Mapping Your Writing: Causality and Details

In writing an article, you want to make sure that you convey your central points in ways which are logical and relatively straightforward.  You want each of your main assertions to prepare the reader for what comes next, and then you want your selected details to support those assertions.

Unit 3

Writing the Whole Story - Ten Pages of Fiction

Yes, it is the longest single assignment for the course.  But that's okay.  During the course of the semester, you've each written a variety of stories and poems and essays.  And this will serve you well.  You've picked up several important skills in writing style and content.  Whether you choose to expand a piece you've already submitted or instead decide to start from scratch, you have the tools to write a good story.

Radical Revision - Expanding Your Fiction

Radical Revision is one of the quickest ways to jump-start a story which may be hard to write.  One reason we assign this exercise is because it encourages you to view your work from multiple angles, and this in turn will give you more ways to approach writing in the future.  I've adapted this exercise to help overcome a common issue that writers face: insufficient detail.

Writing the Idea Poem

The Idea Poem

As we discussed in class today, the idea poem has two major considerations for the writer.  The first is that the idea poem - as a poem - has a poetic advantage in regards to philosophical argument.  Unlike expository essays or journalistic reports, the idea poem can present indelible images which the reader may find more convincing than mere facts and figures.  The second consideration is the corollary to the first - the poem must provide a cogent argument.  The idea poem is centered less around situation or character and more around conveying an intellectual idea to the reader.  This second consideration leads to a major potential weakness for the idea poem as an art - if the reader doesn't believe the poem's argument, the reader may not accept the poem...