Writing Courses Beyond First Year English
All students are expected to own a copy of Easy Writer, by Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors (St. Martin's). This book will be a required text in all first-year writing courses and will serve as a reference for all subsequent courses throughout the college.
WRITING COURSES BEYOND FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH
The college offers a full complement of specialized writing courses. These include Technical Writing, Journalism, Poetry Workshop, Playwrighting Workshop, Fiction Workshop, and others.
Additionally, each semester the college offers a number of "writing" courses, identified by a "W" added to the course number in the semester course listings, throughout the disciplines. These courses, which in a given semester may range from Theories of Personality to International Economics to Medieval Civilization, focus principally on subject matter. But they also make writing an explicit focus of instruction, thereby enabling students (1) to learn more about and improve their writing beyond required first-year English and (2) to learn about the writing required in a particular discipline.
Distinguishing features of "W" courses:
- The use of a writing text in addition to the regular course texts.
- Both formal and informal writing (the latter may take the form of a journal).
- A specified number of papers, each of which goes through a drafting process. Minimum of 15 revised pages.
- Comments by the instructor and/or peer editors on preliminary drafts.
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
"Tis a pleasure indeed to see oneself in print."
Lord Byron
Students can hone their writing skills by working on one of the college's four excellent student publications:
1. The Guilfordian
The Guilfordian is the student-run campus newspaper. Appearing weekly, it usually contains 16 pages of campus news, features, and editorials. The student editors are eager to train new writers: prior journalistic experience is not required. Working arrangements are flexible; student writers can put in as much or as little time as they wish.
The newspaper encourages potential staff members to come to weekly general staff meetings at any time during the year.
2. The Piper
The Piper is Guilford's award-winning literary magazine. It appears twice a year and features student poetry, literary prose, photography, and graphic art. Student editors and staff meet throughout the year to choose the best work available in each genre.
3. The Quaker
Guilford's yearbook staff publishes a yearbook each fall after a year's work at blending photography and written text to capture the essence of the Guilford experience. Like the Guilfordian and Piper editors, the Quaker editors are eager to train new staff to work in the annual's various departments. No experience is required.
4. The Seeker
This Center for Continuing Education student publication contains information and articles written by and for adult students. A student editor oversees the production of the newsletter, which in addition to news and information, contains feature stories, original works of poetry, and profiles of outstanding CCE students.
Offices
Offices of The Guilfordian, The Piper, and The Quaker are located in the Publications Suite on the second floor of Founders Hall (room 208). The Seeker is produced in Hendricks Hall. Feel free to drop in anytime.
All four publications actively recruit staff members at the beginning of each semester; however, new interest is welcome anytime.
Benefits of working on a student publication:
- improve writing and editing skills
- experience the comradery of working in a small, well-knit group to create an artistic product
- have the opportunity to lead. Editorships come with experience. These build both character and resumes.
- work with state-of-the-art desktop publishing equipment
ANNUAL WRITING CONTESTS
Each year the academic dean offers awards for superior writing done in courses by Guilford students.
The awards are:
- Dean's Award for First-Year Writing (judged by the The Learning Commons)
- Dean's Award for Narrative/Reflective Writing by a Sophomore, Junior, or Senior (judged by Cynthia Nearman)
- Dean's Award for Scholarly/Critical Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (judged by the The Learning Commons)
- Dean's Awards for Writing in the Physical and Natural Sciences
- Sue Keith Award for Fiction (judged by the The Learning Commons)
- Betty Place Prize for Poetry (judged by the The Learning Commons)
Students are invited to submit entries by 4:00 P.M. of the Friday before spring break. Entries are limited to one per student per contest and should be placed in Cynthia Nearman's mailbox.
Descriptions of the awards:
Specifications for entries in all contests:
- Authors should present their essays in the format appropriate to the academic discipline in which it was prepared, or in the case of an interdisciplinary essay, in the standard form most appropriate to the essay.
- All entries must be typed and double-spaced. A removable cover sheet should contain the title of the essay, the student's name, and the name of the contest for which the entry is being submitted. If the essay was previously submitted for a class, the student should submit a clean copy (i.e., one that has not been marked by an instructor).
- There are no length specifications.
(1) Dean's Award for First-year Writing Award ($100)
Submissions may deal with any subject in any field and may range from personal and original response to more conventional scholarly writing.
We will judge the essays on clarity, sensitivity, and insight--criteria which are as appropriate to an autobiographical essay as to scholarly work.
See also the general entry specifications below.
(2) Dean's Award for Personal/Reflective Writing ($50)
Sophomore through senior classes.
We will award first prize to that essay which best fuses voice, style, and compositional skill in a non-scholarly context. Suitable essay types include narration, description, reflection.
(3) Dean's Award for Scholarly/Critical Writing ($50)
Sophomore through senior classes.
We will award first prize to that essay which explores an academic topic with the greatest originality and insight and the most engaging style.
(4) Dean's Awards for Writing in the Physical and Natural Sciences
(2 awards, $50 each)
One award recognizes excellence in science writing for a general audience. Essays submitted in this category may present issues, controversies, phenomena, or experiments. They may take the form of arguments or explanations.
The other award recognizes excellence in reporting a scientific investigation or experiment that the author has done as a Guilford student. This essay should address a scientifically sophisticated audience.
We will judge the essays on suitability for intended audience, value to intended audience, clarity, and scientific accuracy.
(5) Sue Keith Award for Fiction
Fiction is an ancient and difficult art. The Sue Keith Award for Fiction will celebrate the writer who best demonstrates a mastery of that art. Please submit one short story (no longer than 20 pages) for consideration). Attach a separate page with name and contact information.
(6) Betty Place Prize for Poetry
Presented to that student who demonstrates, with passion and precision, a control of that art. Students must submit three poems. Each poem should include a separate cover sheet including name and contact information. Do not identify yourself on the pages including the poems.