Early in the semester, you
need to decide on a topic for the creative non-fiction
project you will complete for this class. The topic you
select must involve you personally during this semester. The
end product of this project should be a 15 to 20 page (3500 -
5000 words) creative non-fiction essay on the research you complete this
semester.
This research should be
appropriately sophisticated and should include (1)
information gathered through direct personal experience,
interviews, or other "hands-on" work (primary
research) and (2) information collected from other people's
work, library research (secondary research). This secondary
research involves collecting information from professional
journals, government reports, or other sophisticated sources.
To complete this secondary research, you will not want to
rely solely on popular magazines or newspapers.
The project needs to be
directed at a specific audience and meet that audience's
interests. Further, your final essay should not merely
summarize the information you collect; rather, you will want
to interpret and analyze the information you present to meet
your audience's needs and to make it interesting to your
audience. Part of your job will be deciding who your audience
is for your essay and writing it so you meet your readers'
needs and interests.
By the third or fourth week
you should have decided on a subject area. Then you can focus
on a specific topic, do research, refine the topic and find a
specific focus, research background information, and develop
a research plan. The proposal is due during the fourth
week. All the other assignments for the class will form
chapters in your final essay. The next assignment will
involve interviewing an expert. After that, you will write a
chapter that involves relating personal experience to the
experience of other experts. Finally, we'll work on one or
two more chapters and work on tying this all together.
At the end of the semester,
each student will present an oral report on his or her
project.
Also note that students will
be responsible for presenting text and ideas to the whole
class, so each of you an get input from various readers on
your drafts. Thus, photocopying a page or two of your text
for each class member will be required. Furthermore, you may
be required to lead a class discussion on your project or a
topic related to creative non-fiction.