Texts Contact Resources Assignments Policies Procedures Schedule

English 609.01 Poetry Writing

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Mary Adams, Instructor
Office Hours:
MWF 11-12 (WCU) ;409 Coulter
5-6 Tuesday

Email   phone 227-3921

Web Page: http://teaching.maryadams.net

Texts:

  • Gwynn Pocket Anthology
    Voigt: Hammer and Blaze: Contemporary Anthology
    Gluck first 4 books
Contact your classmates:  

Email entire class
David Cathcart DC33957@wcu.edu 293-3881
Shannon Harry shannon.harry@mchsi.com 399-1271
Cande Honeycutt candeapple@hotmail.com 308-2627
Ben Keever ben_keever@hotmail.com 293-7247
Christa Saunooke jc-saunooke@msn.com 497-2474
Shawna Solito sss3dragon@aol.com 488-0340

Forward your WCU email to the account you use: https://alf.wcu.edu/vmsacct/mail_forward.html

Email individual classmates: 

Resources online (always expanding)

*Note: you must access these from a WCU campus or follow these instructions to access them off campus. 

Assignments:

  • Poems:
    • Structured Assignment Poems (6) 25%
    • Other Poems (6) 25%
  • Critical Analysis of 3 books by a Modern Poet (10-20 page paper) or Review of three recent books with something in common--and presentation 20%
  • Class Portfolio (revised poems) with Critical Preface (5-10 pages) 20% (this takes the place of your final exam)
  • Participation 10%
Policies: 
  • Grading: All poems will receive at least a B in content unless they do not do the assignment or are plagiarized (see below); poems that evince extraordinary effort or skill will receive an A. (Because poets should be experts in the language, I will take off for grammar errors.) All other written assignments will be graded like other English papers. Most poems will experience major revisions. 
  • Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the inaccurate or unacknowledged use of another's material. One plagiarized assignment will result in a 0 for the assignment; a second instance will result in failure of the course and may result in legal action.
  • Attendance: This class is small, and so attendance is crucial. Please don't miss more than one class, and only if it is an emergency. 
Procedures:  

Assignments and Workshopping. 

We will use a structured system for workshopping. You should email me your poems in Word (doc) or RTF form by the Thursday before we workshop it. Your classmates will use this form to respond to the poem in writing; they will print out that form and bring it to class. 

After the second week, workshopping takes place in the second half of class. Students should email me poems by Thursday afternoon. Poems that are to be workshopped will be available on the web and e-mailed to students by Friday afternoon. No one should come to class without having read the workshop poems and prepared the workshoping sheet.  Each student will probably have at least four poems workshopped during the semester. 

    In workshopping, we follow a prescribed format. It is important for us to help each other, but we must always also be respectful of each other's work. 

    Handing in Assignments in PC Format (MS Word or RTF preferred). Whenever possible, you should e-mail poems for workshop to me by Thursday evening, so that I can e-mail them to the class by Friday. Alternatively, you can e-mail poems to the whole class via our web site. 

Modern Writers Research Paper: 

You should read one selected/collected poems or 2 shorter poetry books by one of the following authors, or any author from the anthology born after 1920. You can also choose your own author as long as I approve your choice.