Fiction Writing
This course policy addresses technology use in and out of the classroom.
Course Info:
- ENGLISH 90: “Fiction Writing”
- Spring 2025
- Instructor: Scott Hutchins
Pedagogy:
The AI policy in this fiction writing course, which focused on the short story, offers a consistent worldview across “technology in the classroom” and “technology out of the classroom.” The rest of the syllabus, beyond these course policies, highlights the importance of students’ interactions with themselves, each other, and the world. For example, students keep a writer’s notebook throughout the course, from which they share entries during class. They also derive a substantial portion of their grade from in-class engagement. When it comes to their creative work, students read each other's draft stories and write response letters, shared with the writer and the instructor.
Course policy
Technology in the Classroom:
Beyond the occasional zoom class or meeting, we will lean on tech as little as possible during our classes together. Please put your cell phones on airplane mode and put them out of view. Please silence notifications. Please disconnect from the internet. Trust me on this—we are looking for different ways of being in the world, different ways of acting and experiencing our time. To write fiction we have to step out of the busy-ness of mere information and focus on meaning.
All this said, if you have an important reason to pay attention to your phone in class, please just be sure to let me know.
Technology out of the Classroom:
Don’t use AI for your text, your ideas, or story. There may be a time when AI is permissible, but right now the major AI companies are unethical and so are their chatbots. Let’s keep our creations close to our hearts, respectful to other writers, and genuine to who we are.