ENGLISH CNFJ: Narrative Journalism

WELCOME TO NARRATIVE JOURNALISM.

NOTE: Admission by application only. For information on specific application requirements and instructions, please see the full course listing on the English Department website. DEADLINE: for all Fall 2024 workshops, applications will open Friday, March 22 and are due via Submittable by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 7. Students will be notified of admissions decisions by 5:00pm ET on Friday, April 12. Workshops will meet the first week of classes.

Course goals:

In this hands-on writing workshop, we will study the art of narrative journalism in many different forms: Profile writing, investigative reportage, magazine features. How can a work of journalism be fashioned to tell a captivating story? How can the writer of nonfiction narratives employ the scene-by-scene construction usually found in fiction? How can facts become the building blocks of literature? 

Course format:

This course is a workshop-style class and will meet once a week for 2:45 hours. Class time will be spent discussing the assigned readings of published narrative journalists, workshopping student writing, and undertaking in-class writing and reporting exercises. 

Typical enrollees:

This class is intended for undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of experience. No previous experience in English Department courses is required.

When is course typically offered?

Fall and Spring.

What can students expect from you as an instructor?

Although I will give brief lectures from time to time, this is primarily a discussion-based course. 

Assignments and grading:

Students will work on several short assignments, both take-home and in-class, to practice the nuts-and-bolts of reporting, then write a longer magazine feature to be workshopped in class and revised at the end of the term.

Assigned readings will include the work of, among others, Joan Didion, John McPhee, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and John Jeremiah Sullivan. 

The effort and improvement shown in students' writing submissions will constitute two-thirds of their final grade. Students' class participation--the thoughtfulness and engagement shown in their discussion and editing of each others' work--will constitute one-third of their final grade.

Enrollment cap, selection process, notification:

Admission by application only. For information on specific application requirements and instructions, please see the full course listing on the English Department website. DEADLINE: for all Fall 2024 workshops, applications will open Friday, March 22 and are due via Submittable by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 7. Students will be notified of admissions decisions by 5:00pm ET on Friday, April 12. Workshops will meet the first week of classes.

Absence and late work policies:

Attendance is mandatory and will be taken at each class. More than one absence during the term will be reflected in your final grade. 

I will be happy to grant assignment extensions due to illness or other unavoidable conflicts.