MIT-SCIENCE-Lectures-essay4

21W.731

A.Walsh WRITING AND EXPERIENCE Spring 2004

Assignment #4: Suggested length: 8-10 pages, double-spaced. Please submit #4 with a cover letter to me reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the piece.

First Version Due Date: Monday, May 3 over email as Word attachment-submit to instructor and your workshop group members.

Workshop: Thurs., May 6.

Revision Due Date: Friday, 5/14 with final portfolio (I will distribute a handout later on portfolio preparation.)

For assignment #4, students have the opportunity to write either a piece of short fiction or a creative nonfiction essay (drawing upon experience) on a topic of their choice. In either your fiction or nonfiction, you may find that you want to explore in greater depth a theme from your earlier writing (essays or freewrites) or generate a new topic.

If you select the fiction option, let the reader know if you are crafting this as a short story or as a novel segment. If you submit a novel segment, write a brief prologue (1-2 paragraphs) in which you describe your plans for the novel and tell the reader where the segment will appear.

For Revision: At the end of your short story or novel segment, write a brief

statement (1-2 pgs.) describing any outside sources that you have consulted and the ways in which course readings or other outside research influenced your piece of short fiction (e.g., plot, character, narrative style, setting, dialogue).