Creative Research

write in one of the following creative genres: fiction (short story), poetry, screenplay, creative non-fiction (other ideas? ).  create  piece, and then combine it with research.  task will be to produce a creative piece in one of the above genres, and to include research in a meaningful way in your creative piece.

Examples of research combined with creative writing:

1) A piece of poetry might be accompanied with explanations of setting, “This poem takes place in a field that CU Boulder is debating on how to best develop. According to meeting minutes available on Colorado.edu, and an article by Will Toor, the development needs to ‘take into account the fact that this field is a flood plain for south boulder creek’”(Toor 7).

2) A short story might come with an explanation of the historical context of the story. “This story takes place in Colorado in 1925. At this time, the KKK had elected officials in congress and Denver city government. There were also judges that were KKK members. Due to the corrupt practices of the KKK, not the racist message they carry, the party lost all political power in 1926.”

3) A play might have annotations that explain why certain characters speak with accents. “According to Lipan, differences in terms used to describe bodies of water can indicate where in the country a person is from. While Sam and Mary use the word creek, they are southerners, and their idea of a creek, would be called a river in the West”(Lipan 93).

While this assignment has definite creative writing elements, this is not a creative writing class or the focus of this assignment. You will not be graded on how “good” your creative writing is. You will be graded on how insightful and thorough your research is.

Assignment Requirements:

1) Your research must total at least 750 words. Your “research” will either be endnotes, footnotes, parenthetical references, or a combination; however, correct format must be observed. Your research should connect to and enhance your creative piece, as all meaningful research does. Therefore, your research should not be random, it should be focused.

2) Your creative piece must also total at least 750 words. This means that regardless of what creative genre you choose to write in you must produce the same amount of writing. Poetry is not easier because it is often shorter than a screenplay or short story. If you choose poetry think about how you will reach the word minimum, will it be one poem or multiple poems?