Delivered at:: School of Foreign Languages

Course type:: Elective course

When:: 4 year, 1-3 module

Instructor

Bilmes, Leonid

Full Syllabus

Abstract

This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to write both nonfiction narratives and fictional stories. We will learn how to mine your own experiences, transforming memory and imagination into art. For the nonfiction part of the course, we will follow in the footsteps of Joan Didion, a gifted essayist and award-winning writer who once said: “I write entirely to find out what’s on my mind, what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I’m seeing and what it means, what I want and what I’m afraid of, to find out what matters and to find the pattern in disorder.” When it comes to fiction, Ray Bradbury’s approach will be our guide: “Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all his heart. Give him running orders … Then follow as fast as you can go.” Over the course of 3 modules, we will lay the groundwork and develop the skills necessary for you to write your own gripping stories. We will practice writing in different genres and, where appropriate, integrating extratextual media such as photographs, paintings, graphic symbols, videos and drawings to create meaning. Appropriate for English learners at the level of C1, this course is designed to inspire your creativity and self-expression, enhance your reading and writing skills, enrich your vocabulary and grammar and engage in thought-provoking conversations. Each week we will read short fictional stories and nonfiction essays by masters of the form and write our own shorter and longer pieces.

Learning Objectives

to explore famous short stories
to be able to write own stories of various genres and for various purposes

Expected Learning Outcomes

to distinguish between various fictional and nonfictional genres and their respective applications and possibilities
to explore famous short stories and essays of various genres
to be able to differentiate between, and adapt for your own practice, diverse narrative styles and devices
to be able to write in various genres and for various purposes
to distinguish between various fictional and nonfictional genres and their respective applications and possibilities
to incorporate other media into your own writing
to understand fundamental narrative techniques and storytelling approaches
to understand the publishing process and target audience

Course Contents

Course Introduction: Writing, style, genre
Narration in Fiction I: The third person
Narration in Fiction II: The first person
Narration in Nonfiction I: ‘Good prose is a windowpane’ (Orwell)
Narration in Nonfiction II: Capturing thought’s flow
Description in Fiction I: Seeing with words
Description in Fiction II: Less is more
Description in Nonfiction I: Writing about the arts
Description in Nonfiction II: Writing about places and people
Setting in Fiction: Grounding your story
Setting in Nonfiction: Travel writing
Dialogue in Fiction: The way people talk
Plot
Autobiography and Memoir
Autobiographical Fiction: ‘All this happened, more or less.’ (Kurt Vonnegut)
The Biographical Essay: Writing about others
Publication and readership

Assessment Elements

Class attendance and participation
Presentations
Assignment 1: Writing Portfolio
For your writing portfolio, you need to choose 4 of the following topics. Feel free to write about your own ideas and do not limit yourself to the suggested themes in brackets. Each journal entry needs to be 350 words and not longer than 400 words. Portfolio Part 1: choose two topics A. Fiction: focalisation/point of view. Write a descriptive passage of either a dramatic event or an aspect of everyday life from the perspective of one of the following: a child; an elderly woman; a cat; an alien visitor; a blind person. B. Fiction: description. Depict an imaginary place in words. Be as creative as you wish (e.g. it might be the surface of another planet; a futuristic building; a post-apocalyptic wasteland; a city deep beneath the earth, and so on). C. Fiction: the first person. Think of a character with an unusual worldview or personality and capture their voice on the page (in the manner of Edgar Poe/Gilman). D. Nonfiction: the Orwellian essay. Choose a news story and imagine that you witnessed it happening in person. Write an immersive account of what happened. Portfolio Part 2: choose two topics A. Nonfiction: description of place. Choose a place or locale that inspired or affected you in some way (this could be a historical site; a landscape; a city street, etc.). Transport your reader there in words. B. Style (fiction/nonfiction): Choose a writer whose style you admire. Write a few paragraphs imitating their style. Pay close attention to diction, syntax, idiom and rhythm. C. Nonfiction: travel writing. Write a mini portrait of an unusual/memorable/special place that you’ve been to, either abroad or in Russia. D. Nonfiction: autobiography. Choose a particularly vivid memory from your childhood. Recapture this moment verbally (think of all the senses, how it felt, what you saw, why you were excited, even who you were at the time). E. Fiction: dialogue. Imagine a dramatic situation involving two people (e.g. a fight at a playground; an argument at work; a heated negotiation; an interrogation of a suspect by the police, etc.). Write down their dialogue, using minimal narration.
Assignment 2: Longer piece of fiction/nonfiction
For the longer writing assignment, you need to produce a piece of writing between 1500-2000 words on any topic of your choice. You can write a fictional story in any genre (examples: mystery story; science fiction; horror; historical fiction; Western; detective story) OR You can write a nonfictional essay (examples: recounting an episode from your own life; describing a place you’ve visited; reflecting on a work of art that has moved you; commenting on contemporary life and its problems/joys, etc.)
Online course
students take the course on a self-study basis and complete the test provided by the course instructor

Interim Assessment

2021/2022 3rd module
0.3 * Assignment 1: Writing Portfolio + 0.1 * Online course + 0.1 * Presentations + 0.15 * Class attendance and participation + 0.35 * Assignment 2: Longer piece of fiction/nonfiction

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

De Fina, A., & Perrino, S. (2019). Storytelling in the Digital World. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Giovagnoli, M. (2011). Transmedia Storytelling: Imagery, Shapes and Techniques. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.7424531E

Bachelor’s Programme 'Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication'

Multimodal Storyteeling and Creative Writing