Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Convenor and Teacher
Michelle Hamadache
Level 2, North, Australian Hearing Hub
By Appointment
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Credit points |
Credit points
4
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
Admission to MRes
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
CWPG815
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Unit description |
Unit description
In this practical introduction to writing creative nonfiction students research and write a number of narrative non-fiction pieces from genres including memoir, personal essay, and environmental writing. We consider what creative non-fiction is, looking at the varied cultural contexts in which these very popular and influential texts are currently being written and published, with a focus on the Australian scene. This introductory unit is suitable for students from interdisciplinary backgrounds including creative writing, ethnography, cultural studies, journalism, philosophy and history. You devise your topics in consultation with the lecturer, and are guided in the development of skills in primary research and narrative writing techniques. Assessment is based on participation, practical research tasks and your non-fiction writing.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Special Consideration Policy
The University recognises that students may experience events or conditions that adversely affect their academic performance. If you experience serious and unavoidable difficulties at exam time or when assessment tasks are due, you can consider applying for Special Consideration. Link Below: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration
Late Submission Penalty
Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved:
Written feedback from your instructor will be provided through the Turnitin interface, usually in the form of in-text comments. It will be beneficial for students to read all marking rubrics prior to submitting assessment, and to reflect on feedback from their instructor.
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Participation | 20% | No | Weekly and as scheduled |
Minor Creative Work | 20% | No | First Friday of Recess |
Plan for Major Creative Work | 10% | No | Monday, Week 10 |
Major Creative Work | 50% | No | Wednesday, Week 13 |
Due: Weekly and as scheduled
Weighting: 20%
PARTICIPATION
Assessed Weeks 01—13.
ONLINE CONTRIBUTIONS
Word count:
There are THREE WRITTEN COMPONENTS to the participation grade in this unit. Students will be required to (1) Participate weekly in their Forum Discussion Group (Lectures and Readings); and (2) guide one assigned Forum Discussion Group (Lectures and Readings) in the session (Led Discussion); and (3) students will also be required to provide weekly Workshop Feedback to Peers from Weeks 3—12 of the session.
A threshold requirement for participation marks is attendance and timely involvement in all the weekly group discussions online (both those dedicated to workshop, and to engagement with the readings and lectures). Criteria for the assessment of participation includes: evidence of preparedness; timeliness; ability to reflect, critique and to offer insight; synthesis of key ideas and strategies relevant to the unit topics and readings; clear and concise communication; and significant engagement with the opinions of others.
Attendance is mandatory in CWPG815/ENGL714—there is no quota of weekly discussions you can miss without impact on your participation grade. Absences will be excused only under exceptional (documented—i.e. with a medical certificate and a Professional Authority Form) circumstances. Students who miss a week due to (again, documented) illness or misadventure will be required to make up that week with additional work, or lose marks.
In addition to attendance and involvement, participation entails completing all the readings and listening to all the Echo (lecture) recordings; and reflecting on those materials (make notes). In particular, you should think about the discussion questions posed by the person who is leading the discussion (see: ‘Led discussion’, below), and the Unit Convenor, and arrive at your own answers synthesized from what you’ve read, listened to and thought about.
Submitting your workshop drafts in a timely fashion and up to standard will also contribute to your participation mark. Keep in mind that this obligation is owed to a group of adults who are expected to take your work seriously and consider it thoroughly: workshop drafts are due in advance of their analysis. You can read more about workshop procedures and what amounts to ‘up to standard’ in the Unit Handbook.
Your feedback to your peers during workshop will count towards your participation grade. Feedback is to be written down: you may clearly annotate the draft provided, or put comments in a separate document or post. PLEASE NOTE: Students enrolled in the internal study-mode will attend fortnightly workshopping sessions on campus, but will still participate in a Forum Discussion Group (Lectures and Readings) online through iLearn.
A signal mark (pass/fail) will be assigned in the first half of the session to indicate whether or not a student is satisfying the threshold requirements for Participation in the unit. A numerical grade will be awarded at the close of Week 13.
LED DISCUSSION
One week in the session each student will be designated a discussion group leader in the forum assigned to dialogue around the unit readings and lectures. The role of the discussion group leader is to undertake the following:
The discussion group leader therefore takes responsibility for instigating and perpetuating dialogue within the online conversation. Your Unit Convenor will model this process in the first week(s) of the unit, and may also contribute to guiding attention towards specific issues, or in identifying debates, and in summarizing the week’s dialogue. Discussion questions should be simple, open starting-points. The Unit Convenor may suggest modifications to discussion questions if relevant. No individual grade is awarded for the Led Discussion, though feedback can be requested—this activity will materially contribute to your overall numerical Participation Grade, worth 20% in CWPG815/ENGL714.
Students should plan for routine weekly engagement with the Unit. A good idea is to diarize weekly time-slots in which to not only work on assessments and write up the online postings required, but also to think thoroughly and carefully, over a significant duration, about the readings and the lectures.
REGULAR WRITING PRACTICE
Students are expected to maintain a Regular Writing Practice during the semester. A regular writing practice entails putting aside a short amount of time at routine intervals throughout the week (half an hour a day, say, or an hour every third day) to undertake creative writing ‘practice’—trialing different writing techniques and styles not necessarily orientated to the course materials. A regular writing practice may also include keeping a notebook or journal in which to record observations from life, writing provocations (newspaper clippings, open ended questions, photographs, passages from the work of other writers), short character sketches and the like. Another aspect of regular writing practice is ‘writerly reading’—close analysis of a chapter or essay or poem etcetera, in which the reader specifically looks for how the writer of that text has achieved a certain effect, structured their work, or enacted technique and style.
Due: First Friday of Recess
Weighting: 20%
MINOR CREATIVE WORK
Due: First Friday of Recess
Word Count: 2,000 words (CWPG815/ENGL714).
The Minor Creative Work in this Unit is 2,000 words of Creative Nonfiction writing: typically in the genre of essay. Students will have the opportunity to Workshop early drafts of the Minor Creative Work in the first half of the session. Criteria for Assessment include: creativity of concept; demonstrated and/or implied understanding of genre and readership; use of technique, structure and language; evidence of development; and presentation.
Due: Monday, Week 10
Weighting: 10%
PLAN FOR MAJOR CREATIVE WORK
Due: Monday, Week 10
Word Count: Up to 500 words (word count will not be strictly enforced in this assessment).
In CWPG815/ENGL714 you have the opportunity to submit and receive early feedback on a plan for your final Major Creative Work. There are two different ways in which you might approach this task, depending on your preferences and the type of work you intend to submit at the end of the semester. You might write a ‘pitch’, as you would do were you to solicit a commission from a journal editor: a pitch outlines the central questions or arguments in a piece of writing, proposes an audience for the work, details any interviews or research the writer might undertake to inform the piece, and argues for how the work contributes to public debate. A pitch is perhaps most appropriate for a Major Creative Work which engages in advocacy or opinion. Alternatively, you might follow the worksheet uploaded onto iLearn which asks a series of questions about the Major Creative Work and assigns a space for an early draft of the introduction or another section of the work.
The Major Creative Work is not assessed for its fidelity to the plan (ideas with great potential can of course, fall flat in execution; and you may change your mind about your topic and its form between the plan and the Major Creative Work). A strong grade in the plan assessment does not necessarily ensure a strong grade in the Major Creative Work, and vice-versa: a poor grade in the plan does not necessarily prefigure a poor grade in the Major Creative Work—this is dependent on the development of the concepts and the writing between the plan and Major Work submission. Marking criteria differ between these two assessments. The relationship between the plan and the Major Creative Work will be further discussed in class.
Due: Wednesday, Week 13
Weighting: 50%
MAJOR CREATIVE WORK
Due: Wednesday, Week 13
Word Count:
The Major Creative Work in this Unit is 2,000 words (for students enrolled in ENGL714) or 3,000 words (for students enrolled in CWPG815) of Creative Nonfiction writing underpinned by significant research: typically in the genre of essay. Students will have the opportunity to Workshop early drafts of the Major Creative Work in the second half of the session. Criteria for Assessment include: the integration and identification of research within creative nonfiction; creativity of concept; demonstrated and/or implied understanding of genre and readership; use of technique, structure and language; evidence of development; and presentation.
Weekly readings are accessed via the embedded link to the library's leganto system located on the unit's iLearn site. For more information, including an online tutorial, visit: http://libguides.mq.edu.au/leganto
REQUIRED READING
RECOMMENDED (i.e. non-essential) READING
External and Internal students must log in to the unit's iLearn site during Week 1. Students will be using the iLearn online site for communications each week. Students access reading materials, discussion boards, web links, each other’s work and assignment marks through the unit’s online web pages. Please familiarise yourself with the site in Week 1, paying particular attention to Announcements.
Students are expected to participate on a weekly basis, logging-in a number of times (for instance 3-4 times during each week) in order to listen to the lecture, to workshop, and to participate in the discussions of the readings. You can choose what time you do this each week—there is no 'live classroom' in this unit. The online week begins on Monday mornings and ends on Sunday night.
1 Introduction
2 Finding Your Voice in the Essay Form
3 Beginnings
4 The Voices of Others
5 Personal Essay—The Neighbourhood
6 Personal Essay—The Family
7 Personal Essay—The Body
8 Nonfiction Crime Writing
9 Creative Criticism
10 Experiments in Form
11 The Nonfiction Book
12 Nonfiction as Professional Practice
Those students who are enrolled in internal study mode for CWPG815 and ENGL714 will meet face-to-face on campus four times during the session and participate weekly in a blended internal/external online group. The campus class schedule (Tuesdays 6-8pm, as in 2018 Timetable: https:// timetables.mq.edu.au/) is:
Tutorial Room: 4 Western Road, room 310
1. Week 1: Tuesday, 31st July
2. Week 7: Tuesday, 11th September
3. Week 8: Tuesday, 2nd October
4. Week 13: Tuesday, 6th November
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.
If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
Our postgraduates will demonstrate a high standard of discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgment. They will have the ability to make informed choices and decisions that reflect both the nature of their professional work and their personal perspectives.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be able to demonstrate a significantly enhanced depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content knowledge in their chosen fields.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of utilising and reflecting on prior knowledge and experience, of applying higher level critical thinking skills, and of integrating and synthesising learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments. A characteristic of this form of thinking is the generation of new, professionally oriented knowledge through personal or group-based critique of practice and theory.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be capable of systematic enquiry; able to use research skills to create new knowledge that can be applied to real world issues, or contribute to a field of study or practice to enhance society. They will be capable of creative questioning, problem finding and problem solving.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be able to communicate effectively and convey their views to different social, cultural, and professional audiences. They will be able to use a variety of technologically supported media to communicate with empathy using a range of written, spoken or visual formats.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our postgraduates will be ethically aware and capable of confident transformative action in relation to their professional responsibilities and the wider community. They will have a sense of connectedness with others and country and have a sense of mutual obligation. They will be able to appreciate the impact of their professional roles for social justice and inclusion related to national and global issues
This graduate capability is supported by:
The reading list, assessments and lectures have all been changed for the 2016 offering.