Reading Responses
The best writing is derived from the best reading. Therefore, this class is reading intensive. You will be asked to respond to your reading (textbook or handouts) in class every day. These reading responses will take the form of quizzes, written responses to a particular prompt, and sometimes more creative or experimental exercises such as oral responses or participation responses. Read the assigned texts thoroughly. Practice active reading. Use the readings as a record of your thinking and reflecting on the course material. Reading responses (including in-class discussions) will be worth 10% of your final grade.
Writing Responses
Reading and responding to the writing of others helps you read your own writing more carefully and critically. Therefore, you will be required write critical, constructive responses to the writing of your peers (at least one written response each workshop day). You will submit thorough, thoughtful comments that your assigned writer can act on in their revisions. Writing responses will be worth 10% of your final grade.
Formal Writing
You will be responsible for eight poems and two revisions. These works will be discussed more fully in separate assignment sheets. Please read and reread these assignment sheets and follow them closely. The poems should not exceed3 pages per poem, single-spaced, flush left margins (no centered poems), and titled. Include your name, and your email address, no need for more (bottom right footer). Use 1 inch margins. No insulting, page-lengthening, goofball spacing font arrangements. Drafts of poems and revisions will be worth 50% total.
This final portfolio will give you a chance to return once more to your writing and make it as successful as it can be. At the end of the semester after the reading and workshops are completed, and after you have received your comments from me, you will apply your new knowledge and experience to your work one last time. This final portfolio will be a testament to your understanding of yourself as a writer and of your chosen genre. It will consist of a minimum of 8 to 20 pages of perfectly revised poetry writing and a two-page reflection. Submit by email to: tmorris@georgiasouthern.edu. Think of this portfolio as your professional work, ready for submission. Your portfolio will be worth 30% of your final grade.
Attendance
This is a class that depends on your being there. Your participation, readings responses, and quizzes cannot be made up. Therefore, you must be in class (and attend your assigned outside meetings). You are allowed three absences. No excuses. No penalties. After three your grade will be dropped a letter per absence; you will be dropped from the course with a WF after seven absences. Excessive tardiness will also impact reading response averages and accumulation of absences.