Journal of Curiosities 10%
Throughout the semester you will keep a journal of curiosities, things you find yourself wondering about or learning. These things will almost certainly be disparate, but can be things that are already tied to the creative writing you're doing on your own or in your other classes, things that come up in your daily life, or things that feel much more disconnected from anything sensical. The purpose of the journal of curiosities is to hone the essential writer's skill of paying attention and being curious about the world, but also to help you generate possible ideas for your third project.
You are encouraged, but not required to, start to explore some of the curiosities in your journal, testing them out to see if they can be something bigger--something that will become your third project.
Projects
You will complete three projects in this course. They are all similar in structure, but with each successive project, you'll be taking over more and more of the work.
P1: Periodic Table Imitation 10%
For the first major assignment you will deliver three things: 1) A portion of the published text, annotated/footnoted to identify its research, 2) Your imitation of the published work, annotated and footnoted to identify the research underpinning it, and 3) An appendix of the sources you found to substantiate the research in both the original piece and your imitation. Sources may apply to both texts or just one.
P2: Research, Substantiated 30%
For the first project, you were making assumptions about things that seemed to be research. One major shift from P1 to P2 is that we will spend time learning about the different categories of research and reading pieces that contain that kind of research to see how it manifests in creative work. You will then choose a lengthier published piece from a pool I generate (or suggest a piece of your own) to annotate and footnote with not only the research but the kind of research it is, then do substantial, multi-modal research to substantiate some of the research the author used.
At the end of the unit you will deliver a portfolio that contains 1) the published piece you chose, annotated/footnoted for research and classification each type of research; 2) an appendix of primary sources, substantiating the piece's research; and 3) an essay describing in detail your process of researching these topics (where, when, and how you found them). Finally, you will present what you found to the class.
P3: Independent Research Project 50%
The final, independent research project is yet another portfolio of research and creative work, though this time all the creative work and the research will be entirely yours.
For this project you will produce the following: 1) A research plan, which we will conference on; 2) initial drafts of one poem, one short essay, and one short story that utilize the research you've done for the project, each annotated/footnoted to indicate the research; and 3) an appendix of the sources you used to generate the project, including sit-down, solo research (paper, electronic, audio/visual archives), living archival research, and some kind of experiential research. We will end the semester by sharing our work with the class through workshop, presentations, a Q&A, and/or a live reading and discussion.
Note that the project and its research plan can outlive my class. That's fine. If it's the right kind of idea, it will.
NOTE: The research shouldn't feel arduous. The goal of this course (and in turn these projects) is to learn how creative writers use research to fuel, sustain, and enliven their writing. If you don't feel fueled, sustained, and enlivened by the research you're doing, you chose the wrong topic and I encourage you to talk to me choose a new one or bending what you have into territory you deem more helpful or interesting.