Course Title: Produce Writings - Short Story
Part B: Course Detail
Teaching Period: Term1 2008
Course Code: COMM5403
Course Title: Produce Writings - Short Story
School: 345T Creative Media
Campus: City Campus
Program: C4171 - Certificate IV in Professional Writing and Editing
Course Contact : Brendan Lee
Course Contact Phone: +61 399254368
Course Contact Email:Brendan.lee@rmit.edu.au
Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff
Ania Walwicz
ania.walwicz@rmit.edu.au
Nominal Hours: 105
Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.
Pre-requisites and Co-requisites
None
Course Description
In this course you explore the art of writing in the short story form while looking at the skills and knowledge needed to write and market your own short stories. You are introduced to the works of many different short story writers and experiment with a range of approaches, techniques and modes of writing while creating your own body of work.
National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria
National Element Code & Title: |
VBP552 Produce Writings - Short Story |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to develop a concept suitable for a short story into a written work.
Details of Learning Activities
Students learn through classroom-based lectures, workshopping and creative writing exercises. Students are expected to do their own research and writing off-campus.
Teaching Schedule
Semester 1
| Week | Topics |
| 1 | Introduction to short story writing |
| 2 | Strategies and aims of the storyteller |
| 3 | The classical short story |
| 4 | The Australian short story |
| 5 | The construct of the fairytale |
| 6 | Use of autobiography |
| 7 | Humour in storytelling |
| 8 | Storytelling and the realm of the fantastic |
| 9 | The construct of memory |
| 10 | The use of descriptive detail in storytelling |
| 11 | The use of dialogue in short story |
| 12 | The supended story |
| 13 | Magic realist tradition in short story |
| 14 | Detective fiction |
| 15 | Science fiction |
| 16 | Horror story |
| 17 | Best stories from the course |
| 18 | Conclusion to the term work |
Semester 2
| Week | Topic |
| 1 | The Russian short story |
| 2 | The French short story |
| 3 | The German short story |
| 4 | The American short story |
| 5 | Stream of consciousness |
| 6 | The monologue form |
| 7 | The adolescent voice |
| 8 | The flashback technique |
| 9 | The fiction/non-fiction story |
| 10 | The magazine story |
| 11 | A story in segments |
| 12 | Interrelated stories in a sequence |
| 13 | Best stories from the course |
| 14 | Creating atmosphere in a story |
| 15 | Job stories |
| 16 | Contemporary Japanese story |
| 17 | The surrealist story and the use of dream material |
| 18 | Conclusion and reflection |
Learning Resources
Prescribed Texts
References
Other Resources
Students will be given handouts and references for the library.
Overview of Assessment
Assessment for this course is ongoing throughout the semester. Your knowledge and understanding of course content is assessed through participation in class exercises, oral presentations and through the application of learned skills and insights to your writing tasks.
Assessment Tasks
Students will complete four short stories of 2,500 words each (a total of 10,000 words).
Each short story can comprise one long story or a series of smaller texts, 2500 words in total. The stories can use ideas explored in class or independent explorations. The student chooses the relevant content and form of the story.
Due dates
Story 1 – Week beginning 31 March
Story 2 – Week beginning 12 May
Story 3 – Week beginning 18 August
Story 4 – Week beginning 29 September
Assessment Matrix
Not applicable.
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