PARTICIPATION

Assessed Weeks 01—13.

ONLINE CONTRIBUTIONS

Word count: 

• 200 words min.—500 words max. per week (Forum Discussion of Lecture and Readings) x 11 weeks;  
• 200 words min.—500 words max. per draft, per week (Workshop Discussion of Peers' Drafts) x 10 weeks; and
• 400 words min.—600 words max. (Led Discussion, in the Forum Discussion of Lecture and Readings) x 1 week. 

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:

1. At the beginning of the week (by Monday) devise and contribute two discussion questions arising out of that week’s readings; and
2. In the middle of the week (Tuesday or Wednesday) ‘check-in’ on the direction and progress of dialogue, responding briefly to one or two comments posted by peers and/or the Instructor. If there have been no responses to your discussion questions, you might consider rephrasing those questions, clarifying or defining any key terms, offering an example, or posing a tentative response to a question yourself; and
3. At the end of the week (Friday) briefly summarise the main points in the discussion and/or any outstanding concerns (which may be picked up by your Instructor).

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.

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. 

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. 

MAJOR CREATIVE WORK

Due: Wednesday, Week 13

Word Count:

• 2,000 words (ENGL714); or
• 3,000 words (CWPG815).

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.