English 290 - CRAFTING CREATIVE NONFICTION

A writer's workshop designed to explore the complexities and delights of creative nonfiction. Constant reading, writing, and critiquing. Admission by permission of the instructor. This course invites students with an interest in science?and in writing?to learn skills for creatively communicating science news, concepts, and history. At the outset, class time will be devoted to discussions (call them dissections) of assigned readings, including books, articles, plays, poems, and blogs that treat scientific themes. We will compare and contrast the writing of practicing scientists with that of science writers, in the hope of appropriating the best elements of both. Class sessions later in the term will provide time and space for work-shopping and peer-editing. Students will write a book review, a profile (or obituary) of a scientist, and an article (3,000 ? 4,000 words) about research in a field of personal interest. (E)

Topic: Writing About Science. Writing Sample Required.