Creative Writing Comps

The Creative Writing option for the Senior Integrative Exercise offers students the opportunity to integrate the experience they have had of reading and thinking deeply about literature with their interest in creating their own work of literary art.  In order for students to fulfill the Integrative Exercise requirement of their English major with a Creative Writing Comps, they must satisfy the following:

A.  Prerequisites:

1. Creative Writing Comps students need to have taken, by the end of the Fall term of their senior year, at least two creative writing courses in the English Department, one of which must be at the 300 level.  
2. In the spring of junior year, the student should discuss the proposed creative writing project with an English Department faculty member.

B.  In the Fall term of senior year, students must submit a written proposal consisting of the following:

1. A completed English Department Creative Writing Comps Proposal Form (downloaded from the web);
2. A one-paragraph summary of the project (Abstract), included on the proposal form;
3. A writing sample related to the proposed project.  In the case of poetry this would likely consist of three poems; in the case of fiction, a short story or novel chapter; in the case of creative nonfiction, an essay or portion of a longer work in progress.  (These may be materials previously written for a class.)
4. A written statement showing that the student has thought deeply and thoroughly about the proposed project.  This statement should include:
        a. A detailed description of the project.
                  i. For poetry, the description might include such elements as voice, form (including line, rhythm or meter), imagery, and how the subject matter relates to these; finally, how the poems work as a sequence or collection.
                  ii. For fiction the description might include such nuts-and-bolts matters as what the story’s conflict is; what the time-frame of the story is; how the setting or point-of-view functions in the story; how the writer sees the main character developing as the story unfolds, etc.
                  iii. For creative nonfiction, the description should address such elements at point-of-view, persona, narrative, factual material to be included and constraints of genre (e.g., natural history, memoir or literary reportage).
          b. An explanation of how the proposed project connects to specific authors, works, genres, or aesthetic schools the student has encountered as an English major. The goal is for students to look beyond their own work, read and think deeply, and understand their work in the context of a larger literary tradition.
5.  Students may be asked to revise their proposals.

C.  The Final Creative Writing Comps project will consist of the following:
   1. The finished work of creative writing (a maximum of 60 pages of prose, 30 pages of poetry), due at the end of winter term. 

   2. A 3-to 5-page essay also due at the end of winter term in which the student investigates at least one technical aspect of her work (e.g., narrative structure, point of view, character, voice, imagery) to show that she has considered the wider implications of her creative choices. The essay should show either how such choices have affected the work, or how they fit into a larger literary context, or both.
   3. A public reading of part of the creative work at the English Comps Symposium in the spring term.

CALENDAR & DEADLINES

JUNIOR YEAR

Spring Term:

            Conversation with English department faculty about creative writing project being proposed.

SENIOR YEAR

Fall Term:
           Noon, October 1, 2012 (beginning of 4^th week):  Proposals due: an electronic copy emailed to <emckinse@carleton.edu> and a paper copy left in Laird 208.  These will be read anonymously so do not put your name on the proposal itself but only on a cover sheet with name of essay as well.  Revisions of the proposal may be required.

Later in fall term: Students will be assigned an advisor and are required to meet with the advisor before leaving for winter break.

Winter Term:  
          January 17^th (Thursday after 2 weeks of classes):  10-page draft due to advisor.

          February 13^th (Wednesday of 6^th week):  Full draft due to advisor. 

          Monday, March 11, 2013 (last day of classes):  Final creative writing project plus 3- to 5-page essay due in English office by 5 p.m. (2  copies).

Spring Term: 

         Students receive evaluations of their comps.  Revisions, if required, due at noon April 29, 2013 (the beginning of 5th week). 

         Saturday, May 11, 2013:  Each student will deliver a public reading of part of the creative writing comps project at the English Comps Symposium. 

                                                                                                            5/23/12 for 2012-2013