Due dates for assignments have been changed

Here is the new schedule for the class and the due dates for assignments. These have also been updated on the UW site in the syllabus:

Oct. 19: Cheryl Phillips, assignment editor at The Seattle Times, will talk to us about public documents and databases –sources for the raw material of non-fiction writing. She will also discuss how to evaluate the reliability of information.

In this class we will also learn more about interviewing – another essential source of information.

Discuss your work on Writing Tool No. 3.

Writing assignment: If you were to Twitter the most important thing you heard from Cheryl tonight, what would you say in those 140 characters? Send it to me in an e-mail.

What is your 800-word writing project due at the end of this course? Be prepared to present that idea to the class on Oct. 26.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 4.

Reading assignment: “On Writing Well,” pp. 231 – 280.

Articles in Pacific Northwest magazine. E-mail questions for writer and editor of the article to me by Oct. 26.

Oct. 26: Presentation and discussion of your ideas for writing projects for this class.

We’ll talk about magazine writing, narrative technique and where it fits in non-fiction writing.

Discuss your work on Writing Tool No. 4 (we’ll do this in every class session – whether I have it listed here or not).

Writing assignment: Prepare an outline of your 800-word writing project. Due to me on Nov. 23 along with the first draft of your final project.

Complete the assigned exercises on Writing Tool No. 4.

Reading assignment: “On Writing Well,” 295-303

Nov. 2: Kathleen Triesch Saul and Bob Young will talk to us about magazine writing. The two pieces we will read were written by the same reporter and edited by the same editor. But they are vastly different in subject matter, voice and style. Think about the adjustments the writer and editor have to make in framing these pieces, writing and editing them and get ready to fire questions at our guests and strip mine them for as much advice and information as possible.
We’ll also discuss literary techniques in non-fiction writing (chapters, plotting, building suspense, etc.).

Writing assignment: A 700-word essay due Nov. 16. This piece must show evidence that you have conducted an interview with a source for your story (not your mother or a classmate . . .)

If you were to Twitter the most important thing you heard from Kathleen and Bob, what would you say in those 140 characters? E-mail it to me. Make it sing.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 5.

Reading assignment: Finish “The Indifferent Stars Above.” Questions for the author due to me by Nov. 9.


Nov. 9: A visit to the UW library to learn about resources available for research.
Writing assignment: Visit and read the website of Daniel James Brown and listen to the podcast of his interview with KUOW..

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 6

Your 700-word essay is due Nov. 16.

Nov. 16: Daniel James Brown will discuss his book “The Indifferent Stars Above” and answer our questions on his research, the writing process and book publishing.

We’ll also assign workshop dates, which start on Nov. 30. During the workshops, other members of the class will critique your work. A week before your assigned workshop date, you will need to have a copy of what you have written to give to all your classmates.

Writing assignment: Outline and first draft of your 800-word writing project are due to me by Nov. 23. Students whose work is being critiqued on Nov. 30 should have copies to give to classmates on Nov. 23.

If you were to Twitter the most important thing you heard from Daniel James Brown, what would you say in those 140 characters? E-mail it to me. Make me want to read your next Tweet on this subject.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 7.

Reading assignment: Handout on writing for online.

Nov. 23: Writing for online: How is it different? What works?

Writing assignment: Up until now, I have been updating the class blog. For the rest of the quarter, you will take over writing the blog entries. We’ll assign blog duties for each of the weeks remaining with each student required to do at least one entry during the week they are assigned (this can be a shared writing project with others assigned to the same week).

Outline and first drafts of your final project are due to me by Nov. 30.

Students whose work is being critiqued on Nov. 30 should have copies to give to classmates during the Nov. 23 class time.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 8.

Nov. 30: We’ll begin our workshops. Please come to class prepared to discuss the writing that is being critiqued on this date.

Writing assignment: The final version of the 800-word final project is due on Dec. 14. By now you should have received comments from me on your outline and first draft. Some of you will have the benefit of hearing what your classmates have to say about your writing. It’s time to self-edit, revise and rewrite.

Students whose work is being critiqued on Dec. 7 should have copies to give to classmates.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 9.

Dec. 7: More workshops. Please come to class prepared to discuss the writing that is being critiqued on this date.

If we have students whose work will be critiqued on Dec. 14, they should have copies to give to classmates tonight.

Writing assignment: Final projects due in one week. I will edit as many rewrites as you want to send me. Take advantage of that.

Complete the assigned exercises for Writing Tool No. 10.

Dec. 14: We’ll critique any work that did not fit into the previous two weeks, you’ll hear some final works from me and I’ll collect those final projects. Students whose work was critiqued tonight will be given extra time to incorporate any changes they want to make resulting from the workshop session. Don’t take advantage of me on this one.

Watch a novel being written -- only hours left

This comes from Bill Thorness, an editing instructor in the program. This is a project in fiction-writing, but it's worth a look for those of us in non-fiction as well. I highly recommend it to your attention:


Have you ever wanted to get inside an author’s head – while they’re writing? You can do it this week with The Novel – Live! It’s a crazy, first-of-its-kind experiment and fundraising project put on by some author friends here in Seattle, and I’ve been helping out a bit.

It’s great fun to sit in the bistro at Hugo House, our literary gathering place, and see the novelist on stage for two hours, madly typing amid the din of people eating, drinking, and bidding on auction items. His or her words are projected live on screen as they’re typed, and they’re also streaming on a website. The site also has a webcam of the author and a chat room (yesterday during our auction a woman from New Jersey bought the “naming rights” to a character for a $420 donation!).

Last night Garth Stein wrote 4200 words in two hours as he built the story to its climax. The novel is now up to about 60,000 words, and by Saturday night when the 36th author types her last word, it’ll be over 70,000. The novel will be published in print and as an e-book, after it’s been edited, so you can see it now in its raw stage, then see how it’s been changed for publication.

But it’s not just authors writing a novel live, in person and on the web. School classes are following it and doing writing workshops based on a lesson plan provided on the site. Classes are visiting Hugo House on field trips. The authors are getting to know each other, and having a friendly competition. Editors and publisher reps are stopping by the House to check it out and meet people. And it’s raising money for two great youth literacy organizations: 826 Seattle and Writers in the Schools.

You have today to check it out. Click on the link now… they’re writing.

Bill

We are underway for the 2010-2011 class

Greetings to all of you who were either at the class last night or will be joining us soon. For those in the latter category, please note that the class goes from 6:15 p.m. to 9:15 on Tuesday nights -- which caught me by surprise last night.

I changed one of the assignments on the syllabus and added another. Here is the change:

In "Writing Tools," read Tool 3 and do Workshops 1 through 4 on Page 22. Use the 300-word profile of your neighbor that you are writing as the writing you will review. For those of you absent from last night's class, please write a 300-word bio of yourself and then use it as the writing sample for Workshops 1 through 4.

Here is the new assignment: Read chapters 2 and 4 in "Economical Writing." You are welcome to read all of the chapters in this little book, but we will certainly be discussing aspects of the chapters that I assign.

Find the nut graf

For those who're interested, here's my piece in the 5/2 Seattle Times Sunday magazine: A wooden boat's beauty lies in its reflection of nature.

Worthwhile website

If you're like me, and I suspect you are, you have far too much to read rather than not enough; and you're automatically wary whenever anyone suggests a great website or another magazine you should check out. Still: I've found a great website for you to check out.

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Arts & Letters Daily is an unbelievably wide-ranging smorgasbord of new articles and essays for thinking readers—sort of a modern Reader's Digest for educated and curious people. The pieces have been published in literary magazines, popular magazines, and newspapers from all the world's English-speaking countries. There's also a constellation of blog links (left-hand column) that the editors have found to be worthwhile.

This is like browsing the periodicals room of a really good library. Only trouble is—three hours later you come up for air and wonder where the time went.

A Word a day

As I mentioned in class, I find the "A Word a Day" e-mail subscription extremely useful and entertaining. Today's word was "obdurate," a fine word meaning "stubborn" or "resistant." I wondered if I'd ever used it in print. A quick keyword scan of my hard disk showed that I had—in a history of the Navajo Long Walk published in 2004. Time to dust it off for new deployment.

You can learn about "A Word a Day" and subscribe for free at http://wordsmith.org/awad/. Highly recommended.

Charles Bowden's new book

Charles Bowden has a new book out this week, "Murder City," a harrowing but literary expedition into the drug violence of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. There was an interesting interview with him on NPR this morning, which you can read or listen to here.