Criteria for the Post

Research a publication

For this assignment you will research a contemporary publisher of creative nonfiction. All of these pubs live on the Fourth Floor of Alden or can be found online. I want you to browse through a few hardcopies, reading one or two articles in depth. Also, go to the publication website.

Type up a written assessment on your assigned publication and post on the blog

Information to include:

A general description of the publication, what they publish and the style of the magazine.

What kind of nonfiction is published? (Profiles? Memoir? Investigative reporting? Lyrical essays?) Describe at least two articles (a brief summary). Make sure to include the titles and the author. Your goal is to give some kind of idea of what “type” of nonfiction is the publication’s bent.

Does the magazine have specific departments?

Does magazine seem to favor a particular style or tone?

How long are the articles?

What do the graphics tell you about this magazine?

Audience: Can you find the circulation numbers of this magazine? Based on the publication, how would you describe the demographic of this magazine? (An educated guess is fine).

What is the submission policy?

How to Write

Rule 1 is the Gosling Rule. The story concerns the first thing the readers sees move. Rule 2 is that the problem and necessarily related problem, must appear soon, in the first paragraph if not the first sentence. Rule 3 is a complex function [wh = f(c1,c2,c3... + e + t)] involving withholding. Rule 4 is the bar test: everything must be said more or less as you might say it to a stranger in a bar. Rule 5 is the doozie quotient. Rule 7 is the 3 Questions: Did it, could it, should it happen? Before any of these rules apply the writing must place itself unmurkily on the spectrum of credulity.