INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION:

Dr. John B. Rosenman, Professor
Office: Room 205 – James Hugo Madison Hall
Office Hours: To be determined.
Phone: 823-2998

Course Description (3 credit hrs.): Introduction to the process and practice of imaginative writing in a specific genre or genres to be determined by the instructor.  Study of works by important genre authors and poets.  Practical experience in writing, editing, manuscript preparation and marketing.

Academic Credit: 3 Semester Hours

Prerequisites: English 101 and 102

Course Content:

1. Critical reading and analysis of the text; explication and aesthetic/critical appreciation of story models.

2. Required core readings; course quizzes and examinations (if appropriate); final examination consisting of a story mailed to an editor/publisher.

3. Peer critiques of story and classroom assignments.

Course Objectives:

  1.  The writing and extensive revising of short stories in science fiction and fantasy, and critical class discussions of these students' short stories;

  2.  The reading, analysis, and critical class discussion of classic short stories in the genres, as well as of one novel and one full-length, "how to write" critical study;  

 3.   The encouragement of an aesthetic appreciation and deeper understanding of science fiction and fantasy, and the craftsmanship involved in their construction.

Measurable Student Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, each student will be able to:

 1. Write short stories in the genres of science fiction and fantasy that demonstrate competence in the craft of short-story writing, especially in such areas as plot, characterization, point of view, dialogue, the creations of scenes, consistency in logic, correct grammar, punctuation, manuscript preparation, formating, and marketing;

 2.  Display an increased appreciation and knowledge of short fiction and the novel in these genres, the major types and categories of such fiction, and the craftsmanship/methodology involved in their construction.        
 
 3.  Research markets and submit at least one short story to a market in a professional manner, using the correct envelopes, postage, manuscript format, cover letter, etc.

Required Texts:

 1.  Bradbury, Ray.  Fahrenheit 451.  New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

 2.  Card, Orson Scott.  How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.  Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1990.

 3.  The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990.  Edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery.  New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.

 4.  Rosenman, John B.  "How to Write Science Fiction."  The Genre Press Digest.  Vol. 1, no.  4.  Buckeye, Arizona: Small Press Genre Association, Sept./Oct. 1994.  p. 6.  [This one page, 1,000 word essay is supplied to students free of charge.]

TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS: 

1. Endorsement Competency: Apply computer productivity tools for professional use.  Experience: Use computer word processing to produce drafts and final papers; Use Internet for course-based research.

2. Endorsement Competency: Use educational technologies to access and exchange information; locating markets, editors, and publishers and communicating with them.  Experience: Use Internet for course-based research.

3. Endorsement Competency: Use educational technologies for data collection, information management, problem-solving, decision-making, communication, and presentation with the curriculum.  Experience: Use Internet to locate information pertaining to creative writing, markets, editors and publishers.
           
Course Requirements and Assignments:
     
 Four short story assignments and two novel assignments (first chapter and outline) will be assigned.  In addition, for a final examination, students will be required to prepare a fiction manuscript in proper format, research markets per-
taining to it, and to send the story to an editor in a correct, professional manner.

Evaluation/Grading System:

Short Story with "Hook"  10% 
Opposite Gender Short Story     15%
Alien World Short Story 10%     (Must be a complete short story.)  
Futuristic Short Story  15%  
(This  First chapter of novel  is the first story that must be complete.)  15%
Outline of Novel      15%
Final Examination      15%
Class Participation and Attendance  5%     
           TOTAL: 100%

Official Policies On Academic Integrity: Plagiarism, Cheating, Absenteeism:     
           
 Cheating, plagiarism, or other academically related misconduct is not permitted.  In fact, it may in itself cause a student to fail a test, paper, assignment, or even to fail the course itself.
           
According to the policy of the English and Foreign Languages Department of Norfolk State University, the instructor may, at his discretion, fail any student who accumulates 20 percent of unexcused absences.  For a class that meets two times a week, this amounts to six absences; for one that meets three times a week, this amounts to nine absences.  Only three absences are permitted for a course meeting once a week.

Students are expected to attend class regularly and promptly, and to participate actively in group discussion.  Students who are unable to attend class for a test or a quiz, or to turn in a due assignment, must contact the instructor by phone or in person, prior to a class session, or as soon as possible afterward.  The instructor is not required to permit students to make up a missed test or quiz, or to accept a late paper without penalty.  In general, for each day a paper is turned in late, the instructor will deduct a grade.  

Faculty Evaluations:

 Students will have the opportunity to evaluate the instructor's effectiveness by completing the university faculty evaluation form.

Methods and Resources of Instruction:

 Instruction in the creative writing of science fiction and fantasy will include, but will NOT be limited to the following: written assignments such as short stories, scenes and dialogue from short stories; class discussion of works
written and read aloud; writer's magazines, manuscript format material and market guides.  Incentive to revise: If revised fiction receives a higher grade, that higher grade will replace the earlier lower grade.

 Note: The instructor reserves the right to make a limited number of changes, additions, and/or deletions to the assignments in the course.  On occasion, quizzes may be given, and they may either be announced in advance or not.  Furthermore, because adjustments to the course calendar may be made, not all assignments and readings will necessarily be due or take place on the days and dates indicated.

If a quiz or quizzes are given, each quiz will be worth five percent or one-third of a complete short story assignment, which is 15% of the course grade.   Grades for all quizzes, written assignments, and final examination will be averaged together according to their assigned due weight, to determine the student's midterm and final grade.  Thus, if a quiz or quizzes are given, the percentage of the course grade for all other work (except class attendance and participation) will be reduced appropriately.

Course Schedule

Week One   Orientation and Introduction to the course.  Science fiction and fantasy defined; their history summarized.  The elements of the short story and novel described and explained.
 
John B. Rosenman's "How to Write Science Fiction."  
Introduction to The Norton Book of Science Fiction, 15-48.

Chapter One, "The Infinite Boundary," in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy.
           
Week Two   Damon Knight's "The Handler" and two stories related to medical technology, Molly Gloss's "Interlocking Pieces" and Karen Joy Fowler's "The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things."
 
Assignment: Write at least 250 words of a science-fiction or fantasy short story employing a "hook" to attract the reader.  Students read these short-story beginnings in class.  Stories are discussed by instructor and students and suggestions made for improvement.          

Week Three  Continuation of students' stories.  Students revise stories.  

Chapter Two, "World Creation," in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, pp. 26-62.

Short stories set in other worlds are read: Pat Murphy's "His Vegetable Wife," R. A. Lafferty's "Nine Hundred Grandmothers,"  Vonda N. McIntyre's "The Mountains of Sunset, the Mountains of Dawn."

Story collected.  Must be at least 500 words long, incorporating a hook.  While this assignment doesn't have to involve a completed short story, completed short stories are one of the main goals of the course. 
           
Writing Assignment: Five hundred words of a short story creating and describing an alien world and the life forms that inhabit it.  

Week Four   Students' "Alien world" stories read and discussed in class.

 Chapter Three, "Story Construction," in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, pp. 63-87.

Week Five    "Alien world" story collected.  Like the previous short story assignment, this one does not have to result in a completed short story.  After this point in the course, though, completed short stories will be required of students.   

Short stories set in the future, and/or in alternate realities: 

Frederik Pohl's "Day Million," Robert Silverberg's "Good News from the Vatican,"   John Varley's "Lollipop and the Tar Baby,"   Orson Scott Card's "America,"   Mike Resnick's "Kirinyaga,"     Cordwainer Smith's "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard,"   Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Lucky Strike."

Short story involving the future assigned.  Must be a complete short story.

Week Six     Students' futuristic short stories read, discussed, and revised.  Completion of stories in The Norton Book of Science Fiction.
           
Week Seven  Chapter Four, "Writing Well," in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, 88-103.

Futuristic short story collected.  Must be complete, a fully realized short story.

Chapter Five, "The Life and Business of Writing," in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, 104-137.
           
Week Eight     Special topics in science-fiction/fantasy short stories: Female     Images -- Suzette Haden Elgin's "For the Sake of Grace," and James  Tiptree, Jr.'s "The Women Men Don't See."

Short story assigned.  Must be a complete short story and told or presented from the point of view of the opposite gender.

Week Nine    Students' opposite gender short stories read and discussed.

Special topics in science-fiction/fantasy short stories: -- Surprise    endings, Philip K. Dick's "Frozen Journey" -- Black Writers, Octavia  E. Butler's "Speech Sounds" -- Time travel, Clifford D. Simak's "Over the River and Through the Woods."

Week Ten      Continuation of stories from previous week.

Opposite gender short story collected.  

Week Eleven  The novel Fahrenheit 451 assigned and discussed.  

An outline of a novel assigned, along with first chapter.
           
Week Twelve  Outlines and first chapters of novel read and discussed.

Week Thirteen  First chapters of novels and outlines collected.

The study of proper marketing of short stories and novels.

Marketing materials are provided students, and there is a discussion of proper formating for short story and novel 
  submissions.

Students are reminded that the final examination consists of sending a short story to a market in the proper format with a cover letter and two envelopes -- one to send, the other for a response.

Week Fourteen   Revision of stories earlier submitted, with a higher grade possible.  Note: Higher grades replace all lower grades on previous work.  

Week Fifteen    Review and Final Examination

Bibliography

Aldiss, Brian, with David Wingrove.  Trillion Year Spree: The History of  Science Fiction.  New York: Atheneum, 1986.  [This is the definitive study of the genre.]

Allen, David L.  Science Fiction: An Introduction.  Lincoln: Cliff's Notes, Incorporated, 1973.

Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature.  Edited by Alberto Manguel.Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys Limited, 1983.

Cawthorne, James and Michael Moorcock.  Fantasy: The 100 Best Books.  New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1988.

How To Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction.  Edited by J. N.  Williamson.  Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 1987.

The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural.  Edited by Jack Sullivan.  New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986.
     
Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 1.  Edited by Robert Silverberg.  Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1970.  [Includes the greatest science-fiction stories of all time, chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America.]

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 2 A.  Edited by Ben Bova.  New York: Avon Books, 1973.  [Includes the greatest science-fiction novellas of all time, chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America.]
           
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 2 B.  Edited by Ben Bova.  New York: Avon Books, 1973.  [Includes the greatest science-fiction novellas of all time, chosen by the Science Fiction Writers of America.]

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 3.  Edited by Arthur C. Clarke and George W. Proctor.  New York: Avon Books, 1982.  [Includes the Nebula Winners, 1965-1969.]

The World Treasury of Science Fiction.  Edited by David G. Hartwell.  Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1989.

The Year's Best Science Fiction, vols. 1-14.  Edited by Gardner Dozois.  New York: Bluejay Books and St. Martin's Press, 1984-1997.  [Bluejay Books published the first four volumes, St. Martin's Press, the last ten.] 

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