Respecting Styles

[RGraf]

I submitted a work for my class in creative writing. The instructor graded it with an A, but her comments was extremely critical on any style other than high literary fiction. She wanted me to describe in extreme detail the limbs of the trees outside and instead of saying "clear skies" to describe the exact shade of blue. She said I needed to read more Faulkner to improve my writing. I noticed with several other students that she was trying to get us all to write the same style.

Do you think a creative writing professor should be so narrow minded when it comes to writing styles?

[HollandBlue]

I think everyone has there own writing style, and the purpose of a creative writing course is to make one think more 'outside of the box.' I can't really comment on your question without reading your whole paper. Good luck with your course, it sounds challenging.

[Stobam]

The way think and reason differs so depend solely on the writes

[MrsCatInTheHat]

Much depends on what the professor was trying to teach through this particular writing project.

[jjmainor]

I can certainly remember that feeling when I was back there, but it sounds like the instructor might have been trying to push the students to flesh out a scene. Maybe your story didn't need to relate the exact color of the skies, but the suggestion was meant to get you thinking about the scene in a little more depth than you might be used to.

[jgraney8]

Perhaps your teacher wants to push you to show instead of tell. Telling is writing "clear skies"; showing would be to describe the color of the sky and the lack of clouds.

[Inkroverts]

"Do you think a creative writing professor should be so narrow minded when it comes to writing styles?"

I think you already have an answer.

[Victoria7716]

I dont know what the assignment was however I had a similar experience where my teacher said the paper should be describing in detail a moment in time she said it could be a couple seconds but no longer, I did my paper where I jumped into a frozen lake I started from the moment my feet left the platform until my head emerged from the water a couple seconds later and she said I missed the whole point of the assignment my paper had too long of a period of time i described even though it was only a couple seconds. If your teacher persists in trying to get everyone to write this way for every paper then I would agree its narrow minded however if she only does it for this assignment maybe she didnt explain fully what she wanted so you and others all got the same criticism for 'missing the point' of the specific assignment.