an idea – now what do I do with it? Must be enrolled in one of the following Classifications: Junior, Fifth Year or Senior. Pre-req of LLSW 3510 Intermediate Non-fiction minimum grade of C.

ADVANCED NON-FICTION: CONSTRUCTING THE REAL. This advanced Non-Fiction course will serve as a meeting point between your pasts and futures as writers. You will take stock of your college writing and reading so far, and use earlier discoveries to push those experiences into new dimensions. You will produce, over the semester, three substantial (circa 10 pages) pieces of writing, which you will then subject to guided revisions. These pieces can serve as the bases for your final Capstone project - and/or future writing. You will also revisit the psychological and experiential impulses that led you to writing in the first place, and, through articles, essays, memoir fragments and experimental prose, explore other writers’ motivations to write, and their craft solutions. Exploration and risk-taking will be emphasized throughout the semester, along with a rigorous analysis of the craft displayed in your own and your peers’ writing, and in course readings.