Elizabeth Terhorst
Why A Short Story?
In Intro to Creative Writing, we focus on literary fiction, poetry, and creative non fiction. To take this a step further, my professor and I decided to allow me to jump into the deep end and write a fully fleshed out story about a girl hosting a double funeral for her parents.
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The story itself is told in a discontinuous manner, allowing flashbacks to give the readers a window into the strained relationship the daughter had with her parents and brother.
Elevator Pitch
To propose an Honors contract, you have to frame it like a pitch to a business. It is also loose and fluid with terms and conditions like a pitch to a business. Originally, I wanted to do a screenplay, but my professor and I changed it to be a short story to fit with the course content in a better way. Below is my original pitch to my professor.
Hi Professor!
My name is Elizabeth Terhorst. I’m a first year student in the School of Education here at IUPUI, and I would love to do an honors contract for your Creative Writing class this semester. I’m going into Secondary English and want to get my ELL/ENL license once I leave here; to properly teach English, especially to students where it is not their native language, I firmly believe that you have to know the ins and outs of the language spoken and written.
Being a strong writer as a teacher can only help my students in the long run, so I would love to use this opportunity to make myself a stronger writer. Being a strong writer will also make me a better communicator with my coworkers and my students, so trying to communicate certain things through my pieces of writing are somethings that I would love to focus on.
In addition to this, I would love to push myself this semester. I have taken writing classes before, but I have never done a screenplay or writing outside of poems and fiction and memoirs. I would love to see if I can still communicate effectively in a medium that I am not used to, and I would love to use this semester in your class as that opportunity. (Time: 56.4 seconds)
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The Honors Contract
Here is the official Honors Contract that I submitted to the Honors College.
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For my Honors contract in Intro to Creative Writing W260 With Professor [REDACTED], I will create an original short story to submit towards the end of the semester. With my writing, I will focus on communication because writing is a huge part of communication, and as an honors student/future teacher, it is pertinent that I am an excellent communicator with my writing as well as my speech. Making my own short story (minimum of fifteen pages, doubled spaced in Times New Roman) will also allow me to have a deeper understanding of the course objectives (understanding the creative process or making/revising poetry, fiction, and nonfiction). In the long run, this will also help me with my research papers because to produce work of my own, I need to study short stories and know their ins and outs to be able to create something on par with what I am consuming. For future students, it can also be used as an example for our “My Genre” project which is due at the end of the semester. Currently, we do write short stories for the final, but they are only five to ten pages long; this would be an example of how to take your writing a step further.
Contract Timeline
The Honors College requires us to submit a timeline in order to make sure that the students stay on track while completing the contract. Here is mine.
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January 27: Formalize honors contract
February 3 : Outline/Start Rough Draft
February 15: Check in with Professor [REDACTED]
February 28: Finish Rough Draft/Start Editing
March 8: Check in with Professor {REDACTED}
March 24: Finish Second Draft/Edits
March 31: Turn in reflective essay draft
April 7: Feedback from Professor [REDACTED]
April 21: Submit Short Story and Reflective Essay plus final reflection paper for the Honors College. The entire Honors Project will graded using the professor's discretion (To Be Determined)