English 224, Section 5455, Spring 2012

English 224—Online Poetry Writing, Section 5455, Spring 2012
Professor Jessica Barksdale
Email: jbarkinclan@gmail.com
Course Site: http://www.coursecompass.com
Web site: www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
www.redroom.com/author/jessica-barksdale-inclan

Required:

Course Compass access: See my web site under “How to Enroll” to, well, enroll

Ordinary Genius by Kim Addonizio

Buy one of the following:

Interior With Sudden Joy, Brenda Shaughnessy

Come Thief, Jane Hirshfield

A Phone Call to the Future, Mary Jo Salter

Fire to Fire, Mark Doty

From the above texts, you are to pick ONE book to buy. Our main text mentions most of the above poets, and I think your collection report (see below) will be a lot more satisfying and well done is you pick early and start reading your book during the class. That way, what Addonizio says will resonate and you will bring all that information to your report.

Welcome to English 224, a class that is near and dear to my heart. While I have published more fiction, I have been writing and publishing poetry for over thirty years. I hold in the highest regard artists who put their visions on paper, and in this class, you will be doing just that. This is not an easy class.

Some folks sign up for this class, certain that they will be able to post the work they’ve been writing since freshman year high school, dredging up all their childhood poems. This is not the case. In this class, you are going to be starting from the bottom, working your way up through the skills necessary to create vivid poetry. New work only.

If you want to work on a finished collection, you need to find the appropriate class or workshop or editor for that. You can email me separately for information if this is the case, but I won’t accept work that has been shoe-horned into the assignments.

What we are going to be doing is this: We will read quite a bit about poetry, read poetry itself, write poetry, work in groups to create the best poetry we can, and go out into the world to listen to a poet present his or her work. You will write and write and write. And read and read and read. If this does not sound appealing, get out now!

While this is an “on-line” class and we are not meeting in person, there are still the rules of a classroom. The most important step toward a successful class is your careful reading of this syllabus.

**There are due dates and a due time (all Due Dates are Thursdays. The Due Time is 7 pm. Please note that the course is set to EST and military time. Our due time is 22:00 for homework and “in-class” work on the discussion thread. Workshops have additional due dates. See the syllabus. If you post late, you will NOT receive credit for your work. If you post in the last two hours of class, I will not respond but will give you credit. The class needs to move forward, not backward, and asking us to go back with you is not acceptable. If you cannot work the online classroom—the course compass—you need to talk with me immediately.

If from the get-go, you have internet issues, this might not be the class for you technologically. You are required to get online by January 23rd. Do not think that I will allow weeks of “technical difficulties” and take late work. So decide early on if you can do this.

My role in the on-line class is to post lectures on topics (see course documents for lectures each week), respond to your postings, read over your group work within the group discussions, respond to your homework.

The most important aspects of the course compass web site are these:

• Discussion—These areas are where you will post your in-class work or homework, your collection report, and the writer write up, and your final poetry collection. You also will respond to two different people in the class each week.

• Groups—This is the area where you will find your workshop groups and where you will post your poems and respond to each other. The groups will be made available just before workshop dates.

• Documents—This is where the lectures are for each week of study.

• Assignments—This is where you will find the Writer Write Up and Collection Report assignments.

• Course information—This is where the syllabus is posted.

• My email address: jbarkinclan@gmail.com.

Here is what we will be doing this semester:

• You have two choices for weekly work. One choice is homework from the Addonizio text. However, you are responsible for the reading in that book even if you choose to do the in-class work (see below), and then you may pick to do the exercise that is listed for that week. Except for workshop weeks, you will find an assignment listed.

*OR YOU CAN DO*

• The in-class work on the discussion thread. You will respond to the prompt on the thread. Again, you are still responsible for reading in the text. So from the combination of in-class work or homework assignments, you’ll have 10 pieces of work at 10 points each for a total of 100 points. Please do the assignment that you think will help your writing the most.

If you do both assignments (and I encourage you not to), I will only read one.

• We will hold workshops twice times during this semester. You are expected to workshop poems during both workshops. The poems you workshop are writings that you’ve created during this class. 100 points per workshop. The workshops run for two weeks. You receive 10 points for posting on time and 40 points for responding each time, 100 points total for each workshop period.

A workshop only works as well as you do. The basic problem with workshop is that we all want our stuff read, but we don’t really want to have to respond to others. But having others read your work is a crucial, necessary part of the writing process—and learning how to criticize others helps you gain perspective on your own work.

• One revised portfolio of five poems. 200 points.

• A writer write-up. You will go into the world to listen to a poet (live, not taped, videoed, etc) read his or her work. (Go to the assignment page for a full description of what will and will not work for this assignment) 100 points. Hearing other writers read their work and talk about their process is about as important as workshop. If you want to be a writer, this is something you should do as a matter of course.

• Collection report: In this “report,” you are going to focus on the poetry collection as a whole. What is the overriding theme(s)? What techniques does the writer use in all, many, or some of the poems? Are there poems in the collection that seem vastly different than others thematically or imagery-wise? How is the entire collection put together?

And then focus on your response on the literary elements we are learning. How does the writer employ narrative? Imagery? Metaphor? Symbol? Language? Voice, tone, mood? Fixed forms? Rhyme scheme? Where did you disengage? Where did you maintain intense focus? This report should be between 3-4 pages long. 100 points.

• Participation means responding to in-class work to two different people each week.

Here are the rules for my classes:

• I accept no late stories or assignments.
• This course cannot be done when you want to do the work. It’s not an “at your pace” type of thing. If you miss the due dates, you will miss the points. Do not post in advance.
• After four cumulative absences (two weeks of not posting or responding), I have the option to drop you. And I usually opt to drop.
• I offer no extra-credit opportunities.
• Plagiarism is work submitted by you that is not yours. If I feel you have done just that, I will drop you from the class and alert the Dean of Student Services.
• Do not ply me with requests for grade changes after the semester has ended and your grades recorded.

Assignment worth and grade points:

Participation    100    800-720 A
Homework/in-class work    100    719-640 B
Workshops    200    639-560 C
Collection Report 100 559-480 D
Revised poems 200    479 Below F
Writer-Write up 100

Here is the class calendar:

Check each week for lectures under Course Documents.

A note: You are all responsible for reading in the Addonizio text.

August—

You are responsible for getting onto the course site by the first day of the first full week of the semester, January 23. I need to know who is in and who is out, so please do not wait on this.

By January 26th you will have registered for the course, logged onto and become familiar with the course site, posted a brief introduction and completed all your reading, and done this:

26—Homework —Addonizio, Ordinary Genius, read pages 13-46. Pick one exercise: Start from Memory, Write to the Future, or Love Poem #9. Post finished poem

OR

In-class work. (posted under Week One on the discussion board).

February

2—Hm: Addonizio, 47-76, First Door poem p.47-48 or second or third door poems.
OR
In-class work

9—Hm: Addonizio, 81-112, p. 85-Common Object or Poems on 104, 107
Writing exercise
OR
In-class work

16—Hm: Addonizio, 109-134, poem p. 117 or 131
Writing Exercise
OR
In-class work

23—Hm. Addonizio, 135-163, poem p. 151 or 142
Writing exercise
OR
In-class work

March

1— (Posting date for your work to be critiqued is Saturday February 25) Workshop. Just before this date, I will have put you into a group. For this week, you will post a piece that you want critique on, as will your group members. What you workshop must be something written in this class, one of the homework/in-class assignments. Your “work” is to respond to each member’s work at least once this week. Information about how to respond to each other is in the course documents section.

8—Workshop. You will post (by March 3) a revision of your work (or a new piece) and respond to each members’ new posting.

15—Hm. Addonizio, 164-198, poems 173 or 183
OR
In-class work

22—Hm. Addonizio, 199-225, poem 212
OR
In-class work

29—Hm. Addonizio, 226-248, poem 231
OR
In-class work

April

April 2-6 Spring Break

12—Hm. Addonizio, 249-288, poem 253, 277, 284

In-class work

19—Hm. Addonizio, 287 to finish. Any exercise in book of your choice.

In-class work

26—Writer Write Up Due. Post on Discussion Board in appropriate thread.

Workshop. (Posting date April 21) Same plan as the first workshop.