Creative Writing for College Students by Babcock, R. W. (Robert Witbeck), 1895-1965; Horn, Robert Dewey, author; English, Thomas H. (Thomas Hopkins), 1895-1992, author. (PDF)

 

Creative Writing for College Students

 

by Babcock, R. W. (Robert Witbeck), 1895-1965; Horn, Robert Dewey, author; English, Thomas H. (Thomas Hopkins), 1895-1992, author.

 

 

Many years of facing students in several universities have indelibly impressed on us that the main thing a college writing course should do is to teach students how to write. By teaching them how to write, we mean simply to place the main emphasis on the more important forms, chiefly the expository and narrative, and thus stimulate young undergraduates to think in terms of whole creations, not of unrelated fragments, such as relative pronouns, attributive adjectives, finite verbs, correlative constructions, and topic sentences. In general, then, the point of view of this book is that most writing is essentially creative in intent, as is evidenced by the effort of mind it demands. This is true of bad writing as well as good since the former is only creative failure.

The purpose of this book is to discuss the types of discourse as directly and suggestively as possible and to set forth as attractively as possible what may be done with them. In order to accomplish these aims, we present, along with the discussion, first, student themes as illustrations of what other students have actually done with the types. Then, for comparison, we add examples from recognized writers, including both classical and modern masters. The primary purpose in printing the themes is to stimulate creative rivalry, for it has been our experience that most students do far better work if you put before them papers written by other students — papers which represent positive achievement in certain forms — and ask them if they can do anything like that. Then you are inviting them to attempt something clearly within the range of their own possibilities, and you will find them rising immediately to meet the challenge.

We do not mean to imply, though, that classical illustrations and handbooks should be thrown overboard. We have, as we have said, paralleled the student papers with professional illustrations and we assume, throughout, the use of a handbook of grammar and rhetoric. What we do want, however, is to see both classics and handbook subordinated to the main purpose of releasing the impulses and powers of these young students to write! “Writing out” is of supreme importance; to encourage it is our main objective in this book.

A word should be spoken about the narrative chapters. They are not intended to teach students to turn out marketable short stories, nor are they particularly concerned with the rhetorical features of narration. We have always thought that there is a middle ground between these extremes, and in these chapters we try to point it out. The student is told frankly that the ability to put people down on paper plastically cannot be taught by any instructor; it is a specific talent, which the most gifted novelist cannot quite explain. But it is possible to teach undergraduates the structural aspects of story writing and so lay a foundation for the play of imagination. Thus the chapters on narration develop the mechanical basis of plot by means of exercises on chronological plotting, climactic plotting, plotting a single characteristic, and plotting the effect of a given setting. By the time the embryonic writer reaches the end of this section, his attention has been focused separately on the three main elements of any story. The last chapter then suggests how plot, character, and setting may be put together; the student is not told to write an actual short story, combining all three elements, till the very end of his study of narration. We believe that this gradual progress toward a definite, artistic form provides a practicable writing program even for the student who has no special talent for narrative.

We have tried to keep constantly in mind the fact that this book is written for young college students. We have tried to remember the limitations of their experience. Our precepts and exercises are intended to be suggestive, to open avenues of possibility. This book aims mainly, therefore, to encourage college students to teach themselves to write by writing.

R. W. B.

R. D. H.

T. H. E.

Table  of  Contents

Preface  vii
Acknowledgments  ix

PART  I

Formal  Exposition  and  Informal  Argument  i

I

Types  of  Formal  Exposition  3

II

Exposition  of  a  Process  10

III

The  Classified  Summary  28

IV

The  Summarizing  Resume  47

V

Definition  of  the  Abstract  Term  or

Idea  67
 

VI

Generalized  Description  98
 

VII

The  Character  Sketch 117
 

VIII

Expository  Biography  139

IX

Criticism  i  63

X

Short,  Informal  Written

Argument 196

XI

The  Term  Paper  227

PART  II

The  Informal  Essay,  Narration,  and  Description  275


XII  The  Informal  Essay  277

XIII  Linear  Narration  320

XIV  The  Plot  Story  347

XV  Expansion  of  the  Plot  Story  421
,  XVI  Description  459

XVII  The  Three  Elements  Together — The  Short  Story

XVIII  The  Fully  Developed  Form  540

Index  587

 

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