RELATED COURSE SITES |
Course Description and Objectives | |
Additional resources for Literary Nonfiction can be found at
NEWS WRITERLY ADVICE
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   History of the personal essay from Greek philosophers through contemporary authors. Reading and writing journals, letters, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, editorials, and essays about travel, nature, history, current events, and other topics of "fact." Crossing genres by employing authors’ voices and other creative techniques in developing informative, persuasive, entertaining, scholarly, public inquiry. (AASU Catalog, 2008-2009) Alternatively known as "creative nonfiction," "literary journalism," and the "literature of fact," literary nonfiction is that branch of writing which employs literary techniques and artistic vision usually associated with fiction or poetry to report on actual persons, places, or events. The genre is broad enough to include nature and travel writing, biography, memoir, and the familiar essay, as well as "new journalism" and the "nonfiction novel." Put another way, Literary Nonfiction is a course in both reading (literature) and writing (composition and journalism): critical reading of well-crafted prose (from the ancients to the moderns) and effective writing of contemporary forms of literary nonfiction. In addition to illustrating the genre’s rich literary history, the course provides opportunities to analyze the distinctive stylistic and rhetorical features of major British and American essayists, particularly those of the past century. Students will have opportunities to apply some of these same strategies in both short exercises and major writing projects assigned during the term. With the goal of meeting professional standards of journalism (i.e., composing works that are publishable), we will employ peer revising and editing strategies--both in class and online. |
