Category Archives: Assignments

With the reading assignment in mind and in small groups, answer the following questions. Send me an email with your group’s answers and a list of group members. We’ll talk about what you found once you’ve sent the email. How … Continue reading →

Respond in writing, in a note to yourself: If you are writing something for your portfolio that is in anyway fantastic, how might you apply what this chapter suggests? For example, what reasonable desire might you give an astonishing character? … Continue reading →

Using the story below and in a group of three, identify and quote examples of three different strategies or techniques for writing short fiction. As a group, send one email that includes your work and a list of group members. … Continue reading →

The final exam is worth twenty-five points. For the final, read Richard Ford’s “Communist” as a fiction writing textbook. The story is found on page 529 of Telling Stories. To complete the exam, first, in no more than 500 words, identify … Continue reading →

Thinking about line and stanza breaks, especially as described in our textbook, revise this prose into a poem. Add punctuation and capitalization to clarify meaning. Peaches as orange as sandstone white snow-covered mountains behind them soft fuzzy cold still on … Continue reading →

Use “Yours” by Mary Robison, as it appears in Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction, to mark different strategies for characterization. Use the marks suggested in the margin of Stone and Nyren’s Deepening Fiction. Both excerpts appear in this pdf. I also … Continue reading →

The final exam is worth twenty-five points. For the final, read Julie Orringer’s “Pilgrims” as a fiction writing textbook. The story is found on page 332 of Deepening Fiction. When you write, be specific. Quote the story to support your … Continue reading →

Here are two excellent first-person stories: Lydia Davis’ “Story” and Donald Barthelme’s “Chablis.” In a small group, locate their narrators in each aspect of the chart on page 55 of our text. Which words of these stories lead you to … Continue reading →

Which of the lines in these three poems appeal to which of our senses? Imitate one of these poems as an individual. Include images.  

English 3420 Final Exam The final exam is worth twenty-five points. For the final, read Dennis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” as a fiction writing textbook. The story is found on page 292 of Deepening Fiction. When you write, be … Continue reading →