WRT 114 / Unit 1 Assignment:  Flash Nonfiction Portfolio

Your first writing portfolio is due  Oct.5.  It should contain 10-15 pp. of your best flash nonfiction writing, and an additional 2-3 pp. critical reflection.  All work must be typed.  Please use double-spacing and insert page numbers.

In determining your grade, I’ll be looking for writing that is not merely competent, but engaging and carefully crafted.  This includes your efforts to render compelling scenes and characters, to use dialogue effectively, and to make smart choices about point of view, arrangement, and transitions.  Also, consider how to begin and end each piece, where to incorporate figurative language and imagery, and where to add in reflective writing.  Be mindful about your tone and persona in your writing; choose your words with precision, and think about how punctuation shapes the rhythm and flow of your sentences.  It is as Mimi Schwartz says, “you don’t get credit for living.”

I want to see a collection of your work that reads EXACTLY as you want it to. This means moving beyond proofreading and examining your own choices as a writer.  Please put aside time to rethink, revise, and polish your work.  In addition to thinking about each sentence, consider your overall approach to the subject.  Read your work out loud, and think critically about how you’re handling ethical dilemmas and delicate subject matter.  Arrange your work strategically in the portfolio, according to content, style, or any other artistic considerations in play for you.

Please submit your writing in a 2-pocket folder (or tightly bound in some other way).  Be as creative as you wish with the cover.  If you would like to design a special cover, or select an image to accompany the portfolio, I want you to feel that you have the leeway to make those creative decisions.

 Titling

 Title each piece of writing purposefully and creatively, and give your portfolio a title.  When choosing the title of your portfolio, look for themes, images, or moments in language that you want to draw out in the title.  A few possible approaches:

• Consider any overarching concerns or issues that run through your work
• Adopt the title of one of your essays—perhaps the one that speaks most poignantly to a larger concern in the work
• Let the title echo a single powerful image in one of your essays
• Draw an important word or phrase from one of your essays and use that as the title

Critical Reflection

 In your critical reflection, please discuss 1-2 course readings that were instrumental in shaping your process and approach to writing creative nonfiction.  Reflect on your approach to finding subject matter, shaping your essays, and revising.  Which essays in this portfolio are you most invested in, and why?  When you read back over your work, what surprises you? What impresses you most? What kinds of connections do you notice between/across essays? What additional ideas do you have for new essays or for developing the work in this portfolio?

Grading Rubric:

• Ethos (ethics, tone, and maturity of speaking voice); pact with the reader
• Attention to sensory detail, description, narrative, setting, characterization, and dialogue
• Thoughtful choices of point of view
• Control over punctuation and verb tense
• Precise word choice, phrasing, and sentence structures
• Avoidance of cliché
• Balance between scene development and reflection
• Evidence of revision. (It is as Mimi Schwartz says, “you don’t get credit for living.”  It should go without saying that the portfolio should be proof-read with great care, but revision is more than just proofreading; it sometimes involves reformulating your entire approach to the subject.)
• Thoughtfulness and care in composing critical reflection; explicit connections to course readings.

Creative Nonfiction Unit One Assignment: Flash Nonfiction Grading Rubric  Created by B. D’Amato

Criteria	A (90-100)	B(80-89)	C(70-79)	D(65)	F(0-65)
Ethos(ethics, tone, and maturity of speaking voice); pact with the reader	Clear, effective, distinctive	effective	vague	Show attempt but ineffective	Unclear and none
Attention to sensory detail, description, narrative, setting, characterization, and dialogue	Effective use of all narrative elements	Effective use of some elements	Use of some elements	Minimal use of the elements	none
Choices of point of view	Effective use of POV that shapes the reader’s experience and expands meaning	Thoughtful use of POV	POV has no effect on meaning	Confusing POV	Inconsistent use of POV that hinders comprehension
Control over punctuation and verb tense	Complete and effective control	Full control	Some control	partial	minimum
Word choice, phrasing, and sentence structures	Precise and effective	Appropriate and effective	cliche	confusing	incomprehensible
Avoidance of cliché	none	minimum	Some	Many	All
Balance between scene development and reflection	effective	appropriate	One movement weighs more	No balance	No development
Evidence of revision. (It is as Mimi Schwartz says, “you don’t get credit for living.”  It should go without saying that the portfolio should be proof-read with great care, but revision is more than just proofreading; it sometimes involves reformulating your entire approach to the subject.)	Three drafts with clear evidence of revision	2 drafts with clear evidence of revision	2 draft with some revision	2 draft with minimum revision	1 draft with no revision
Thoughtfulness and care in composing critical reflection; explicit connections to course readings.	Analytical with explicit connection to reading	Thoughtful with explicit connection to reading	Reflective with some connection	Minimum connection	none