Katharine Weber

Introduction to Fiction Writing

ENGL 200

This course introduces students to the elements of fiction writing. While each section of the course will vary in approach and structure, activities and assignments may include intensive reading, workshops, writing, short and flash fiction, and exercises emphasizing various aspects of fiction such as place, dialogue and character. Students should check the online schedule for specific descriptions of each section. Check with the English Department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Prerequisite: submission of writing sample and permission of instructor. Offered annually in multiple sections.

Creative Nonfiction Workshop

ENGL 202

Students in this workshop will write imaginative nonfiction in any of its traditional forms: memoirs, reflections, polemics, chronicles, idylls, lampoons, monographs, pamphlets, profiles, reviews, prefaces, sketches, remarks, complaints -- anything but the traditional college essay. As in other writing workshops, attention in class will be paid above all to the writing itself, word by word, sentence by sentence. Check with the English Department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Prerequisite: submission of writing sample and permission of instructor. Offered annually.

Writing Fiction, Nonfiction and other Narrative Forms

ENGL 204

This course is an introductory workshop in which students will develop skills in a range of narrative strategies, reading a variety of texts: fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and graphic novels and memoirs, as well as blog essays and other relatively new formats and styles of literary expression. As these multiple forms are explored in the course of the semester, students will write new material each week, with an emphasis on understanding structure, pace, setting, time, dialogue, character and narrative voice. Students will be encouraged to experiment with fiction and nonfiction approaches to the same material. The workshop will pay rigorous attention to language and form, sentence by sentence, and will also focus on developing insights and strategies for revision.Students in this class are assumed to possess basic English writing competence and mature ability to give and receive thoughtful criticism. Permission of instructor required.

ST: Creative Writing Workshop

ENGL 291

Advanced Fiction Writing

ENGL 300

This workshop will focus on discussion of participants' fiction as well as on exercises and playful experimentation. Principally, we will be concerned with how stories work at every level. As we consider narrative strategies and practical methods for developing individual styles, along with approaches to revising work, we also will read, as writers, a variety of outside texts. Check with the English Department administrative assistant for submission deadlines. Prerequisite: ENGL 200 or 202, submission of a writing sample and permission of instructor. Offered annually.

Senior Seminar in Creative Writing

ENGL 405

Offered in more than one section each spring semester, this seminar is required for English majors pursuing an emphasis in creative writing. The course will involve critical work on a topic chosen by the instructor (such as "Reliable and Unreliable: Investigating Narrative Voice," "Beginnings and Endings," "The Little Magazine in America" and "Documentary Poetics") to provide context and structure for students' creative work. Students should check online listings for the specific focus of each section. Although not primarily a workshop, this seminar will require students to work on a substantial creative project (fiction, nonfiction or poetry). Students pursuing honors will take ENGL 497 rather than the Senior Seminar. Prerequisite: open only to senior English majors who are completing the emphasis in creative writing.

ST: Sr Sem in Creative Writing

ENGL 491

Individual Study

ENGL 493

Individual study is a privilege reserved for senior majors who want to pursue a course of reading or complete a writing project on a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum. This option is intended to supplement, not take the place of, coursework. Individual study cannot normally be used to fulfill requirements for the major. Typically, an individual study will earn .5 unit of credit, although in special cases it may be designed to earn .25 unit. To qualify for individual study, a student must identify a member of the English Department willing to direct the project and, in consultation with him or her, write a proposal, which must be approved by the department chair. The one- to two-page proposal should describe a preliminary bibliography (and/or set of specific problems, goals and tasks), outline a specific schedule of assignments and describe in some detail the methods of assessment. The student also should briefly describe any prior coursework that particularly qualifies him or her for this project. The department expects the student to meet regularly with the instructor for at least one hour per week or the equivalent. The amount of work submitted for a grade should approximate that required, on average, in 400-level English courses. In the case of group individual studies, a single proposal may be submitted, assuming that all group members will follow the same protocols. Students are urged to begin discussion of their proposals well in advance, preferably the semester before the course is to take place.