ENG 307 · Spring 2026
The rules of the road.
| Portfolio | 40% |
| Workshop Writing | 30% |
| In-Class Writing & Participation | 30% |
I do not grade individual work during the semester. Writing is a journey filled with false starts, experiments, and necessary failures. I'm interested in your growth, your effort, and your willingness to take risks. Your final portfolio — revised, polished, reflecting your best work — is where grades live.
Your final portfolio will consist of: critiques, revised fiction with prior drafts, and two reflections. The first reflection should engage with texts from the semester and connect them to your own pieces. The second should discuss your revision process — how you made decisions and why.
This is your class. Your participation — in discussion, workshop, and exercises — shapes what we become together. Come prepared. Engage honestly. Take risks.
Safe Haven: This classroom is a space where we can take creative risks without fear of judgment. We critique work, not people. Things discussed in this class stay in this class.
You are allowed three absences, no questions asked. After three, each additional absence will lower your final grade by one letter grade.
Missing workshop when your work is being discussed counts as two absences.
If you miss more than half the class, you cannot pass. Illness will be excused with prior notification.
Workshop manuscripts must be submitted on time — your peers need time to read and prepare feedback. Other work: talk to me. Life happens. Communication matters more than excuses.
"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."— Mark Twain
If you can't remember what you read, you haven't read it. Read actively. Read twice if you need to. Come ready to discuss.
All work must be your own. Plagiarism — presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own — will result in failure of the assignment and potentially the course.
T.S. Eliot said, "Good writers borrow, great writers steal." In creative writing, we learn from what we read. Influence is not plagiarism. But lifting sentences, passages, or structures without transformation is. When in doubt, ask.
Please see the University of Maine System's Academic Integrity Policy (Board Policy Manual, Policy 314).
If you have a disability for which you may be requesting an accommodation, please contact Student Accessibility Services, 121 East Annex, 581-2319, as early as possible in the term. Students who have already been approved for accommodations should meet with me privately as soon as possible.
The University of Maine is committed to making campus a safe place for students. If you tell me about a situation involving sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking, I am required to report it to the Office of Community Standards, Rights, and Responsibilities.
Confidential resources on campus:
The University of Maine recognizes that when students are observing significant religious holidays, some may be unable to attend classes. Notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so we can make appropriate accommodations.
In the event of an extended disruption of normal classroom activities, the format for this course may be modified. In that event, you will be provided an addendum to the syllabus.
"The good piece of writing startles the reader back into Life."
— Joy Williams