Southern Utah University

Course Syllabus

Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Introduction to Creative Writing (Online)

ENGL 2020-15C

Course: ENGL 2020-15C
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: ENGL
CRN: 33639

Course Description

Welcome! Think of this class as an exploration, an experiment, and a studio focused on the practice of creative writing (as opposed to the product).

Through reading, conversation, and brave experimentation we’ll uncover the process of creativity; we’ll access our individual (and often elusive) creative genius, eventually working towards a basic understanding of how writing can manifest in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Required Texts

  • A notebook or journal of your choosing
  • Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writers by Bret Anthony Johnston

Learning Outcomes

Course Goals
  1. Create a writing community
  2. Develop the habits of a writer reading and writing; thinking and talking about reading and writing
  3. Read published creative work like writers
  4. Learn elements of craft such as: detail, setting, character, tension, image, scene, etc.
  5. Leave with a basic understanding of the building blocks of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction
  6. Always be “open for business”

Learning Outcomes

Understand: Explain the creative artistic process as an iterative and recursive practice culminating in an expression of human experience and emotion through a medium;

Appreciate: Apply artistic concepts and ideas drawn from traditions of artistic creation and theory to better engage with, analyze and understand a creative work;

Connect: Examine connections between art and society and articulate how the arts are a historical and cultural phenomenon.

Course Requirements

Coursework
  • Readings and Responses (15%): Reading responses are required for assigned readings marked in the course calendar. Essentially, each week you will write a brief response to the assigned reading/s, responding to one of several specific prompts.
  • Artist Dates (15%): This assignment comes from The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. An artist date is a block of time, an hour at the least, set aside to nurture your creative self. At the most basic level, an artist date is an outing of some sort, meaning you go somewhere and do something to inspire your artistic side. You do not go with another person. The two “people” on the date are you and your creative self. (Nobody wants a third wheel on a date!) Maybe you’d like try watercolors, or you haven’t been to the new SUMA exhibit, or you used to play piano but haven’t for a while, or… the options are limitless here, so get creative!
  • Creative Pieces (30%): Throughout the semester, you will submit drafts of at least 6 pieces—two poems, two essays, and two short stories. Each of these pieces will be based on prompts which we’ll start in class. You’ll submit them to me for initial feedback, and then choose one of each to submit for subsequent peer feedback.
  • Peer Workshops (15%): Each round of workshop, you will receive points for 1) turning in a strong, completed draft; 2) reading and giving feedback to your peers; 3) reflecting on your workshop experience and commenting on what you plan to do in revision. Attendance during these sessions is mandatory and cannot be made up.
  • Final Portfolio (25%): At the end of the semester, you’ll submit revisions of your creative submissions (above) along with drafts of new work according to the following guidelines: 10 complete poems; 2-4 complete essays, totaling at least 15 pages of nonfiction; and 2-4 short stories, totaling at least 15 pages of fiction; You’ll also write a narrative reflecting on your experience throughout the semester. Finally, you will choose one piece, poem, essay, or short story to submit to a literary magazine of your choice.

Because this class is about process and experimentation, your final portfolio will be evaluated on quantity rather than some subjective standard of quality. I will count up the number of complete, sincere pieces you’ve completed and determine your grade based on that. In other words, this assignment will literally be graded by counting. So long as you wrote all the pieces yourself and they are complete, quality is no issue.

Course Outline


Course Summary:

Week 1 Quiz Commenced Attendance Quiz
Week 1 Assignment 250 word response to Elizabeth Gilbert's Ted Talk, "Your elusive creative genius"
Week 1 Class Discussion- Introduction to Class/ A Little about Me and You
Week 2 Assignment Artist Date #1
Week 3 Assignment Artist Date #2
Week 4 Assignment "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamont
Week 5 Workshop Your First Creative Piece (Any Genre)
Week 5 Assignment Artist Date #3
Week 6  Assignment Artist Date #4
Week 7 Assignment Artist Date #5
Week 8 Assignment Artist Date #6
Week 9 Workshop Your First Poetry Workshop
Week 10 Assignment Artist Date #7
Week 11 Workshop Fiction Workshop-Submit Rough Draft Here
Week 12 Assignment Artist Date #8
Week 13 Workshop Flash Creative Nonfiction Workshop- Submit Rough Draft Here (750 words or less)
Week 14 Assignment Artist Date #9
Week 15 Assignment Final Portfolio

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

Community in the Writing Classroom

You’ll get feedback from me on most of your writing assignments; in addition, for each of the major genres, you will select a piece to go through the process of peer workshopping, where you’ll read each other’s work and offer specific, guided responses. This will help you read like a critic and take criticism like a writer.

Finally, you’ll have the chance to share your thoughts about writing and your writing itself with the class as a whole. Please be brave with your own writing and respectful with the work of others.

Attendance Policy


AI Usage

This is an online writing course. Everyone should be writing in their own voice in every assignment, including our class discussions and especially our essays. Not only do I not expect perfect writing, I do not expect robotic writing. If you are found by our university approved program, CopyLinks, to be using A.I. in any of these assignments, you will not be receiving credit for the assignment and will possibly be failed for both the assignment and the course. If anyone has any questions about this, please reach out. 

Course Fees

n/a

Writing Center

The Writing Center isn’t just for academic work! Starting the second week of the semester, the Writing Center is open to help you navigate any stage of the writing process, for any assignment, in any genre or style. As with all subjects, some writing center tutors are better equipped and/or suited to help with creative work than others, so feel free to ask for a recommendation at the front desk.

The Writing Center is open from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday in BC 101; from 5 pm-9 pm Monday-Thursday in the library next to Soda Nerd; and from 11 am-3 pm Saturday in the library next to Jerry's. To reserve your free half-hour or fifty-minute session with a skilled writing center tutor, just visit the website at https://www.suu.edu/hss/writingcenter/, call 435-865-8176, or come to the Writing Center.

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.