English 384A/Intermediate Prose
Winter Quarter 2026
dshields@davidshields.com; www.davidshields.com
In-person; Monday + Wednesdays from 1:30-2:50 in the Mechanical Engineering Building Room 102
OFFICE HOURS: Fridays 2-4p.m. in Padelford A414
& by appointment; set up via email or by texting me.
We can talk by phone or via Zoom.
Course Description: In class, students will read aloud their work and critique one another’s work. That is the crux of the course. This is not a course in fiction or nonfiction. This is a course in composition. In how to write an effective work of medium-length prose. You can write whatever you want: prose-poem, essay, fiction, hybrid work. You can also write a series of interlinked assignments.
Grading/Assignments:
25%: 1st Assignment
25%: 2nd Assignment
25%: 3rd Assignment
25%: Participation
Participation counts; it will affect your grade. However, please don’t comment just to comment. Try to contribute judiciously, effectively, thoughtfully, and generously.
Course Texts: Life Is Short/Art Is Shorter: In Praise of Brevity (David Shields & Elizabeth Cooperman, authors/editors) available as a PDF via Canvas; the book is available as a paperback at UBS or via bookstores online, if you’d like to have a physical copy.
Mon, Jan 5: First day of class. An introduction to the course: what will we focus on? Not the very brief essay or story or prose-poem (1-2pp), as I do in 284, and not the longer essay or story (8-10pp), as I do in 484, but rather the medium-length story or essay or prose-poem (5-8pp). You’ll write two of these medium-length essays or stories then—for the final portfolio—revise both and write a completely new essay or story.
Wed, Jan 7: Discuss Mary Robison’s “Pretty Ice.”
Mon, Jan 12: Discuss S.L. Wisenberg’s “Brunch.”
Wed, Jan 14: Discuss Dinty Moore’s “Son of Mr. Green Jeans.”
Mon, Jan 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. No class.
Wed, Jan 21: Discuss Lauren Slater’s “One Nation, Under the Weather.”
Mon, Jan 26: Discuss Leonard Michaels’s “Murderers.”
Wed, Jan 28: Discuss Donald Barthelme’s “The School.”
Mon, Feb 2: First assignment due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 4: First assignment due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 9: First assignment due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 11: First assignment due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 16: Presidents’ Day. No class.
Wed, Feb 18: First assignment due and discussed.
Mon, Feb 23: Second assignment due and discussed.
Wed, Feb 25: Second assignment due and discussed.
Mon, March 2: Second assignment due and discussed.
Wed, March 4: Second assignment due and discussed.
Mon, March 9: Second assignment due and discussed.
Wed, March 11: Final class. General discussion.
Thursday, March 19, 5 pm: Portfolio due: revisions of two previous works and completion of new work.