CWE Outline

Creative Writing Emphasis

Emily Fairchild
Adam Humes
Melissa Carter
Cherise Jenkins

Overview

The Creative Writing Emphasis offers courses and training in the four creative writing genres: poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and playwriting. The wide variety of faculty members at UVU offers students different perspectives and experience with texts and writing styles. Students are encouraged in studying published creative works of all genres to analyze structure, rhetoric, style and other writing elements to implement the knowledge in their own creative writing practice.

Students work in peer-review settings to critique, workshop, and revise their own work and the work of their peers. The Creative Writing Emphasis offers a community of writers, readers, and stories that helps students develop techniques and skills to participate in and contribute to the field of creative conversation.

Course Requirements

Emphasis Requirements: 27 Credits

Complete ALL of the following:

• ENGL 3420 Intermediate Fiction Writing 3.0

• ENGL 3440 Intermediate Poetry Writing 3.0

• ENGL 3450 Intermediate Creative Nonfiction

Writing (3.0)

• ENGL 412R Studies in Literary Genres 3.0

Complete TWO from the following: 6.0

• ENGL 4420 Advanced Fiction Writing (3.0)

• ENGL 4430 Play Writing for Creative Writers (3.0)

• ENGL 4440 Advanced Poetry Writing (3.0)

• ENGL 4450 Advanced Creative Nonfiction

Writing (3.0)

Complete 9 upper-division credits of ENGL coursework beyond those courses taken to fulfill discipline core or emphasis requirements.

9.0

Skills

            As a result of being acquainted with a variety of creative authors and writing, students will develop skills and techniques to expand opportunities in their chosen career and creative endeavors. Some of the skills include:

Communication

Revision

Editing

Grammar comprehension

Critiquing and Workshopping

Figurative Language

Evaluate and Analyze Writing

Awareness of rules and conventions of each genre (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, play writing)

On-Campus Opportunities

Touchstones - the University's literary journal for creative non-fiction, poetry, fiction prose writing, and fine art and photography. Students edit and manage the publication process, and student submissions are accepted for Fall and Spring semesters.

Warp & Weave - the University's sci-fi/speculative journal for fantasy, horror, magical, and other mystical topics in prose and poetry genres, as well as art and photography of the same nature. Students edit and manage the publication process, and student submissions are accepted for Fall and Spring semesters.

Hex and UVU Review - Student newspaper on campus offering journalism and communications experiences. Hex is the entertainment and arts section of the paper, listing artistic events in the upcoming week and spotlighting student writing for articles or creative writing submissions. Student management makes an effort to push its section into the community at various artistic venues throughout the Utah Valley community.

National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR) - a conference that provides students with opportunities to present their creative writing for national recognition.

Utah Conference of Undergraduate Research (UCUR) - a conference that provides students with opportunities to present their creative writing for state recognition.

English Club—provides a community of writers that meet weekly. Activities include: writing workshops where students communicate with peers to receive and give valuable feedback for revision; Open Mic Nights where students improve reading aloud and reciting work; and featured readers that bring valuable experience and instruction to students.

Career and Graduate School Options

After completion of courses, students will be prepared for specific careers and graduate school opportunities. Students often pursue the following options:

Editing

Technical Writing

Publishing

Freelance Writing (websites, journals)

Academia

Journalism

MFA

DR

Law School

Hamblin's interview

Note-- this will be a bit random.

"These are the wrong questions. We're here because we love it."
"Connection with words, it feeds us."

How would you define the CWE?
     do creative writing compared to others (tech- precise exact words, creative- language uses metaphor and figurative speech. they both talk about the same topics but use different view points)
     community of creative writers--same values and interests
     space and place to do it
     readership and writership


What skills do you feel the students will receive? What skills are you hoping to teach? What can students learn in classes?
     metaphor


What common jobs are there after graduation?
    none.
    be careful with self-publishing. you may get good readership if pulp fiction. readership through word of mouth.


"Will be given an awareness and sensity of life given the ability, to maneuver in a complex world, not something you can leave qualified for jobs."

"More full life, a life filled with metaphor."

What are common on-campus opportunities for CWE students?
     community of writers/readers/thinkers/passionate people who make it happen
     ambitious/passionate students who care deeply about writing
     English Club, literary magazines, open mics, guest readers come in
     our students go to Ncur and Ucur to present their creative writing in national forms and do well, rad papers next to the best of them. financial support to get to these conferences
     mentoring process that's good at UVU, lots of help-- national conference for undergraduate research, proposal to engaged learning center and faculty sponsor needed.


What do you like about the required courses in CWE?
     most any class deb thorton teaches, even though it isn't CW (can't use this lol)
     great faculty here
     go see Sam or Dawn


How would yo counsel students in planning which courses would be best for them individually?
    when doing school work, think "how can this work for me for publications, presentations, portfolios" rather than just doing the assignment, work for me in the broadest way possible
    portfolios--showing this is the quality of my work,


Because they learn metaphor their lives will be deeper and richer, will lead to passion, joy, beauty, glory, horror, tragedy, in all things.

"Where is the question about what does passion have to do with this major???"


UVU versus  other universities (which we don't want to focus on too much because this wasn't our goal)
     we're unique--still student/teaching directed, teaching load 4/4 compared to 2/3 at other schools
     more focus on teaching than research so more time spent on students
     teachers are "here in ways for students in ways that aren't so much at other universities."
    " level of commitment to individual students and to their writing is remarkable here."
     *these are my opinions and observations while teaching and knowing staff from other schools.

Interview with Dr Nichols

How would you define the "Creative Writing Emphasis?"
     Provides extra classes in English--deeper knowledge of creative writing.
     Many students come to UVU loving to read and want to enter that conversation. A good  desire--often concerning novels.
     For those who desire to enter the writing conversation--the ability to tell a good story with techniques.
     Gives students practice and techniques for that even if they don't have immediate jobs.


What skills do you feel the students will receive in CWE?
     Learn to write, to use language concisely and accurately
     An important life skill, if they can't do that they won't be published--and if you can do this, you can do just about anything (A LIFE SKILL)


What skills are you hoping to teach students?
     To read better-- to evaluate what is read, to find the truth or facts
     Techniques of each genre-- awareness of rules and conventions, to have a tool box when they leave (fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, play writing)
     Workshopping--life skill, reading better, communication better, learning to suspend judgement to give valuable feedback, need the ability to give feedback courteously and accurately.


What are common jobs CWE secure after graduation?
     Editing (smart to take these classes) (This is where the money is)
     Technical writing/communications (This is where the money is)
     Teaching
     To get into someone's head to understand them is valued in medical, psychological, and teaching fields (These fields like these skills!)


What are common grad school programs?
     may look into MFAs--don't advise unless they are really clear that all they want to do is write (because there isn't money in it)
     recommend going into critical and literature MA programs
     law programs and MBA programs (communication skills again) (sometimes MD [doctors]) (sometimes psychology by programs don't always take them)


What are projects emphasized that students can include in portfolio?
     at least 2 completed, revised works in each genre--from the workshop classes
     asked to submit work (sometimes publications)
     more completed poetry works since they are small


 What are the on campus opportunities for CWE students?
     Touchstones and Warp + Weave -- editing, publishing
     English Club -- guest writers to learn from (English program also has done this in the past, talk to Lee Mortensen for list of names brought in the past)
     Conferences to be involved in--Writing for Social Change, Peace and Justice both always ask for creative work to be spotlighted
     Leadership opportunities in journals and English Club

What do you like about the required courses in CWE? Which upper-division classes would you suggest?
     technical communications, lit criticism, history of language, editing
     anything that can strengthen your understanding of the language.
     any and all literature class, the more you know it better, the better you can join it (writing conversation)


How would you counsel students in planning which courses would be best for them individually?
     look what their preferences in genre is and see what they're interested in and go from there.


Anything else they should know?
     Something about the trend to self-publishing and digital design--makes these classes more important (Digital Document Design), the more they know what this is it'll be helpful.

The Lakers Pages

There's a lot of information that could be contained on this page.  So I will do my best to categorize strategically so that all the essential information is there.

I've decided to split it into the following categories:
Intro- You know what that is!

History:  This page will just give a brief history of the team that will include great coaches, players, seasons, and information about past playoff wins.

Video, Photos & Memes: Continuing on with the New Media ideas from Manovich, this page will bring together some of the videos, photos and memes that are popular about the Lakers as well as incorporate some of the fan art that has been on the website already.   This will be a great way to show about 

Archives:  What do real fans actually want when it comes to their favorite sports team?  They want to hear about how they are doing, what people have to say about them, news and info about key games, projections, and all that jazz.  On the Archive page I plan to provide a link center that can direct to different articles in their various forms that discuss all you need to know about the Lakers.

Store: Finally, to make the site more interactive, I plan to have a page that provides options to buying paraphernalia, tickets, and whatever else you would need to be a super fan.

breast cancer in 5...4...3...2...

Wow, creating a blog post from a Droid is not as fun as it sounds. This post will be real unfancy, folks. My apologies appear here at the start and nowhere again, so take 'em in as you need 'em. I totally forgot about starting up new blog posts last week and where I did read all your posts, I didn't comment. I've been overwhelmingly under-motivated lately, even to the point where I entertained the idea of changing my topic because I didn't want to think as hard as breast cancer will make me. But I'm sticking to it. For now. I haven't had time for research this weekend, so I won't really flesh out my five pages ideas with factual fodder, but I'll throw the ideas out there. 1 Intro page! To delight and entice and historicize 2 Prevention page! To offer menu and exercise and self-exam tips 3 Survivor page! Showing the stories and advertisements of hope and conquest 4 Cause page! Donation involvement and location of cancer care centers. The "how you can be involved" page. 5 My own experience page! No, I didn't have breast cancer. But I did an experiment last year where I didn't wear a bra for the entire month of November and kept record of my experiences as well as made an effort to visit the huntsman institute in salt lake and get a mock mammogram, etc. I wrote all about it. This page will display my words and photographs. (No you won't get to see my boobs.) Overall my tone will be mostly serious and somewhat light-hearted. As far as color, I'm sure various pinks will appear. Layout, not specifically inspired yet. Anyone out there have awesome ideas for layout/presentation? Interested in seeing what y'all come up with. Thank you for your patience in reading just words.

Rage Page

So, looking at what I've got on this blog as well as what I usually find while I troll meme oriented websites. I have decided to go with these following four categories: regular comics, other memes, videos, and face definitions.

So, regular comics would just have some normal rage comics in it. There will be a break down of how they work. I'd link Manovich's principle on transcoding. The old media in question are regular strip comics, like those in the news papers. The new media interaction shows the transition into comics on the internets.

Videos will include those that are already on the blog. I will most likely find more. Maybe I'll link a playlist from youtube onto the website. The principle I'll talk about here I think so far is variability. Variability will work here because it is a different kind of media but the same kind of subject.

The next subject I'll tackle will be other memes. Rage comics tend to show up in other memes as a punchline or something similar. While variability would work very well here, I think I'll go with modularity. Because the comics can break down into different memes, they will have a similar feel, but different in forms because the rage comics will only be a part of the punchline.

And lastly, I think a page devoted to some of the more common rage faces will be appropriate. I can show where some of them came from, like the pictures that circulate the internet, and explain what they're supposed to mean. I think that this will help some of them make more sense as well as reference different memes in and of themselves. I don't know which Manovich principle would help here, because I've already used the three that I think will work here. So, if you're looking to comment on something (hint, hint), I could use some help. Are my principles appropriate? And if they are, what should go with my last subject?

Comment Due Date Clarification

Just a random question, but are blog comments due Saturday or Sunday morning? I've been posting my late comments (I try to do it before hand but I forget sometimes..) on Saturday night or super early Sunday morning thinking they were due Sunday morning. But all of a sudden I'm doubting myself. When are they due exactly? I hope I haven't been doing this wrong...

Thanks!

Elves Layout

I'm still playing with two options for my website: whether or not to include sections on the working elves. I'm sure I could provide enough information alone from only focusing on the fantasy elves that don't work for Santa, but I don't want to exclude Santa's workers because of the culture in them. Maybe you guys have an opinion?

So my plan for the 4 other pages is this: 1 is dealing with memes, 2 deals with fanart, 3 deals with videos, 4 deals with web comic strips. If I include the Santa's elves, I would probably combine pages 2 and 3 since they are smaller, or remove page 2 completely since most of the art is pictures of video games. I think this decision will be made as I finish compiling all the information. If I need more to talk about or a particular section doesn't have enough information, I'll use the working elves. I like the working elves--Dobby from Harry Potter provides a huge fan culture.

Page 1: memes. There are tons of memes out there, as noted in a previous blog post. I was thinking I would talk about why there were created and their affects of the fan culture. I'd provide examples of the different memes, referencing video games and movies. It would be fun to have a section that talks about the influences of memes on each other concerning elves.

Page 2: fanart. This is the iffy section. Most of the fanart is pictures of elves drawn to model World of Warcraft. I think. There might be another video game in the mix--I'll make sure with references when I write the content. But there is some fanart from movies and such; it would be cool to compare the underdog movie art to the video game popular art. And most pictures are of beefy men or sexy women with little clothes. There is culture in that, which would be good to discuss.

Page 3: videos. There are tons of them. How to catch elves, music collages, etc. This section has tons of material. It'll be fun to compare them and show how they've affected the fandom culture.

Page 4: web comic strips. There are quite a few out there, not all of them drawn well, but it would be a good section to include. I want to go into the ideas of the comic, reasons they were drawn, among other things. I'm still working this section out. I haven't read all the comics yet and some of them are hard to get through due to bad story line and crappy drawings, but those would be good to talk about as well.

Page: working elves. This is where it gets tricky. Do I include their own page? It could appear like "Hey, don't forget I exist! We work, aren't pretty, but do have magic." Or I could thread the information about these working elves throughout the rest of the pages. Like a comparison that I've done so far in my other blog posts. This is a decision I still need to make. Maybe those who comment will have ideas or preferences about what I've been thinking of doing.