MEMO TO PROSPECTIVE INDEPENDENT STUDY STUDENTS

 

 

A long history of supervising independent study projects has left me with the need to make several points regarding it. Please consider these before asking for permission to undertake a project:

 

  1. You must have taken all three fiction-writing workshops prior to proposing an independent study: English 2392, 3392, and 4392 (or 4302).

 

  1. You must have taken 12 hours of creative writing prior to proposing an independent study. This would mean either that you took all of the courses listed in #1, or that you took the three successive workshops plus one or more in poetry.

 

  1. You must submit a written proposal outlining a project you plan to begin and finish within the term. The project should be more ambitious than the work done for a previous course. The project should challenge you to extend the range of your techniques, and the project should have an organic unity – a set of short stories unified in some way, for example. Do not ask to do an independent study unless you have a definite idea of something you wish to write and have already started on it in some fashion.

 

  1. It’s expected that you will produce at least 50 pages of polished fiction. In the event you wish to “work on a novel,” the page count should be around 75.

 

  1. You will be expected to meet bi-weekly and submit work regularly prior to the time of the meeting.

 

  1. Your proposal for a creative project should also include a list of readings that will serve to enhance your exploration of your craft. You will be expected to write about these readings as part of your semester’s portfolio.

 

  1. An independent study project should not be considered an opportunity to noodle and doodle with fragments and sketches, patches from a journal, or to “just do some stories.”

 

  1. Do not submit a proposal to do an independent studies project unless you have the time and the opportunity to work on your project daily.