About this course: Your style is as unique and distinctive as your face, your voice, except that you can choose it, you can can work on it, enhance it. In this course we will introduce aspiring writers to the art of putting pressure on written language. We will study the use of metaphor and imagery, and demonstrate how clarity, grace, and inventiveness in word choice are imperative to a story’s success. Writers will emerge with the revision skills essential to all writers of good stories and good prose.
Created by: Wesleyan University
Taught by: Salvatore Scibona, Frank B. Weeks Visiting Professor of English
| Basic Info | Course 4 of 5 in the Creative Writing Specialization |
| Commitment | 4 weeks of study, 2-4 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Meaning, Sense, and Clarity
Here in the first module we focus on putting pressure on your words so that they mean what you intend. We balance abstraction with the need to make good sense. And we discuss the first and last stylistic difficulty of any prose writer, being clear.
9 videos, 2 readings
- Video: Introduction to Meaning, Sense, and Clarity
- Video: The Pyramid of Language
- Video: Scatteration
- Video: Shop Talk with Amity Gaige
- Video: Excellent Word Choice at Work, pt. 1
- Discussion Prompt: Fill in the Blank
- Video: Excellent Word Choice at Work, pt. 2
- Video: Assignment Overview
- Reading: A Note on Assignments
- Video: Feedback Expectations for the Specialization
- Reading: Promo Codes
Graded: Sensuous Description
WEEK 2
Writing with Nouns and Verbs
In the second module we look at the various parts of speech and how two of them—nouns and verbs—are the building blocks of good style and good narratives. By relying on nouns, we make the people, places, and things of the narrative world vivid. By relying on verbs we keep the story alive and in motion.
6 videos
- Video: Nouns and Verbs at Work, pt. 1
- Discussion Prompt: Fill in the Blank
- Video: Nouns and Verbs at Work, pt 2.
- Video: Close Reading of "Lord of Misrule"
- Video: A Conversation with Jaimy Gordon, Author of "Lord of Misrule"
- Video: Assignment Overview
Graded: Very Short Narrative
WEEK 3
Economy
In the third module, having practiced putting words in, we learn to take them out. And why: for humor, for clarity, for cleanliness, and for that fleet quality of wit that makes a style irresistible.
5 videos, 1 reading
- Video: Surgery
- Video: Shop Talk with Brando Skyhorse
- Video: Visiting Writer: Sophie McManus
- Reading: Sophie McManus's Informal List of Words and Phrases to Cut
- Video: Assignment Overview
Graded: Cut It Out
WEEK 4
"No Ideas But in Things"
In the the final module of the course, we learn to balance the drive to get at ideas and feelings, with the need the story always has for concreteness, realness. We learn to express ideas in the form of physical things in a narrative world, to produce a style that speaks as much to the world of the senses as to the world of the mind.
6 videos
- Video: Respecting the Reader's Mind
- Video: Shop Talk with Amy Bloom
- Video: The Reader-Writer Arc
- Video: Close Reading of "Song of Solomon"
- Video: Assignment Overview
Graded: Concrete Style Infused with Thought and Feeling
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Wesleyan University
At Wesleyan, distinguished scholar-teachers work closely with students, taking advantage of fluidity among disciplines to explore the world with a variety of tools. The university seeks to build a diverse, energetic community of students, faculty, and staff who think critically and creatively and who value independence of mind and generosity of spirit.
Pricing
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| Access to course materials | Available |
| Access to graded materials | Available |
| Receive a final grade | Available |
| Earn a shareable Course Certificate | Available |
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