Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for WR 241 archive revision 202104

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Effective Term:
Fall 2021 through Winter 2025

Course Number:
WR 241
Course Title:
Creative Writing - Fiction
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Focuses on writing short fiction for class discussion and analysis in a workshop setting. Explores the techniques, styles, and structures of the writings of established authors, as well as the creative writing process from development of an idea to revision of a manuscript. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Articulate techniques and strategies a wide range of established authors demonstrate in their work in order to become familiar with the elements of fiction (e.g., plot, dialogue, character, point of view).
  • Write original fiction that effectively uses the various techniques and elements of fictional  craft (such as plot, dialogue, character, and point of view), leading to the development and revision of at least one complete short story.
  • Use self-reflection, critical feedback, imaginative exercises, and techniques for “re-entering” or “re-seeing” a piece of writing to generate and to revise fiction.
  • Develop techniques (such as critical thinking and problem-solving) to produce thoughtful feedback on peer fiction in order to contribute meaningfully to peer workshops. 

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

English and Writing courses align with the PCC General Education philosophy by providing an appreciation of writing and literature from global and personal perspectives. Students in English courses engage the imagination, critical inquiry and self‐reflection, and in the process of doing so, cultivate a more complex understanding of their own culture(s), linguistic/communication practices, and perspectives in relation to others. Because the literary arts lie at the heart of most human cultures, they are essential for understanding each other and navigating our differences.

Like all artistic practices, Creative Writing allows us to process experience and, in doing so, discover and create meaning. In Creative Writing courses, students produce and revise original writing, workshop their writing and the writing of others, study literature, and learn about editing and publishing. Courses in creative writing empower students to realize themselves as writers. In the process, students nurture and harness their creativity, develop their unique writing voices, and explore interdisciplinary aspects of their craft — connections with art, music, and science, for example.

Writing and Literature courses foster a stronger sense of engagement with history, culture, and society. Writing and Literature students develop an awareness of themselves as readers and writers in a global world, and an enlarged understanding of the relationships between language, identity, ideas, scholarship, communication, and transformation.

Course Activities and Design

This course can include lecture, but will likely consist mostly of round-table workshops in which student work will be evaluated by the entire class. Students will come prepared to critique the work by responding to it during this discussion, as well as submitting written responses. Students may also read a variety of published fiction and essays on producing fiction.  The instructor should spend approximately an hour of conference with each student outside of class.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment may include informal responses to study questions; evaluation of small- and full-group discussion; in-class and out-of-class writing; writing fiction pieces, as well as other types of more informal writing; presentation by individuals and groups; short and long quizzes; close reading exercises using support/evidence; writing exercises which include evaluation of various interpretations of a text and their relative validity. Both instructor and peer evaluation will be incorporated in the assessment process. 

Outcome Assessment Strategies

May include student critiques of student work, in-class and out-of-class writing, close reading exercises, instructor conferences. Students missing a week's worth of class may not expect an A; those missing two week's worth may not pass the course.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues, Competencies, and Skills)

  • Plot

  • Character

  • Scene

  • Narrative voice

  • Point of view

  • First person

  • Second person

  • Third person

  • Dialogue

  • Conflict

  • Setting

  • Tone/Language

  • Text

  • Subtext

  • Figurative Language

  • Genres

  • Pacing

  • Revision

  • Purpose

  • Protagonist

  • Imagery

  • Theme

  • Writing as a process

  • Denouement

  • Flashback

  • Irony

  • Allusion

  • Symbol

  • Close reading

  • Analysis

  • Contextualization

  • Artistic convention

  • Multiple interpretation

  • Audience