assign

1. C.J. Hill – FA 2018
LONG WORKSHOP ESSAY
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
“final” draft
Writing creative nonfiction, writing the most poignant and realized creative nonfiction, requires a
process. Because the act of essaying is so attached to the writer’s act of self-discovery, a piece will
never say exactly what it is trying to in its first draft. An essay often goes through stages of writing,
feedback, rewriting, more feedback, and more rewriting before it even begins to reach the polished
final stages representative of the pieces we find in our textbook.
The final assignment for this course, then, is a draft of your long essay that has begun working its
way through this process. Although this is the “final draft” for the sake of this class, it probably isn’t
the final draft of the essay’s life. Do not feel like this term of “final” should put you in a box.
Continue to try new things and make leaps. It’s all a part of the process.
THIS ASSIGNMENT REQUIRES:
• A minimum length of 10 pages. There is no maximum length for this draft.
• Clear evidence of forward movement in the writing process from the first draft. It should
be clear that you took workshop and your revision conference into consideration
• A focus on the creative—using the tools in your toolbox to tell a story in a new and
interesting way including, but not limited to, research, metaphor, a unique structure,
braiding, juxtaposition, scene, reflection, perhapsing, questioning, etc.
• An arrival at a so what—there should be some larger purpose for telling your story beyond
simply wanting to share it
FORMAT:
• Write in standard edited English and in a basic font like Times New Roman, with at least
1.5 line spacing
• Make sure your name is written at the top and include a creative working title (one that is
not simply “Long Workshop Essay”)
• Include page numbers
SUBMISSION:
• Submit this essay to the appropriate dropbox on our Bb Learn site
• Include your revision cover letter as the first page of your submission
• Submit both as one Word document file
o PDFs or other document types will not be accepted as it disallows margin
commenting
ASSESSMENT:
• This assignment is worth 100 points and will be graded by adherence to these listed
requirements, as well as attention and participation in our class discussions
LONG WORKSHOP ESSAY FINAL DRAFT
DUE ONLINE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7TH
11:59 PM