About the Weekly Writing Assignments

English 151/2/320 points each

The Weekly Writing Assignments have three parts. Staple them together in the order below, from top to bottom:

The Reflection
The Assignment itself
Any notes and drafts

1. The Reflection

Format: Word-processed and double-spaced.

Length: 150-250 words (about a page).

What’s in the reflection? In this reflection, discuss your process of writing this piece. I want to know about what went into your writing, and about your engagement with all aspects of the writing process—generating, drafting, re-drafting, revising, editing, etc. Use the following questions as prompts, focusing on any of them that seem appropriate for your writing.

If there were options for the assignment, which one did you choose and why?
What do you like best about this piece?
What are you still dissatisfied with?
How did you get started on the assignment?
What changes did you make as you worked on it? Why?
Discuss your drafting and revision process.
How did you feel while writing it?
Were there any places where you got stuck? What did you do?
How did the readings in the textbooks affect your writing?
What was most engaging/least engaging about the assignment?
What feedback did you get and what did you think about that feedback?
How did you use the feedback, if you used it?
Did you have a particular intention for the piece?
Did the intention change?
What specific feedback would you like from the instructor?

2. The Assignment Itself

Format for poetry:

Word-processed
Single or double-spaced.
If one line of poetry is longer than the width of the page and so wraps around into a second line, indent the second line by five spaces (one tab) to show that it is really a continuation of the line above.
All poetry assignments should use conventional punctuation and capitalization. True, some writers omit punctuation and capitalization, or use them unconventionally—but we will see that they direct readers nevertheless, by managing phrasing, grammar, white space, and linebreaks. We will practice these techniques while we use conventional punctuation to help us understand what we’re doing.

Format for fiction:

Word-processed
Double-spaced.
Indent to start a new paragraph.
To indicate passage of time or a distinct change of scene, skip a line between paragraphs.
Use conventional dialogue format. Examples are in our Writing Fiction text, pages 128, 129, 130, and 131. Also find them online at Basic Dialogue Format for Narrative.
Use conventional spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Length: This will be variable, depending on the assignment, but fiction should usually be

2-4 pages. Poetry is much harder to gauge, and besides, some forms have specific

line requirements. Generally, since the assignments are based on poems in the book, you can use those specific poems as guidelines. In general, for both poetry and fiction, generate a lot of material for your drafts, and then pare that down for your completed assignment.

Specific assignments are given for each week. You will receive detailed assignment sheets.

Frequently Asked Questions about Weekly Writing Assignments

How many drafts of the assignment should I write before I turn it in? It is expected that you will work, struggle, practice, and experiment to turn in for your weekly writing a piece that has been through several versions, that is as fine and full as you can get it on your own. Please ask for help and advice with taking your initial drafts further!

Does grammar count? All unconventionalities and errors should be explained by the requirements of tone and form and character. (You can discuss this in your Reflection if you are purposely using odd grammar. You are expected to proofread your work. You may find (or be told by me) that you need to review the basics of English, such as sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation. Take it upon yourself to do this work on your own. The English Department often uses The Everyday Writer, by Andrea Lunsford, and there are many excellent online resources, such as the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue. Also, Page One can be very helpful. Many tutors there are expert creative writers.

Are you saying to yourself, “But wait, this is creative writing. I don’t have to worry about being correct”? For the duration of this class, abandon that idea. You have to master language so that you can use it for amazing flights and deep plunges. Every nonstandard usage must serve the work, and will be examined for the degree to which it serves or distracts.

Copies and sharing your work:Bring three copies of your work on each Weekly Writing due date. On these days, we’ll have workshop activities in which you’ll share your work with a small group, or perhaps even conduct experiments on multiple copies on your own. One of these copies can be the one you’ll then turn in to me, with your Reflection and any other notes.

Should I Save Drafts? Yes, get used to saving your drafts. For whatever piece you choose to revise for the Midterm and Final Revisions, you’ll need to turn in your drafts. Also, during the course of writing an assignment, you may want to go back to early versions.

How to Save Drafts:

If you compose on the computer, you can simply save and print out your work after each work session.
You can also save drafts by starting a folder for each piece, and, each time you work on it, saving a new version and titling it with the number of the draft.
If you write by hand, you’ll have paper copies of your drafts. If you don’t want to keep the paper around, you can photograph it or scan it and save it.
I recommend Turboscan, a smartphone app, that quickly makes scans of just about anything. You can easily scan your various handwritten notes that way.

I’ve never done drafts of my creative work before. How do I get started? Here are some suggestions:

Freewriting: I often suggest beginning with freewriting, simply spilling out sentences onto the page. You can mine this material for images or phrases to use in your final work.

Listing: Sometimes lists can help you begin. Make lists of images, of words, of sounds, of things your character might say, of memories your character might have…

Sentence revision: As you draft, you might experiment with different ways of writing and revising sentences, for example. You might seek more active verbs. You might develop specific sense-images and substitute them for generalities.

Hard-nosed editing: Let your finished assignment remove every word that doesn’t contribute to the effect, let it eliminate redundancy, let it replace cliché with originality!

Experiment: Your drafts might be places to experiment with imitating the material we read. If you notice certain effects in a story or poem, a certain mood, point of view, or a certain kind of musicality, you might try to imitate that in your own work to see what happens.

Make notes: may consist of any number of explorations: lists of words, notes on something you looked up on the internet that you might want to use in your piece, diagrams you drew of your characters’ interactions, etc.

Use the Reflection: Additionally, your Reflection can discuss your drafting process, so it will give me some idea of the drafting you did.

Grading

The Weekly Writing represents writing that is still in progress, still in its early stages, so it is not appropriate to grade it for literary quality. Instead, it is graded as follows, for a total of 20 points:

Reflection, 5 pts: Shows your involvement with the writing process, includes plentiful detail about your writing process, your drafts, and your decisions and thoughts when writing.
Engagement with the assignment, 10 pts: You have fully engaged in the constraints and opportunities of the assignment, using it to discover new ways of writing and what new things to say.
Grammar and Proofreading, 5 pts: The assignment itself is free of distracting errors. Any unconventionality is explained by the needs of voice and character, and serves the piece as a whole.

To this point grade, I will add my comments about what is most wonderful and delightful in your work, and I will suggest ways it might be urged to a more fully realized revision.