[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-1-en-105":3,"doc-seo-350275-105":53,"doc-detail-350275-en":127},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,14,19,24,29,34,39,44,49],{"id":8,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":11,"show_sort_weight":12,"slug":13},11,1,"Template","Presentations",90,"presentations",{"id":15,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":16,"show_sort_weight":17,"slug":18},12,"Resumes",80,"resumes",{"id":20,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":21,"show_sort_weight":22,"slug":23},14,"Invoices",70,"invoices",{"id":25,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":26,"show_sort_weight":27,"slug":28},15,"Posters",60,"posters",{"id":30,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":31,"show_sort_weight":32,"slug":33},16,"Social Media",50,"social-media",{"id":35,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":36,"show_sort_weight":37,"slug":38},17,"Forms",40,"forms",{"id":40,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":41,"show_sort_weight":42,"slug":43},18,"Letters",30,"letters",{"id":45,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":46,"show_sort_weight":47,"slug":48},21,"Paper Templates",5,"papers-templates",{"id":50,"doc_module":9,"doc_module_name":10,"category_name":51,"show_sort_weight":4,"slug":52},158,"General","general-158",{"code":4,"msg":54,"data":55},"ok",{"site_id":56,"language":57,"slug":58,"title":59,"keywords":60,"description":61,"schema_data":62,"social_meta":120,"head_meta":122,"extra_data":124,"updated_unix":126},105,"en","playing-with-form-hermit-crab-essay-writing-course-syllabus","Playing with Form - Hermit Crab Essay Writing Course Syllabus","","Playing with Form is a creative writing course structured around the “hermit crab essay,” teaching students to transform existing forms into compelling poems, stories, and essays. Over eight sessions, learners define the genre, analyze published examples shaped as varied documents, and draft their own pieces using deliberate constraints. The syllabus advances from difficult stories and elevated mundane scenes to visual art, field-guide language, and poetic forms including the demanding sestina, culminating in collaborative creation and reflection.",{"@graph":63,"@context":119},[64,80,102],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":11,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/presentations/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/playing-with-form-hermit-crab-essay-writing-course-syllabus/350275/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/playing-with-form-hermit-crab-essay-writing-course-syllabus/350275.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Fans","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":101},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",10,{"@type":103,"mainEntity":104},"FAQPage",[105,111,115],{"name":106,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":108},"What is a “hermit crab essay,” and how do students learn it in this course?","Question",{"text":109,"@type":110},"Students define the hermit crab essay and analyze published examples in unusual formats, such as rejection notes and quizzes. They then begin composing their own hermit crab essay using a form that fits their content.","Answer",{"name":112,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":113},"How does the course help students write difficult or personal material?",{"text":114,"@type":110},"Students brainstorm difficult topics and compose essays by inhabiting the most appropriate “shell” or form of writing. Published models reinforce that challenging personal material can be contained in creative formal structures.",{"name":116,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Which weeks focus on poetic forms and what do students produce?",{"text":118,"@type":110},"Weeks 7 and 8 focus on poetic forms, including the sestina. Students examine its history and guidelines, read poems using the form, and begin composing a collaborative sestina before reflecting on the class work.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":121,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":123,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":125,"site_id":56},350275,1791485205,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":128},{"doc_id":125,"user_id":129,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":9,"category_id":8,"category_name":11,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":101,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":73,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":9},5909892330395,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","“Playing with Form”  \nDuration: Eight hour-long sessions, schedule to be determined  \nLocation: Tutor’s Zoom link & Google docs  \n\n| Course Description: “Playing with Form” is a creative writing class that will allow students to adopt existing forms to contain their poems, stories, and essays. Students will learn about, and experiment with, the exciting genre of the \"hermit crab essay,\" and study how writers transform common material into extraordinary works of art. The course is designed to build students’ skill, joy, and sense of play in writing. |\n| --- |\n| Course Objectives: By the end of the course, students will:\u003Cbr>● Understand what constitutes a “hermit crab essay”\u003Cbr>● Gain a deeper respect for form: that is, understanding that how something is written is just as important as what is being written\u003Cbr>● Work with various creative texts and writing assignments that advance and complicate their analytical thinking, self-knowledge, and sense of adventure using language\u003Cbr>● Learn to work meaningfully in a small group setting |\n\nCalendar: This calendar, like life, is subject to change, and may be modified by individual tutors to fit the needs of the particular class  \nWeek 1: What is the “Hermit Crab Essay”?  \n• Students will define the hermit crab essay.  \n• Students will read and analyze a series of hermit crab essays in the form of a rejection note.  \n• Students will brainstorm a list of potential forms to inhabit for their own stories.  \n• Students will begin to compose a hermit crab essay of their own about a dramatic incident or moment, either fictional or autobiographical.  \nWeek 2: Writing Difficult Stories  \n• Students will brainstorm a list of topics that have been difficult for them to write about.  \n• Students will begin composing a hermit crab essay, inhabiting the most appropriate “shell,”or form of writing (e.g. an instructional manual, a to-do list, etc.), for this particular content.  \n• Students will read and analyze a published hermit crab essay in the form of a quiz, reinforcing that difficult personal material can be contained in creative formal structures.  \nWeek 3: Elevating the Mundane  \n• Students will begin composing an essay in the form of “driving directions,” learning that such common modes of writing can be manipulated to tell compelling stories.  \n• Students will read a published hermit crab essay in the form of a syllabus, in which the author shares a personal narrative in unconventional but meaningful ways.  \n• Students will use the in-class reading exercise as inspiration for their own projects.  \nWeek 4: A Writer’s Constraints  \n• Students will begin writing a personal narrative in the form of a common structure of writing (e.g. a Harvard outline, a recipe, etc.) .  \n• Students will read and discuss an author’s approach to her own hermit crab essay in which she imposed limits on her writing to achieve creative effects.  \n• Students will begin to compose an in-class exercise using similar limits or constraints, which are designed to yield unexpected freedoms of expression.  \nWeek 5: Visual Art  \n• Students will study and engage with stimulating visual art examples, both photographs and museum installations, that use common or “trivial” materials to achieve artistic outcomes.  \n• Students will select a household object to describe in granular ways, as the visual artists performed on their own subjects.  \nWeek 6: The Field Guide  \n• Students will review how hermit crab essays adopt already existing forms as the container for the writing at hand.  \n• Students will read aloud and discuss an excerpt of a field guide, studying how precise language can bring a subject to life.  \n• Students will begin composing a field guide about an object or person of meaning to them.  \nWeek 7: Poetic forms  \n• Students will discuss how emotional states can affect the form that a writer’s sentences take.  \n• Students will describe a formative personal incident, letting form reflect emotion.  \n• Students will rea","cbCaicyuoRKWqQ2x","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicyuoRKWqQ2x","pdf",157989,"English","# Course Description\n## Course Objectives\n## Course Calendar (Week 1–Week 8)","[{\"question\":\"What is a “hermit crab essay,” and how do students learn it in this course?\",\"answer\":\"Students define the hermit crab essay and analyze published examples in unusual formats, such as rejection notes and quizzes. They then begin composing their own hermit crab essay using a form that fits their content.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the course help students write difficult or personal material?\",\"answer\":\"Students brainstorm difficult topics and compose essays by inhabiting the most appropriate “shell” or form of writing. Published models reinforce that challenging personal material can be contained in creative formal structures.\"},{\"question\":\"Which weeks focus on poetic forms and what do students produce?\",\"answer\":\"Weeks 7 and 8 focus on poetic forms, including the sestina. Students examine its history and guidelines, read poems using the form, and begin composing a collaborative sestina before reflecting on the class work.\"}]","Playing with Form - Hermit Crab Essay Writing Course Syllabus | PDF",1790088199]