Computer Writing and Research Lab | University of Texas at Austin

If you build it, they will....

Submitted by laurasmith on October 4, 2007 - 7:06pm

write poems!!

So, on a whim (sort of), I set up a forum for original poems. That is, poems written by students in my E314 Reading Poetry class. I sensed I had a number of writers, but was a little hesitant to ask them to actually lay it out.

That's not completely true. In fact, I'm a little Medieval in my approach to teaching poetry, and I have, as requirements for the course, some Old Standards: recitations from memory, in-the-style of compositions, and an open-option original poem. I just didn't necessarily expect students to be excited about this. And I hadn't expected students to want to turn in LOTS of poems, or to be writing continually. But students started talking to me about their writing, and they've been bringing poems to my office hours, so I figured, hey, they're writing. May as well give them a forum (so to speak).

Anyway, the forum is up, and the students are USING it. They are sharing poems and talking about each others' poems. I'm not exactly sure why I'm so surprised by this. But obviously, it's very exciting.

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poets who know it!

Submitted by Ljones on October 5, 2007 - 1:24pm.

that is so cool!

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creative writing in rhetoric and english classes

Submitted by hhan on October 17, 2007 - 9:35am.

That sounds like a lot of fun. I like the idea of incorporating creative writing in rhetoric and literature classes. For the final assignment in my RHE 306 class last year, I asked my students to alter an aspect of a creative work of their choice—i.e., giving a modern twist to a classic, coming up with an alternate ending, rewriting a scene from a minor character’s point of view, etc. Then they had to write a rhetorical analysis of their creative work explaining the new elements they introduced: any changes in context, audience, and shift in focus in rhetorical strategies. Since we were reading Lessig’s Free Culure at the time which advocated exchange of ideas and borrowing and building upon the works of predecessors, I thought this exercise illustrated the key points of the Freshmen Forum text well. My students liked this final project, and I certainly enjoyed reading them. This year I am teaching E314 (Approaches to Ethnic American Literatures) and my approach so far has been traditional literary analysis. But Laura’s post inspired me to mix in some creative writing again. I would love to hear about other instructors’ experiences with creative writing in their classes.

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