Students who have completed the Creative Writing Track of the English major at Valdosta State University will be able to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills.

Content Standard 1

General statement of knowledge and/or ability

[Educational Outcomes 1 and 2]

Performance Standards

 Guidelines for evaluating performance

Assessment Methods

Activities used to assess student performance

Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of and ability to write in major creative writing genres in fiction and/or poetry.

Expert Proficiency—

Expert creative writing students:

• Write original creative work approaching publishable quality;
• In fiction, excel in nearly every skill area, including narrative, plot, character, dialogue, voice, exposition, sentence control, and development of an original style;
• In fiction, write successfully in short and longer forms;
• In poetry, excel in nearly every skill area, including lyric and narrative modes, formal verse, free verse, prose verse, dramatic verse, lineation, enjambment, use of metaphor, simile, image, etc.;
• Demonstrate mastery of tensions, resolved and unresolved, in the created work;
• Write with the ability to challenge generic conventions; and
• Write in full control of syntax and grammar appropriate to the work.

Minimally Acceptable Proficiency—

Minimally proficient creative writing students:

• Write creative work with occasionally original ideas, but not approaching publishable quality;
• In fiction, show competency in several skill areas, including narrative, plot, character, dialogue, voice, exposition, sentence control, and development of an original style;
• In fiction, write adequately in short and longer forms;
• In poetry, show a basic understanding of skill areas, including lyric and narrative modes, formal verse, free verse, prose verse, dramatic verse, lineation, enjambment, use of metaphor, simile, image, etc.;
• Demonstrate understanding of tensions, resolved and unresolved, in the created work, but without subtlety or control;
• Write with the ability to meet basic generic conventions; and,
• Write with basic but unsubtle understanding of the relationship between syntax and grammar and the work.

Non-proficiency—

Non-proficient creative writing students:

• Write without original ideas or attention to craft;
• In fiction, fail to show competency in most skill areas;
• In poetry, fail to show a basic understanding of most skill areas;
• Fail to understand the need for tension or conflict in a work, or only understand it immaturely or in a nonliterary sense;
• Fail to understand basic generic conventions;
• Fail to demonstrate ability to use conventional literary terms occasionally in critical dialogue and writing; and
• Write with little or no understanding of the relationship of syntax and grammar to the work.

Students write in multiple genres and forms in order to explore conventions and develop an understanding of areas of talent.

Students, having demonstrated an area of talent, write repeatedly in that area to develop a range of skills in fiction and/or poetry

Students read and study formal generic conventions through the works of professional literary authors.

Students take quizzes or exams on major generic components.

Content Standard 2

General statement of knowledge and/or ability

      [Educational Outcomes 2 and 4]

Performance Standards

 Guidelines for evaluating performance

Assessment Methods

Activities used to assess student performance

Students will demonstrate the critical skills necessary to evaluate, discuss, and write about literary fiction and poetry.

Expert Proficiency—

Expert creative writing students:

• Provide lucid, accurate, illuminating commentary in class and in written evaluations of readings;
• Employ conventional literary terms accurately and appropriately in critical dialogue and writing;
• Understand subtle differences among the conventions of primary genres and articulate distinctions with skill and accuracy; and
• Write formal essays using correct grammar, syntax, and MLA research and citation standards.

Minimally Acceptable Proficiency—

Minimally proficient creative writing students:

• Provide useful, but broadly delineated, commentary in class and in written evaluations of readings;
• Employ conventional literary terms occasionally in critical dialogue and writing; and
• Understand basic differences among the conventions of primary genres and can articulate distinctions in broad terms.
• Write formal essays using generally correct grammar, syntax, and MLA research and citation standards, but with significant errors.

Non-proficiency—

Non-proficient creative writing students:

• Provide inaccurate commentary in class and in written evaluations of readings;
• Fail to employ conventional literary terms with any consistent degree of accuracy in critical dialogue and writing;
• Fail to differentiate among the conventions of primary genres and to articulate distinctions in even broad terms; and
• Fail to use correct grammar, syntax, and MLA research and citation standards in formal written assignments.

Students may keep a critical response log in order to develop and demonstrate critical capabilities.

Students may write a book review.

Students may write a critical appreciation of an influential writer

Students in form and theory courses may write in depth about a formal structure, genre, theory, convention in an author’s or several authors’ works.

Content Standard 3

General statement of knowledge and/or ability

[Educational Outcome 2 and 4]

Performance Standards

 Guidelines for evaluating performance

Assessment Methods

Activities used to assess student performance

Students will demonstrate verbally and in writing the ability to critique creative work by peers and to incorporate criticism into the revision process.

Expert Proficiency—

Expert creative writing students:

• Constructively and accurately critique peer writing with focused attention to literary tropes and conventions; and
• Consider relevant and constructive criticisms from instructor or students that significantly improve the form or content of the writer’s work, whether by incorporating the suggestions or responding to them in a way that demonstrates reflection.

Minimally Acceptable Proficiency—

Minimally proficient creative writing students:

• Provide constructive critiques of peer writing, but with less focused or undeveloped understanding of literary tropes and genres; and
• Consider constructive criticisms from instructor or students, some of which may not be relevant, that may or may not improve the form or content of the writer’s work, but which shows some reflective response to criticisms and suggestions.

Non-proficiency—

Non-proficient creative writing students:

• Provide non-constructive critiques of peer writing and demonstrate little or no understanding of literary tropes and genres; and
• Revise with little or no consideration of relevant critiques and suggestions, revise uncritically, or fail to revise at all.

Students may provide oral evaluation of work-in-progress in a workshop setting.

Students may respond to peer work in a reading log or in written evaluations of prose or poetry.

Students may produce a writing portfolio with revisions and a self-reflexive essay on revision processes and influences.

Content Standard 4

General statement of knowledge and/or ability

(Educational Outcomes 1-4)

Performance Standards

 Guidelines for evaluating performance

Assessment Methods

Activities used to assess student performance

Students will demonstrate an understanding of trends in contemporary fiction and/or poetry.

Expert Proficiency—

Expert creative writing students:

• Can identify major contemporary authors, major literary movements, and many minor movements in contemporary literature;
• Can describe all salient characteristics, dominant genre, major and/or representative authors, and governing aesthetics for all major contemporary literary movements and many minor movements;
• Can discuss how selected authors interrogate as well as reflect prevailing movements and conventions;
• Can identify important political, social, and cultural movements relevant to contemporary literature; and
• Can relate contemporary literature to earlier periods in literary history.

Minimally Acceptable Proficiency—

Minimally proficient creative writing students:

• Can identify many contemporary authors and major literary movements in contemporary literature;
• Can describe some salient characteristics, dominant genre, major and/or representative authors, and governing aesthetics for many major contemporary literary movements;
• Can discuss how selected authors reflect prevailing movements and conventions;
• Can identify some important political, social, and cultural movements relevant to contemporary literature; and
• Can relate contemporary literature to some earlier periods in literary history.

Non-proficiency—

Non-proficient creative writing students:

• Cannot identify most major contemporary authors or major literary movements in contemporary literature;
• Cannot describe in any depth the salient characteristics, dominant genres, major and/or representative authors, and governing aesthetics for major contemporary literary movements;
• Cannot distinguish or discuss how selected authors reflect prevailing movements and conventions;
• Cannot identify important political, social, and cultural movements relevant to contemporary literature; and
• Cannot relate contemporary literature to earlier periods in literary history.

Students may critically discuss contemporary readings in a reading log.

Students may write research essays on authors, movements, or conventions in contemporary fiction.

Students may develop a critically supported reading list of authors.