John Goldfine's Web page

Fall 2009 syllabus for English 162:

Course Description: ENG 162 Creative Non-Fiction Writing

WHO I AM: I'm John Goldfine, your EMCC writing  instructor.

CHANGES: Nothing in here is carved in stone. Changes happen—that’s the only thing I know in advance won’t change.

PHONE: I'm available for conversation on writing at 1 800 286 9357 x 4648 (work) and 338-3080 (home) (not after 9 pm or before 6 am, please.) If you don't reach me and want to leave a message, that's fine, but, unless you tell me it's an emergency, please DON'T leave your phone number and ask me to call you back--phone tag is a waste of everyone's time, and I won't return calls that aren't emergencies. EMAIL me instead, okay?

EMAIL: My email address is johngoldfine@gmail.com . Don't use a subject line because that might send your email to my junk mail folder, which I only read when I need muscle enlargements, a million dollars from a Nigerian bank, cut-rate V*agra, or cheap inkjet cartridges.  That would be never.

E-mail me anytime. I will respond to email within 24 hours unless my computer is fried by lighting or another icestorm knocks out my power for two weeks....

*  Please be sure to include your real name and email address with any emails.

*  Please don’t attach anything to your email, ‘cause I don’t open attachments at home.  Copy and paste if you want to send a document. 

*  Don’t put a subject line on emails—sometimes that knocks them into the junk mail folder. 

OFFICE HOURS: I can be reached by phone or email. I will be in or near my office (Room 155 Maine Hall) MWF, office hours on the door, unless my car breaks down or I have a meeting with my boss--that sort of thing.  I’ll be glad to meet with you other times if needed.

MATERIALS: No textbook.  On http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/  there will appear week-by-week assignments, lecture material, syllabus, links, and sample essays you can download onto memory stick or home computer.  That’s your text.  Free.

COMPUTERS: each of you will have your own blog with all your stuff on it  (here's how to create your blog).  That's a permanent record of your work.

But, stuff happens.  You'll want to back up your blog.  Save your stuff somewhere else--on disk, hard drive, flash drive, on another website.  I will probably make mistakes recordkeeping, and I want you to win the discussion when I say, 'I don't have a record that you did that assignment.'  How do you win?  By showing me the assignment.  So, have that backup updated.

You can have blogger automatically send all your posts to an email address, if you go to your blog's  settings/email/fill in blogsend address.

VIRUSES: If you send me material online and include a virus, I won't read any of your online stuff until we've talked and you've assured me you have an anti-virus program, you have updated your protections, and you are clean. If you send me a second virus, I will sadly but surely drop you from my list of  valued correspondents.  Generally speaking I want anything you send me electronically to be copied and pasted.  I only open attachments under extreme duress.

DISABILITIES, HARASSMENT:

The school’s policies outlined in the school catalog—policies on affirmative action, disabilities, sexual harassment, and grievance procedures—apply to this course. 

If you have a documented disability, talk to the ADA coordinator, Elizabeth Worden,  right away so we can plan reasonable accommodations. 

The school’s policies outlined on pp. 12 & 13 of the most recent catalog —policies on affirmative action, disabilities, sexual harassment, and grievance procedures—apply to this course.  If you think I’m discriminating against you or harassing you, you need to blow the whistle on me.  Noah Lundy or Elizabeth Worden should be able to help.

On the other hand, if you dislike something I say in the course of my teaching, conferencing, or lecturing but if what I've said does not seem like any sort of harassment, then you ought to discuss it with me first.

School's nondiscrimination statement here.  School's affirmative action statement her

Fall 2007: new or updated statement now here.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m a total dub when it comes to recordkeeping. I wish it were otherwise, but it isn’t and I’m not going to improve a whole lot at this point. 

That means I'm going to make recordkeeping mistakes. When I make mistakes, I'll gladly eat them and correct my goofs and apologize, as long as you can document your side of the story. In other words, please hang onto your writing all semester and hang on to my replies, reactions, and writer’s checklists.

If you need a teacher who is perfect and who has all the answers and is always right and who gives you that feeling of total security you haven't had since kindergarten, bail out now 'cause it ain't me.

WHAT YOU'LL DO in 162: I've taught this course on line several times before, but I'm still (and always) just feeling my way.   There may be changes.

* You will come to http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/  find prompts.  You will use that prompt to write a short piece and you will post that piece as a comment under the prompt.  Your comment will be open for everyone in the class to read.  I don't want students to comment on other students' pieces.  Each week you will do three prompt reactions.

Just write your own, post it, read any of the others you like.

* Each week I will also post some very brief lecture material on creative nonfiction on  http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/.    You will post a short reaction to what I write as a comment.  A reaction might be agreement or disagreement, a story my lecture material made you remember, a bunch of questions about the material.

* You will also have a blog of your own.  On that blog, you will write a piece based on the week's theme.  I will post the theme and explanatory material on  http://fromswanvilletoyou.blogspot.com/ but you will work on it on your blog, not the class blog.  Understand: you will be using the theme as a key to get into writing stuff you want to write.  The theme isn't a test--it's a springboard.

Some of you may have long-term projects in mind.  You want to use this class to work on them.  Fine, let's talk about that and negotiate how the themes will tie into your stuff, whether assignments can be combined, and so on.

Your theme assignments will be open to the class to read and, if you want,  to comment on.  If you want comments, enable the comment function on blogger.

Sometimes you might write something in a theme assignment you don't want anyone in the class to see.  That's okay--email it to me.

* You can also use your blog to keep a journal.  You want to keep writing, pecking away at stuff, putting down ideas, impressions, bits of overhead conversations, things happening--the blog is the place.  But this part is completely optional.

Overall, you'll explore ways of developing material—using such fictional techniques as dialogue, scene-setting, character development, controlled ambiguity, narrative-voice variations, metaphor —and then create your own pieces.  You'll get a lot of writing practice, see each other’s work, and get detailed attention from the instructor. 

WHY YOU'LL DO IT: writing is always a test of character.  How do you cope with being naked in public, everyone’s worst nightmare?  When given the chance, do you stand tall by climbing onto a pile of former friends’ egos you have just finished crushing?  Both of these character questions often arise in workshop-based writing classes, which this class isn’t.  Yes, this class will be different. 

You’ll all be writing.  You’ll all try to wow each other (one of the big motivators for writers!) because you will have the class as audience.  But you'll be nice to each other and won't need to find something clever or devastating or 'helpful' to say about someone else's piece.  You’ll all get faster, slicker, cleverer, cockier, as you find you can too write everything demanded in the time allowed.  Writer’s block?  Fuhgeddaboudit. 

Again, writing is always a test of character, and when this course is done, your friends will come up and say, “There’s something different about you these days.  Can’t quite put my finger on it, but I like it, whatever it is….”  You will show a spouse or lover a piece you’ve written, and they will smile at you the way they haven’t for years.   You'll have a hard time remembering the poky old you before you took English 162

WHEN YOU'LL DO IT:  online means flexibility, but week by week assignments have to be done.  The prompts ought to be done the week they're given. 

I can offer a little leeway on the themes, but not much.  Here's why: Writing improves with practice, lots of practice, lots and lots of practice.  Practice has to be spread out over the semester--this is NOT a course whose goal is to crank out writing, any writing, squeeze-it-all-in-at-the-end-who-cares.  The goal is to try new things in your writing over an extended period. 

If you start missing a lot of weeks or assignments, I may give you a formal snail mail official warning, as well as an informal email heads-up. Two weeks missed of any one of the types of assignment listed above would probably trigger a warning, and if within a week after the warning, you aren't caught up, I might drop you from the course.

HOW YOU’LL GET YOUR A:

If you miss no more than three prompt, reaction, and theme assignments (three altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for, you will receive an A.

If you miss four, five or six of the prompt, reaction,  and theme assignments (six altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for, you will receive a B.

If you miss more than six of the prompt, reaction, and theme assignments (more than six altogether, combined) and any revisions I ask for,  you will receive an F.

ATTENDANCE POLICY: this is an online course, and you can come and go as you please.  But if you're going to be away from a computer for a while, better talk to me about it.  Feel free to come to class in your pajamas.

SCHOOL AND JAIL:

Some of you have come from  a place where authority figures watch your every move.  They check your name off to make sure you’re where you’re supposed to be every second of the day.  They get angry if you wear forbidden clothes or carry contraband or eat certain foods at certain times and places.  They are always on the lookout for drugs.  They worry that you’re trying to manipulate the system, take over and run the place, form cliques.  If they don’t like your attitude, they may write you up, put you in solitary, send you to Supermax, deny you privileges, threaten your future.  And, of course, all this is being done to make you a better person.

After a few years of being treated this way, all you can think about is the day when you’re sprung and can hit the streets, free!

Prison?  Nah, all too often that’s public high school I’ve just described.  You’ll notice I said nothing about learning anything.  Students and teachers are so busy hating each other, doing numbers on each other, hassling—they sometimes forget why they’re supposed to be there.

It can be comforting to be in prison instead of school because learning is hard and so is teaching.  If you approach this class expecting that I’m going to hassle you about your appearance, your lateness or absences, your food and soda, your homework coming in late, and so on—you’re going to be disappointed.  You may get mad at me for not providing you with the discipline you need.  Tough!  Provide your own!  This ain’t high school!

The only thing I claim expertise in is writing.  I can’t make you a better person.  I’m not going to try.  Naturally, I want you to be neat, clean, polite, punctual, organized, friendly, chem-free, hardworking, and cheerful.  But the only thing I’m going to talk to you about is your writing.

When we get to the writing, I’ll have a lot to say.

THE WRITING FACTORY:

If one thinks of an English course as a Writing Factory, it doesn't really matter much when material is comes in; after all, the teacher is the shop foreman and all he cares about is seeing that the production schedule is met. He checks off the assignments and lets the Big Boss know that all is chugging along well on the shop floor.

Many English courses are run that way. Essays have to be so many words long and have a certain look to pass quality control and that's that. You get your grade, punch the clock, and go home.

You must believe me when I tell you that my time as a steel fabricator on the shop floor at Lasko Industries in West Chester, Pennsylvania in the late sixties turned me off forever to factory work.

My job is not to ratify that certain assignments have been done. It is to help you improve your writing. You write, I read, I think, I react, you think, you react to my reaction, you rewrite--maybe we get somewhere.

So, when I assign you two intros in ENG 101 on two different dates and an outro on a yet another date, it isn't because I have a big jones for intros and outros. It's because when I get an intro--long before the final essay--I can help with that long essay. There are pitfalls I can help you avoid. Ideas I can run by you. Mistakes you're not experienced enough to see yet. All from intro #1.

And when I assign a second one, it's so your mind will dance with the material a little, so you come it in several ways. I assign the outro out of order because the outro should depend on graf 1, not grafs 2-3-4. This is intensive for you and intensive for me, but I think it's a good way to teach and learn, and I don't mind the extra work.

But the assignments become a meaningless farce, when I see everything--intro 1, intro 2, outro, final draft, and metagraf--all posted at the same time. What's the point? I can't use the intermediate assignments to teach anything, so why would I read them? I have to deal with a complete essay I haven't been able to offer any guidance on as it developed. It's harder for me to explain problems, and typically because it's 'finished' it's harder for you, the student to work with me anymore. Goldfine, a student might think, give me my flippin' C and call it good--I want to punch out and go home.

If I were a student and a teacher asked me to hand in a piece without offering a hand, I'd feel cheated. As it is, you're cheating yourself of the chance to learn and me the chance to teach. You may not, but I feel cheated.

If you give me nine things to look at it, it's nine times more work for me than dealing with one thing, but it's exactly as useful to your learning as if you had given me one thing. One thing or nine--you still have to sleep on it and think about it.

So, ENG 101 or 162, please don't give me a bunch of saved-up assignments all at once.

WHY WRITING IS SUCH A PAIN: Writing improves over time with lots of practice, like any skill. For most of us it is a skill to be worked on, not some mysterious God-given talent. That means lots of blood, sweat, and tears.

GETTING HELP: Please let me do my job and help you if you’re having big troubles—or little ones.  If you find yourself, late some night, up against a deadline, tired, out of ideas, desperate, panicky, and tempted to submit work that isn't yours--the thing to do is forget the deadline and get some sleep. In the morning, get in touch with me. I can cut you slack on deadlines, help you with ideas, and generally buck you up. This is my job. Let me do it!

CONFUSION: A certain amount of confusion always happens at the beginning of any course while you sort out what you need to do and not do--and so do I. Be prepared for that mentally, and don't let it steamroller you. I'm sympathetic and it will pass, I promise.  We’ll all make mistakes until we find our groove—me as well as you.  Be patient with my mistakes and I'll return the favor!

And help me do better by letting me know the good and bad stuff  when I survey you! Or any time!