Personal Narrative

Curriculum guideline

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Course
CRWR 1202
Discontinued
No
Course code
CRWR 1202
Descriptive
Personal Narrative
Department
Creative Writing
Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
201530
PLAR
No
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
20
Contact hours
4 hours per week
Method(s) of instruction
Seminar
Learning activities

Classes will be conducted in the workshop format. The following may be combined with the workshop:

  • lecture and discussions
  • in-class and take-home exercises
  • small group work
  • interviews
  • assigned reading
Course description
This course concentrates on writing based on personal experience. Students develop an awareness of both self and the creative process by shaping biographical material into readable narratives. Instruction in a workshop format will focus on techniques needed to produce such creative forms as creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry.
Course content

  1. Students’ manuscripts.
  2. Discussion and analysis of selections from textbook(s).

Learning outcomes

General Objectives:

Students will

  1. discover narratives in their own biographies and in the lives of their families and communities;
  2. learn how to transform these narratives into non-fiction, fiction, and poetry;
  3. present these forms to the workshop for discussion; and
  4. develop skills in selection and revision.

Specific Objectives:

Pre-writing:

  1. Students will learn to recognize the value of their own life experiences and observations as a basis for writing.
  2. Students will learn to recognize anecdotes, tall tales, gossip, yarns, myths and other forms of narratives in their own lives and in their families and communities.
  3. Students will learn to identify narratives in their own lives and in their families and communities that are particularly significant in their own biographies.

Writing:

  1. Students will learn to write first-person non-fiction narratives that are appropriately detailed.
  2. Students will learn to transform first-person narratives into short fiction through necessary developments in point of  view, structure, plot and characterization.
  3. Students will learn to metamorphose first-person narratives into poems through the use of compression and through the development of imagery.

Revision:

  1. Students will recognize the value of revision as an essential part of the process of articulating and refining written thought and feeling.
  2. Students will learn to consider critical suggestions from peers and instructor, and incorporate these revisions where suitable.
  3. Students will learn to critique their own narratives and their short fictions and poems.
  4. Students will learn to recognize and use in their critiques technical terms related to the craft of writing.
Means of assessment

Students will be evaluated on the basis of at least five assignments. These may include personal narrative (based on student’s biography), personal narrative (based on experiences of student’s family or community member), one piece of short fiction, and/or poetry, all of which count for a minimum of 60% of the grade. Other evaluations may include class participation, in-class writing assignments, and self-evaluation of submitted material.

Students are required to attend 80% of the workshops. A student missing more than 20% of the workshops without receiving prior permission from the instructor will receive 0 in Class Participation. Leaving after the break is considered half an absence.

Textbook materials

The texts could include any of the following;

  • Anthology of personal narratives.
  • Event (Creative Non-fiction issue).
  • Pearls (current issue).
Prerequisites
  • The minimum required score on the Douglas College English Assessment, written within the last four years, OR
  • a final grade of "B" or higher in English 12, Literature 12 or English 12 First Peoples, OR
  • proof of enrolment in a college-level writing or literature course, defined as a course that transfers to Douglas College as an English, Communications or Creative Writing course, OR
  • a grade of C- in EASL 0460, or a minimum grade of C- in both EASL 0465 and 0475, OR
  • a grade of C- or better in ENGU 0450 or ENGU 0455, OR
  • a Language Proficiency Index (LPI) score of 5 on both Essay Level and English Usage and a score of 10 on the Reading Comprehension section, OR
  • an IELTS score of 7 with a minimum score on all parts of 6.5 within the last two years, OR
  • a TOEFL (internet-based) overall score of 92 with a minimum of 22 in each of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing within the last two years