THE FICTION FOLDER

The folder counts 30% of your grade for the course. Ideally, there should be a date and label on everything.

What must be in your folder:

1. The cover letter Type and proofread this letter carefully. Good writing and correctness

count as does how well you write the letter.

A. Name the stories you’ve included for a grade and discuss the process of writing them and your strengths as a fiction writer that they display.

B. Explain the revising you’ve done, both of the stories you want considered for the grade and of other work. Tell what you tried and what you learned from it.

C. Summarize the most important things you’ve learned about writing fiction from You’ve Got to Read This, from the class, and from work you’ve done on your own.

***This must include remarks on specific stories you read in You’ve Got to Read This and what you’ve learned from them that applies to your own writing.

D. Comment on your experience of the workshops. How, if at all, did they affect your

writing?

E. Say what grade you think you deserve for your folder and why.

2. Two stories, one short short (about a page or two long) and one at least six pages, double spaced, in ten or twelve point type, that you want counted toward your grade. They must be computer printed. Good writing and correctness count, so revise and proofread them carefully. (Folders containing stories that haven’t been proofread for basic errors won’t get good grades.)

3. Evidence of revision Include all the versions of the stories you’ve written for a grade

and any other revisions you’ve done on stories you worked on.

4. Exercises we’ve done in class These need not be typed. Identify the exercise that each one

represents (such as “Person, Place, and Song”).

5. Exercises you’ve done for the assignments on the assignment sheet. These need not be typed.

What can be in your folder:

Additional stories you’ve written or other kinds of writing you’ve done on your own. This includes any writing you’ve done based on the “Exercises to Get You Started” sheet you got at the beginning of the semester. In your cover letter say how and why you’ve done this extra writing if you have. This is not required.