Writing Bingo Overview
This quarter you can choose to complete any three of the writing assignments from the bingo chart below. You may not repeat assignments. However, to get a 4.0 for this class, you will need to complete a "bingo"--complete one prompt from each of the three categories (fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction). You do not need to literally complete a row or column for it to count as a "bingo."
- Each Writing Bingo assignment includes a very specific prompt and a list of all you need to include for the assignment to count as "complete." While I hope you are also writing other stories or poems, according to whatever whim or interests grab you, all of these assignments ask you to work within constraints, something that working writers do all the time, setting "prompts" for themselves or even turning to prompts written by others if they're feeling stuck or uninspired. Having a prompt or constraint also allows you to avoid the terror of the blank page or screen.
- As long as you are meeting the requirements of the prompt, you may write in any genre and on any subject. You must respond to the prompt, but within those requirements, you have a lot of freedom. If any prompts restrict the content you can include, they will also include that information. The only general proviso is that you may not write about anyone in this class (students, Anne, me) without our express consent ahead of time.
- You will submit the rough and final drafts of your formal writing assignments to folders on Google Drive which will give others in your critique group easy access to the rough drafts. I highly recommend that you upload a file you create elsewhere so that you have your own copy of your work, one that you can return to if you end up not liking all the changes you make to the assignment!
- The title of each rough and final draft you upload MUST include your name and the title of the prompt you are responding to. It will be impossible for your peers to review your work or for us to grade it if you fail to do this.
- Each Writing Bingo assignments must have a title.
- Please provide any content warnings at the end of your document. Check the Content Warnings page to see if your work may contain material some classmates would appreciate a heads up about. If you would like to alert me and your classmates of any particular topics for which you would appreciate a content warning, please fill out this anonymous poll Links to an external site..
- Unless you have very intentional reasons for doing otherwise, please follow these formatting instructions:
- use one inch margins
- use a standard font (Times New Roman, Garamond, Helvetica, or Arial), size 12, and left-justified.
- single-space lines for poems
- double-space lines for prose and indent the first line of each paragraph
- include page numbers.
- fully punctuated and use standard capitalization, unless you are making a stylistic choice to do otherwise for a particular reason.
- prose assignments (fiction and creative nonfiction) should be around 1000 words
- These requirements are not meant to stifle creativity, simply to make your work physically easy to read. If alternative formatting will help convey your intentions for your writing, you may deviate from these requirements but we will expect those choices to make sense for the particular piece of writing.
Both rough and final drafts will be submitted into Google Drive folders. Click below for the appropriate folder. For rough drafts, submit into the folder with your group's name on it. For final drafts, submit into the folder labeled with the prompt you responded to.
Due dates for them are spread out over the quarter:
Rough draft 1--midnight, Friday, January 19
Final draft 1--midnight, Friday, January 26
Rough draft 2--midnight, Friday, February 9
Final draft 2--midnight, Friday, February 16
Rough draft 3--midnight, Friday, March 1
Final draft 3--midnight, Wednesday, March 6
You can find the details about the individual assignments by clicking on their titles in the boxes.
Before turning in your assignment, you might want to review this document about cliches Download this document about cliches so that you can avoid them.