Course Description: This course is designed to give students insight into the writing process and the writing life. Students will have both the opportunity to hear the writers whose work they are considering read and also the chance to meet informally with those writers.

Requirements: This is a two credit "mini-course" graded on the Pass/Fail option. Requirements for this course are as follows:

1. Response Papers & Blackboard: Students are expected to read at least one book by each of the five visiting writers and to prepare a response paper. The response serves two purposes. It helps you to articulate ahead of time some of the issues you would like to discuss with that writer during the class conversations. Certain kinds of discussions are possible only because the writer of the work being discussed is actually there with us but other kinds of discussions are only possible in the absence of the work's creator. As a forum for those other discussions, the class will have its own Blackboard website. Students are asked to post a response to each writer, preferably prior to the class conversation, in order that we can all be as ready as possible for that meeting. Further responses and counter-responses are encouraged.

You may access Blackboard at http://blackboard.cc.binghamton.edu. All duly registered students should have access. To log on you will need to know your default ID and password. The default ID is your Binghamton University e-mail ID. If you do not know your Binghamton ID, look it up on the BUSI system, Item 7. Your password will be the first two letters of your last name and the last four digits of your social security number. It is recommended that students change their password when logging on to Blackboard for the first time. You can change your Blackboard password from the My Institutions page by clicking on Personal Information in the Tools column. If you prefer to use an e-mail address different from your BU address, click on "mail forwarding in that same Tools column on the My Bb@BU page.

2. Attendance: Students are expected to attend both the evening readings and the morning conversations. If you anticipate scheduling difficulties in particular instances, discuss these with me ahead of time.

3. Final Project: A final paper (3-5 pages for undergraduate students; 7-10 for graduate students) is due at the last class session. Paper topic must relate to the course but is otherwise open: may concern a single writer, a selection of writers, or a general writing topic that came out of course discussions (and references the semester's readings).

Many times when writers take this course, they find their own work being influenced by the readings and conversations. A "creative" final paper is also an option but must include a prose analysis of at least 250 words describing the relationship between the creative work submitted and the semester's experience. Obviously, the creative work has to be work written this semester since you can't posit an influence for work created before the readers' series happened.

Materials Required for the Course: Below is a listing of books by our visiting authors. A selection of these books is available downstairs in the trade book section of the campus bookstore. Choose at least one from each writer:

last updated 2/12/2008