• Rental: Minot, Stephen. Three Genres: The Writing of Poetry, Fiction, and Drama. Sixth Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. 
• Purchase: Knight, Robert. The Craft of Clarity: A Journalistic Approach to Good Writing. Ames: Iowa State UP, 1998. 
• Lamb, Sandra. How to Write It. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1998. 
• Suggested: A Grammar and MLA or APA style handbook. 

• Sample Minutes
• Drill on CC Chapter 3: Craft of Clarity Due Tuesday, 1/23
• Drill on CC Chapter 4: Action Verbs Due 
• Fiction Invention: (html); fiction invention (MS Word format doc)
• Drill on CC Chapter 7: Red Flags
• Manuscript form (for fiction draft due)
• Check the guide to composing and editing business communication
•  Drill on CC Chapter 6: Cliches

• Grammar Marks
• Guide to editing business communication

Grading Assessment

• Workplace Writing Assignments (including minutes) 30%
• Minutes (See a sample); Query Letter; Bad News; Networking Letter; Resume; Press Release (Each Counts for 5% of grade)
• Professional Style Assignments 15%
• Alumni Profile 10%
• Short Story 10%
• Play 10%
• Poems 5%
• Midterm 10%
• Final Portfolio (Due on Exam Day) 10%
• One event from Visiting Writers' Series is required. See events marked with a + on syllabus. Attending no event is equivalent to three absences (see attendance, below). 

 

• Handing in Assignments in PC Format (MS Word or RTF preferred). Poems should be handed in electronically to the Appserver. I will show everybody how to do this. This means that all assignments have to be typed on computer in PC format. I won't accept handwritten poems or hard copies. 
• Grading: I use a plus/minus grading scale.
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the inaccurate or unacknowledged use of another's material. One plagiarized assignment will result in a 0 for the assignment; a second instance will result in failure of the course and may result in legal action.
• Attendance: After three absences, your final grade will be dropped one letter for each additional absence. It doesn't matter if your absences are excused or not, so please budget carefully. Extreme or extensive tardiness could count as an absence. If you are absent on the day you are assigned minutes, you should arrange for a substitute to avoid losing credit for that assignment. 
• Minutes: Each student has been assigned minutes once during the semester. You should email me these minutes within 24 hours after you take them, as an MS Word attachment. 

Every semester, the class does a project that is added to the English Department Home Page. This year, we will feature the achievements of Alumni from the English Department. We will concentrate on careers. You should do a 3-page profile on a graduate of the English Department. You should also do a presentation of what you have learned, preferably with PowerPoint or other computer presentation software. Each student will contact several alumni in the first week, and from there decide on one person who is willing to be profiled. 

Schedule

Abbreviations: HTWI=How to Write It; COC=Craft of Clarity; 3G=Three Genres

Week		Date	Topic & Reading (Due by this date)	Additional
1	R	1/11	Minutes
2	T	1/16	Profiles (Create Questionnaire); Clarity; Beverly Cleary Profile Career Profiles Department Profiles Minutes: Ackerman	HTWI 268-277; COC 1-15
	R	1/18	Clarity Drill on CC Chapter 3: Craft of Clarity Due Tuesday Minutes: Brewer	COC 39-53
3	T	1/23	Introduction to File Saving; Generate and Mail Profile Letters Action Verbs Minutes: Bulgin	59-62 COC
	R	1/25	Fiction Writing Minutes: Caruso	139-167 3G
3	T	1/30	Fiction writing, Continued Minutes: Clark	167-205 3G
	R	2/1	+ VWS: THOMAS LUX  Fiction Writing; Continued Minutes: Conklin	205-233 3G
5	T	2/6	Characterization Story: List of scenes due;  Red Flags Minutes: Donnelly	233-253 3G;107-112 COC
	R	2/8	Avoiding cliches Story: List of characters for story due;  Minutes: Eason	91-102 COC
6	T	2/13	Press Releases Minutes: Fair	HTWI 256-263
	R	2/15	Rough Draft of Story Due; Peer Review Minutes: Freeman
7	T	2/20	Revising Fiction Minutes: Huggins	253-81 3G
	R	2/22	Final Draft of Story Due Query Letters Minutes: Johnston	HTWI 161-171
8	T	2/27	- Return of worksheets; discussion of portfolio.  - Revisiting Action Verbs Revision of Press Release  Discussion of grammar marks Examples:  press release Dave Barry's Business  Grammar Minutes: Landingham
	R	3/1	Appearing Honest Politics and the English Language Editing Proofreading marks Minutes: Messer	71-85 COC Handout
9	T	3/6	Electronic Editing textbook on this subject Minutes: Rostlund	Handout
	R	3/8	MIDTERM: Style & Editing
10	T	3/13	Spring Holiday (No classes meet 3/10-18)
	R	3/15	Spring Holiday (No classes meet 3/10-18)
11	M	3/19	Monday 3/19 Last day to drop with a W
	T	3/20	Drafting the Profile Leads (or Ledes) 14 Leads based on the same press release Minutes: Schmidt	COC 17-38
	R	3/22	First Draft of Profile Due; Peer Editing Minutes: Solovtzoff
12	T	3/27	Plays Minutes: Todd	281-328 3G
	R	3/29	Plays Minutes: Williams	328-56 3G
	M	4/2	+VWS: National Poetry Month Reading 7:30
13	T	4/3	Final Draft of Profile Due; Save in HTML Persuasion and Bad News Letters Grading marks Grammar Links   Minutes: K. Wilson	186-190
	R	4/5	Synposis of Play and list of characters Due Characterization & Dialog Minutes: W. Wilson	356-379 3G
14	T	4/10	Presentation: Presentation: Presentation: Presentation: Presentation:
	R	4/12	NO Class (Easter Holiday)
15	T	4/17	Presentation:  Presentation: Presentation: Presentation:  Presentation:
	R	4/19/01	Poems	Final Draft of Plays due  1-50 3G
16	T	4/24/01	Presentation:  Presentation: Presentation: Presentation:  Presentation:
	R	4/26/01	Poems, continued Resume	82-102 3G HTWI 74-89
17	T	5/1/01	Resume Assignment See a sample vita  See a sample letter Go the CAP Center's Career Page Check out the William and Mary Resume Page (Good Power Words List) Wet Feet Resume Pages Virtual Resume	Poems Due
	R	5/3/01	Networking Letter	HRWI 63-73
	R	5/10/01	Final Exam 12:00 - 2:30	Portfolios Due with Networking Letter