ENGL3211 Telling True Stories

Telling True Stories provides students with the opportunity to consolidate, apply, and further develop previously attained skills and critical approaches in literary studies through a focus on the craft, theory, and ethics of nonfiction writing.

The intention is to advance students' understanding of how forms of writing both inhabit and challenge generic boundaries and to enhance their ability to write in specific nonfiction subgenres such as journalism, biography, nature writing, or experimental nonfiction among others.

Students will read a range of nonfiction genres and will have the opportunity to reflect critically and creatively on the stylistic and generic aspects of these readings.

This topic aims to:

• Extend students' proficiency in the use of techniques of writing in a variety of genres
• Provide a critical framework for students to locate their work in a generic context
• Provide a workshop environment within which students are able to develop critiquing skills and reflect on the critiques provided by their peers

1. Interpret how writing is located in their own and others' work in a generic context
2. Evaluate strategies for writing across generic forms
3. Assess the quality of their own and others' writing through the critical skills developed in the workshop environment