Creative Nonfiction Writing Assignment:

Paper1_CreativeNonFiction_Assignment

I borrowed the vast majority of the text of the writing assignment above from Lisa’s first assignment for her 2100 class (thanks, Lisa), including her great example of brainstorming. I tweaked the assignment a little to conform to the slight differences in reading assignments my class has done so far, plus I opened the prompt up to include socioeconomic concerns.

I’m interested in what our seminar thinks about grading rubric and what does (or doesn’t) qualify as “creative nonfiction” for college freshmen. Also, does it make sense to offer them my own corrections and encourage them to revise their papers for a new grade? I want to encourage independent thinking, but I remember advancing my own writing skills by painstakingly working through professors’ comments on my papers in college.

As for discussion topics, I’m on the fence between “Grammar and Style” and “The Past and Future of English Departments,” so if someone else wants to claim one of these, I’m happy to yield.